Mesoholics Storm Chasing Truck Build

[Mesoholics]

Hi guys, first I wanted to say thanks for posting subtle links to here in the OS, I am glad we found you as we put our new (to us) truck through the paces I am sure we will need access to your countless years of accumulated knowledge.

My friend who is a meteorologist decided that he wanted to go storm chasing in the Mid West last year and he and another fellow who works at the Weather Network here in Canada set out in a rental Cobalt for a 9000 mile 2 week trip. When they returned, my friend decided that getting a purpose built vehicle that can (hopefully) stand up to the rigors of long drives, farmer roads, torrential rain and hail he asked if I was interested in joining the "team" and helping him build and later drive the truck during the storm season. I set out to find the platform that we were going to use for the vehicle using some basic criteria. This included; ~$6000, SUV, Full Frame, 4x4, Mid/Full Size, "decent" gas mileage, reliable engine, and a Sunroof. After some research I decided that the GMT360 platform would be the best fit for our purposes. It took about 6 weeks and a close run in with a scammer before we found our truck.

We went to a dealer way out of town to look at a 2003 TB LS with 215,000 KM that they wanted 4k for. It looked really rough outside and was definately owned by a smoker as the cloth interior reeked of smoke. However, all wasn't lost as sitting out in the back of their used car yard was a Black '02 LTZ. The price tag was well over our budget at 7900 but it had 109,000 KM and was mint inside and out. After some negotiation we got the dealer down to 6k + certification items.

TLR Low mileage '02 that is being modded for stormchasing

(We don't have any pictures of it originally depicted is the Surco Safari Rack and the Falken Tires)

When we got the truck home it was time to start the build. I am the more mechanically inclined of the 3 of us (like I said Ford guy) so it fell to me to get the truck prepped for its upcoming journey. The first thing I did was remove the stock Running boards and attempted to remove the spare tire. Like most of the spare tire retention systems the wire was completely twisted and seized I am assuming the tire had never been off the bottom of the truck. And so I went to work with a sawzall to "mod" the spare tire system.

I took the truck to my Uncle who owns a Tinting shop here in Newmarket, we put 35% Security film on all the windows as well as the Sunroof, I wanted to make sure we were still legal for the US but wanted to make sure that the glass had a film to help prohibit the glass shattering due to hail.

My friend does not have a jack stand in his house but firewood jammed between the floor and the tire worked perfectly to hold the tire up and steady as the "modding" begun.

Success! the tire was freed from under the truck and looked to be in good shape. We are planning on mounting it on the Surco Rack for the trip, it will be easily accessed up there and also will serve to help protect the roof from the incoming hail.

We bought Falken Rockey Mountain ATS tires in 255/65/17 size after reading some reviews about their on and off road characteristics, so far after about 3000 KM they are working well and much quieter than the Bridgestone Dueler A/T's that came with the truck.

Upcoming posts will detail all the electronics that we have installed inside the vehicle including 2 USGlobalSat MR350 GPS units, a Cradlepoint 1400 Router that is running 2x 3G Mobile internet sticks (and their accompanying antenna's). As well we are fabricating a sliding Lexan Window to go over the Sunroof so it can still be functional when there is no hail, but we can slide the Lexan over and ensure that we won't have baseball sized chunks of ice coming down on our heads.

Hope you guys enjoy the build.

 

[barron03]

 

[DJones]

Like most of the spare tire retention systems the wire was completely twisted and seized I am assuming the tire had never been off the bottom of the truck.

When I removed my spare tire... the whole system was in pristine condition. Not one scratch of paint anywhere on any of the tools. I must be one of the lucky ones. :wootwoot:

I am interested to see the rest of this build.

One of my stormchaser friends was going to buy one too... he got himself a Bonneville instead.

 

[Irishboy02]

Plenty of space with the comfort and space to have wiggle room. Low COG with 4wd when you need it. This is going to be awesome

 

[CdnGMan]

This should be a pretty neat build when you're done... and seeing as how you're only 30min north of me, I may have to drive up and check it out!

 

[HARDTRAILZ]

Best of luck. Looking forward to the build.

 

[harmless]

This should be a pretty neat build when you're done... and seeing as how you're only 30min north of me, I may have to drive up and check it out!

Though, I'd be coming in from Barrie.

 

[Mesoholics]

Well I promised an update so I went out and took a few pics. All the electronics are now installed and good to go, all that is left is fixing some racing window nets over the sunroof as our plans for the Lexan window fell through.

Installed Electronics;

2x USGlobalSat MR350 GPS receivers with USB adaptors for the rear seat passengers to use with their laptops to provide position location overlay on the storm tracking / radar software. I threaded these into a ½” pipe that terminates in the existing track for the roof rack.

Uniden PRO538W CB with a Firestick Firefly 3’ Whip, I chose this CB because it can receive NOAA weather reports and I have had good luck with the Uniden products on my ship. I placed this on the left side of the wheel and ran the wiring to the rear fuse box.

