Meet Clifford (WARNING: lotsa pics)

[CMNTMXR57]

So it's been awhile again and "stuff" has happened including bringing Clifford into our world to replace my Suburban, that sacrificed it's life to save my daughter.

Step back to the morning of 9/11/2025...

My daughter's pile of junk VW Beetle (that my wife bought her and didn't tell me until she had it because she knew I'd tell her NO...), had chunked it's transmission. While I was replacing this transmission, she (my Daughter), was using my Suburban to get to and from school. Around 6:15am that morning, we got the call a parent doesn't want to get. She was in an accident. At this point in time, we didn't know much in terms of details, just get to Delnor hospital in Geneva as that is where Batavia took her. Our son followed a few minutes later, but went to the accident and took pics. It turned out this wasn't just a fender-bender. My daughter was going south on Randall Road through Batavia (locals will know this is a major artery here in the fox valley), and a semi-dump truck turned left from the northbound lanes right in front of her and she walloped it. Black box info later came up with the fact she hit it at 65mph. The Suburban was destroyed. But she hit the dump truck hard enough to turn it around. The transmission cooler was puncture, starting a fire, enveloping the Suburban. Thankfully some guardian angels at the scene yanked her out before Batavia could get there. After all that was said and done, she walked away with a broken right leg at the ankle. That's it. We don't want to think what could've been had she been in the "dung beetle" (as I call it). Between the frame of the truck and the Big Block, I attribute these two things as protecting her.

Some pics from the accident that my Son took.


You can see the Western Ultra-mount truckside plow frames sticking out. They probably helped damage the semi too.






While this was a stab to the heart and really hurt. I went a searching. I preferred another GMT800, because I wanted the 8.1L. I did search GMT 900's too, but really wasn't trigger happy on those since the biggest engine in 3/4 tons was now the 6.0L. I use it to plow my properties and really prefer the torque of the BBC for pushing snow. National searches had 5 - 10 GMT 800 Suburban's out there and they either had the 6.0 or were ragged to hell with silly high mileage. The one minty one, with mileage similar to mine (I had just turned 127k), the guy wanted almost $30k. Yea, pass. So for poops and giggles, I looked up Silverado and Sierra 2500HD's. And stumbled upon Clifford... That's what my wife named it.

2004 GMC Sierra 2500HD, 8.1L Allison... With only 70k miles and in absolute MINT condition. The body and frame looked brand new. When I questioned the dealer, I couldn't believe no one had snatched this up... The dealer was out in Rigby, Idaho.

Since I got it, I did fix some driveability issues, and set it up for the plow.

Dealer pics;
























Frame pics;








Setting it up for the plow. It uses the same frame truck side mount as the Suburban. All GMT800's use this same gig.

With the plow receiver pockets attached to the plow frame mounts

[ddalder]

OUCH! It's great your daughter came out of it pretty well. 65MPH is awfully quick through a controlled intersection and that assumes no attempt to brake.

The new truck looks great. It seems to be very shy on rust, always a positive. Given the age, that's pretty low mileage. Should last a very long time in that condition.

[CMNTMXR57]

She is my leadfoot Lucy.

In all honesty, no one around here drives speed limits. They're merely "speed suggestions". Even if you're doing 10 - 15 over, you're getting run over. Randall Road (what she was on), is a race track. On our Expressways and Tollways, it's not uncommon to be doing triple digit speeds just cruisin' along.

[95naSTA]

Glad your daughter is relatively ok and that sucks that the burban is cooked..

That Sierra is suuuuper mint. The frame/underside is unbelievably clean for 22 years old.. Has it always been in the rust belt??

[CMNTMXR57]

Thanks. She has been back to walking. She has been doing limited driving, but won't drive her car. She will take the Wife's Pacifica.

The previous owners lived not to far from the dealership in Idaho. He was big in to fishing, etc, and had a big RV. I also found he ran a boat shuttle service. Meaning people would do their recreational needs on the lakes/rivers around there, and his business was taking their boat trailer to where they'd end up at point B, and then taking them back with the boat, back to their vehicle at point A. So it probably didn't get much use in winter. They had an pole-barn style building next to the house (I google mapped it when I got all the paperwork), and it sat inside all the time when not being used according to my sales person. I asked what they used out there as we salt the crap out of everything here. He said that they use sand. So it if was out, it was out limitedly (judging by the 70k on it), and was not subject to the destruction salt brings and probably cleaned up inside that building.

Oh, and I went to get her from work last night (not far from the accident site), and I found my self doing 64 in that stretch, just moseying along with traffic...

[95naSTA]

Ah, that all makes sense on the lack of corrosion. Definitely a lottery win.

[Sirius]

1. Glad to hear your daughter incurred minimal injury. If she'd have been in a VW, or Civic like my wife's, I'm afraid the sitch would me much more dire. Wiped out the Burb pretty well.
2. I have those same tires on my 2003 1500HD. LOL! I am also surprised Clifford didn't get snatched up around here. My truck is cherry, 130k miles, and near immaculate but yours puts mine to shame. That thing is clean and better optioned than mine. Agree that you won the lottery on that one.

3. This area is not considered the rust belt. Utah is trying to get into the club, though, as a few years ago they started using a really nasty salt slurry on the roads. I suspect there's no rust at all on Cliffy.

[CMNTMXR57]

Thanks man. Yours is pretty too... Yea, Susie said that we would gladly pay for a transmission 100x over. That's the first thing we said when got to the hospital was that we were thankful she was in the Suburban.

Those Coopers are pretty wore down TBH. In the pictures they look good (and the dealer was like "oh hey, it's got great tires..."), but when it got here first thing I saw was how wore they are. They still do ok, but they are down... So I am hoping to get through to spring and then BFG's will be on it.

The only rust is typical surface rust. You can kinda see it on the frame in the plow mount pics.

Around here, before a snow event, they pre-treat the roads with beat brine. Then it snows and they plow and dump salt. For every inch of salt, we get 2 inches of salt. Earlier this week when it was 60, we had rain and it finally washed the salt off the roads. However this evening, we had flurries... Enough to dampen the roads, and sure as death and taxes, they were out salting again... Unreal.

[Sirius]

Sadly, Utah has adopted that philosophy. If the weatherman says it looks like it might snow, they pre-salt the roads. If the weatherman has a 10% accuracy rating, they give him a pay raise so, yeah, the dry roads are coated with salt for several days after it doesn't snow.

[CMNTMXR57]

Between all the computing power and 15 different models, they can't predict whether we will get 1 inch of a foot.

[Sirius]

They could improve their accuracy if they'd just look out a west window. "Hmmm. Heavy black clouds and 67*F outside. I shall predict...rain." Odds increased to 50%.

[J Wikoff]

Oof. Glad your daughter is ok.

That's a nice truck!

[Sirius]

Every time I scroll past those pics I'm like, "dayum"!!

[CMNTMXR57]

So tonight, had to go pick her up from school (she is in drama club and they're doing another play...). Going down to get her on Randall Road, through the same area as the accident, everything was fine. Coming back (going north), 2 blocks north of her accident, was a fresh accident in the southbound lanes.

But yea, between the stout frame on these mighty GM trucks and the Big Block, I think those two things saved her.