Cradlepoint MBR1400 Router w/ 12V adaptor running two 3G internet sticks (one Verizon and one T-Mobile). I was disappointed by Sprint as they seemed to have the best network coverage but did not offer any pay as you go plans and paying for 2 years of service when we will only be going down for a month was just not feasible. Each of these sticks has its own magnetic mount cell antenna on the roof. This router will load balance our data across both of the sticks as well as piggy back off open wifi connections that we find on the road.

Apparently I either don’t know my own strength or our rear wiper arm is (was) brittle because when I was changing the blade on the rear wiper it snapped off in my hand. :banghead:

 

[Mesoholics]

When I removed my spare tire... the whole system was in pristine condition. Not one scratch of paint anywhere on any of the tools. I must be one of the lucky ones. :wootwoot:
I am interested to see the rest of this build.

One of my stormchaser friends was going to buy one too... he got himself a Bonneville instead.

I wish we did not have to go to the extreme of a sawzall to get the tire off, I reminded myself that its better know that now however rather than on the side of the road. My Dad’s old Ford Aerostar actually lost the entire mechanism and tire while driving down the road once, gotta love Canadian road salt :wootwoot:. The Bonneville is an interesting choice, maybe we will run into him on our travels.

Plenty of space with the comfort and space to have wiggle room. Low COG with 4wd when you need it. This is going to be awesome

That was the idea, we needed some space to maneuver with computers and such inside and have the on/off road capability. My sister owns a Ford Escape and it is just too small inside and full size trucks would be getting into problematic fuel economy.

Best of luck. Looking forward to the build.

Thanks, I am looking forward to trying it out down south. I am not looking forward to possible hail damage but this truck isn’t a DD anyway.

This should be a pretty neat build when you're done... and seeing as how you're only 30min north of me, I may have to drive up and check it out!

We will be bringing it to St. Thomas you guys can see it then

 

[Uncle Blazer]

I like where this is going. Going to lift her up? Do you have a general idea of where in the midwest you will be chasing or just going to see how the weather looks at the time and head there?

 

[Mesoholics]

I like where this is going. Going to lift her up? Do you have a general idea of where in the midwest you will be chasing or just going to see how the weather looks at the time and head there?

My plans were to at least get a leveling kit however, my partner is convinced that we need to get an air suspension and raise / lower at will. We generally follow the storms, last year it was easy enough to follow cold fronts as the move from north west to south east, so one day in Nebraska, then Kansas then Oklahoma etc, however this year is an oddity apparently as we have spent almost a week in South Texas and are heading to Louisiana today.

Brief update, so far the truck is handling its duties like a champ. We drove through some hail and our plan f racing window nets that are strung over the sunroof deflected the incoming hail. There are no battlescars yet but we are semi hoping for some soon. We have logged over 5000 miles in the last week and are currently averaging about 19.5 MPG outside of the actual storm chasing. The water pump developed a leak however it was showing signs before we departed and I didn't pick up on them. Going through the mountains in Eastern Arizona it finally began to fail and the leaking coolant was causing the serpentine belt to whine while the engine was under load.

It is very comfortable to drive / sit in so far I am surprised at how easy it is to log ~800 miles a day in it. i wish we had more time to wash the dirt off the rims are now almost the same color as the pewter lower part of the two-tone paint. We are almost amazed at the sheer amount of GMT360 Trucks down in the Texas area, it almost seems like every 5th vehicle on the interstate is a TB/Envoy...

 

[Uncle Blazer]

Now we need some pics with the TB in front of some nasty looking wall clouds or a twister......might make the calendar.:wootwoot:

 

[Voymom]

My Envoy has been the best spotting vehicle I have ever had. Although finding a place for my Ham radio was difficult at first, but got that figured out pretty quickly. The offroad abilities of it(being stock height) are actually pretty good, but we don't do much mud running, mainly decent speeds down dirt roads if need be. We actually just had a tornado about 20 minutes from me, and caught some pretty good pictures of the damage, getting pictures of the tornado was a bit difficult as it was at night, and then it turned rain wrapped a few minutes after it touched down.

I use the 'voy as both a grocery getter and my spotting truck, until we can get our hands on another TB/'voy my truck will serve many purposes however I feel it is fully equipped to do all the things we need it to do.

Your truck looks really nice, and i'm sure it will be an excellent chase truck.


Tornado is forming about 5 miles out. Between the lights in this picture

Just a little proof Would love to swap pictures if you have any! It's nice to know I'm not the only one here who is crazy about storms!

 

[Mesoholics]

My Envoy has been the best spotting vehicle I have ever had. Although finding a place for my Ham radio was difficult at first, but got that figured out pretty quickly. The offroad abilities of it(being stock height) are actually pretty good, but we don't do much mud running, mainly decent speeds down dirt roads if need be. We actually just had a tornado about 20 minutes from me, and caught some pretty good pictures of the damage, getting pictures of the tornado was a bit difficult as it was at night, and then it turned rain wrapped a few minutes after it touched down.

I use the 'voy as both a grocery getter and my spotting truck, until we can get our hands on another TB/'voy my truck will serve many purposes however I feel it is fully equipped to do all the things we need it to do.

Your truck looks really nice, and i'm sure it will be an excellent chase truck.


Tornado is forming about 5 miles out. Between the lights in this picture


Just a little proof Would love to swap pictures if you have any! It's nice to know I'm not the only one here who is crazy about storms!

Nice pictures! we haven't caught a tornado yet but one touching down in the dark and rain wrapped would be one of our worst nightmares. We are uploading all of our pictures and blogging on our website at Mesoholics and our videos under the username mesoholicsdotnet. We were chasing around Roswell, NM yesterday and got some good shelf clouds and a video of us punching the core (which I am still editing together). The hail was about 1/4" but it accumulated enough that we could have an impromptu snowball fight on the side of a county road, must be Canadian .

Today we are going down to Fort Stockton, TX as there may be some stuff coming down off the mountains, or at least our forecaster hopes so. So far after logging 6200 miles in 8 days I have been impressed with the truck. Our Falken tires handled the heavy rain and hail buildup without issue and they feel really good on gravel roads even at speeds a "bit" higher than the limit states...

Now we need some pics with the TB in front of some nasty looking wall clouds or a twister......might make the calendar.:wootwoot:

Lets hope Kansas and Nebraska look somewhat promising for later on this week I will dodge lightning if I have to to get a good shot

 

[blazinlow89]

I get excited when I see a new posting in this thread. I really wish I had the time/money to do this. I have always wanted to storm chase.

I really want to see more of what you guys do, and the work you guys do to your GMT 360

 

[Ghost]

Get your Ham license bro. 11m isn't a good place for storm chasing communications.

 

[harmless]

This is quite impressive. Being from up here, interesting as well. I must see this beast. It is now on my to-do list for this summer.

With the amount of violent storms rising in Ontario, you might just be able to use it up here too!

 

[Voymom]

Ghost is absolutely correct! Ham radio license should be a must for storm chasing/spotting. You can have phenomenal communications with other spotters/chasers, including the NWS so reporting the storm in order to give the communities ample warning time to take shelter. I volunteer with ES(Emergency services) and Skywarn, Skywarn and ES are often sent out to verify reports called in by the public so the warnings and sirens can be issued. At least thats how it workes here in Iowa and how it worked in Michigan too.

 

[harmless]

We've had many bad tornadoes in the past few years here in Ontario... I wonder if there's even a viable warning system in place for these events up here.

 

[Mesoholics]

I get excited when I see a new posting in this thread. I really wish I had the time/money to do this. I have always wanted to storm chase.

I really want to see more of what you guys do, and the work you guys do to your GMT 360

Thanks We got back a few weeks ago from our first trip 2 Weeks and 9000mi later. We saw a few storms and it was exciting, I also loved the scenery in the states we visited as previously I haden't been west of Nashville

Get your Ham license bro. 11m isn't a good place for storm chasing communications.

Its coming, I didn't have time to get it before we left this year but it is on the to do list for next year. The CB came in handy for speed traps etc but in terms of actual communication next to useless. I dont think I will find the test too difficult as I have some commercial marine licenses and had courses on radios in school.

We've had many bad tornadoes in the past few years here in Ontario... I wonder if there's even a viable warning system in place for these events up here.

There is from both Environment Canada and the Weather Network, we don't have the same spotter networks up here as the extreme weather events are rare compared to the Midwest but they do constantly monitor and watch for potential storms. The Tornado that touched down by my cottage in Goderich last year was out of the blue and warnings were only a few minutes in advance but generally they can predict big storms well ahead of time, they still rely on ground based spotters to confirm and report storms like the States but like I said our network up here is much smaller in scale.

 

[Mesoholics]

We have finally started working on our truck this winter, making some upgrades along with doing some basic maintenance that has been neglected by the PO and exacerbated by our using the vehicle as we have.

Firstly many thanks go out to Northcreek (Mike) for allowing us to ship our goodies to his place and saving us $600 in shipping costs to have them make an additional 100mile trip by truck. We ordered Brake Pads / Rotors, Bilstein HD Shocks / Struts, and a pair of off-road lights.

A few weeks ago we started the work by flushing the brake fluid, cleaning the throttle body, and changing the completely shot front sway bar links. the entire process went smoothly save for the RR bleeder valve that was seized and then stripped and mangled by me in my futile attempts to remove it. Luckily a bit of heat and some sweat finally got it loose before more drastic measures had to be taken. As for the throttle body we noticed that the truck had been a bit hesitant on acceleration last year but while we ran it as it was parked it began to stall when we turned on the fan / ac.

After seeing what the TB looked like upon removal it was evident that it was likely the first time it has been cleaned, the same went for the brake fluid as it dark in color and full of smaller particles of dirt and grime.

On to the before and after pics.

Throttle Body Before

Throttle Body After

View attachment 26343

Rear Brakes / Suspension Before

Rear Brakes / Suspension After

View attachment 26344

Tomorrow we are going to work our way around to the front brakes / suspension which should be a bit more entertaining as we also bought new mounts for the front struts and need to swap those out as well. We also bought dust shields for the rear brakes but the process to install them is a bit more involved then I thought and more importantly more than I am comfortable to attempt so those are going to be put on by a shop if at all.