2015 GMC Sierra build

[Connorellisx]

Hey dudes, so I wanted to load my truck build on here to maybe help with others if they are working on something similar.
Currently it’s been in a state of being a dirt king race kit for front suspension, and what was supposed to be a simple bedcage to short course links has snowballed out of control to a full cab cage backhalf coming up.
It’s about to go into the fab shop in a couple months here so I wanted to get this up now before it starts going through it’s major transformation

This is this truck in its current state and I’ll post the process down below.

 

[Connorellisx]

First the truck started off as a completely stock SLE that I bought brand new in 2015 with no plans of getting into this hobby as I was much too focused on dirt bike riding

In 2017 I then broke my spine in a dirt bike crash leaving me in rods and screws in my back, so in an effort to go towards something safer I started to look at building a truck.

Going through many different brand options and to be completely transparent I hardly knew what I was looking at I bought a
CWF bolt on long travel kit.
2.5x8 inch king c/o
Fiberwerx 6” CF fenders front and rear
Method mr106 wheels and toyo R/t 37/13.50 tires



I was super thrilled with this stage of the truck but through conversations and learning I found that I was left just wanting more and I was stuck cleaning up the mistakes I made through uninformed purchases.
First of my issues is the offset on the wheels was a -44 which adds a lot more stress on the stock hubs, and also seeing multiple shock buckets get torn off I really wanted to upgrade to a proper “race kit” (depending on the brands marketing) or true long travel kit with fabricated shock towers.
When I was shopping for kits mz was not making them and I had the options of LSK or Dirt King left.


I landed on the Dirt King race kit and 2.5x10 IBP coilovers that I installed in a driveway with the help of a few buddies.
I chose dirt king due to the upper arms mounting over the frame rails allowing for (in my opinion) a slightly better geometry. And with the taller upright it has a lower scrub radius. It also included billet tie rods and FK heims standard while the other kit had to be upgraded to those.
This was a much more involved process than I had anticipated going in but the kit went together great and the proper kit was noticed as soon as I drove it. The steering immediately felt much lighter due to the scrub and the control of the wheel over bumps was effortless while the prior kit had almost been scary to drive with.

Shortly later I then bought a new set of beadlocks with a -12 offset in order to take the stress of the hubs even more and bring in the scrub to what the kit was designed for.
I went with MR103 methods due to them being one of the strongest load ratings of the beadlocks on the market and I really wanted to try the polished wheel look.



Here’s where the road started to get bumpy…
I started the process of moving to the rear suspension with the plan on using some 2.5x18 pr coilovers… and some simple tubes to the rear end using the GFW link mounts.

Well… through the obsession of geometry and not wanting to buy parts twice this has snowballed.

What was 2.5 coilovers is now 3.0 IBP coilovers for the rear
What was supposed to be GFW link mounts is now tig welded izzyfab link mounts
What was tubes has now turned into izzyfab tig welded lower links and billet upper links
What was supposed to be a trussed 12b is now a FF camburg rear end
And what was supposed to be a c notch is now Izzy fab frame kicks
And what was supposed to be a bedcage is now an izzyfab trunk and insert.
And what was supposed to be fresh 37s is now 40” KR3s

This has all been collected slowly but surely, hunting race dezert daily, selloffroad on IG and just word of mouth.


3.0x18 RS coilovers with XL race finned resis and comp adj

GMT 900 Izzy fab frame kicks and link mounts
4130 TIG



Picked up a Camburg 76” WMS 3.50 rear end
2.50 hubs
Camburg 2.0 GM front hubs
Yukon third with 4.88 gears
6 piston wilwoods 12” rotors

Opted for a PCI intercom and Kenwood radio system

2.5x4 bolt on style bumps for the rear


Got these 55” tig 4130 lower links and billet uppers from Izzyfab


Got these PRP custom alphas for the seats


This is the izzyfab tig welded trunk set up and ready to go.


here’s the list of parts collected so far, there’s im sure a few smaller things I didn’t post but if this raises any questions I’m happy to answer the why this vs that etc. and I’ll post more on here after she goes under the knife in a couple months here!
Thanks for checking it out

 

[Tahoe_prelander]

Thing is gonna be nasty

 

[Baconcreekmetal]

Dang!
That's going to be trick.
I enjoyed reading your thought process on your parts selection.

 

[Connorellisx]

So I guess it’s time for another update on the sierra build!
We are officially underway and floating on jack stands. So far I have began dismantling everything, sold tons of parts and bought a cab cage kit!
I have now collected every single part I had on the list and more so I couldn’t wait to pull the truck in for that one last time
Certain parts such as the dirt king inner fenders are on hold.. to see how they fit in conjunction with the Izzy fab engine cage and also the 40” tires.

 

[Connorellisx]

to continue with this build I have now gotten the TE designs cab cage in. This is currently in the “unreleased” stage so it came with a couple minor complications that I was able to give feedback to TE in regards to. I was also able to edit a few tubes to be better for my intended use of the vehicle. One being the door bars I was able to notch slightly offset from what they were originally in order to dodge the OEM door panels without cutting slots through them for the tubes to clear. I also chose to not do the bars across the rear doors in order to allow for access from the rear doors to the occupants that will sit back there. All and all I couldn’t be more stoked on this cage. The cost, the fitment, and accuracy of the cuts really
Made the cab cage a fairly easy process considering.

 

[Connorellisx]

Next… I was able to move onto the engine cage. This was a product made available from Izzy fab and again it went together fairly easily. I did find the miters to take a lot more time in order to get them perfectly level and true but still manageable. I was able to make 2” tie ins to the A-pillars of the cab cage. I feel one of the best tools I used doing this was a Milwaukee band file. It really helped to grind down in extremely tight areas in order to get the tubing through the firewall. Making a couple more tie ins was considered but it would have come at the cost of losing my wipers so I opted out of doing that. While putting this together I also added a few tube connectors from kartec that in the case I have to pull the motor in the future it will help for access to that.

 

[Connorellisx]

We got the stock dash in!
This was a massive pain to fit just right, I had to take the mounting assembly and make my own brackets to mount it in order to dodge the A pillars, in the end it ended up working out and going together almost OEM. The AC ducting with some convincing and well… heat… made its way in perfectly. The only issue was the defroster to the driver and passenger windows didn’t make the cut, but as long as the windshield works it will be perfectly fine

 

[FasterNU]

nice job! Dash fitment is one of the hardest and most tedious things. especially a stock dash!! in and out a million times minimum. lol

 

[DesertGoat]

hell yeah. I'm a huge supporter of factory dashes - that looks super good with how it fits the cage!

 

[Connorellisx]

So I feel the stock core support mounts can be an eye sore so I changed them to a tube structure. I also have a 1” drop of the cab via the solid body mounts so I had to do something to drop the core supports mounts as well. So in order to do this with it removed I was able to have a friend 3d print me sorta a “jig” to locate the mounts exactly where they would be.
In the end this worked out great. I took measurements from the stock mounts, lowered them 1 and 1/8” lower and then was able to slide the tube down the center with an 1/8” plate on top. I then hole sawed the frame and did 2” .120 and mitered the ends to match up to the mounts. Tacked it in and cut the stock ones off and this is what I ended up with!
I have a pilot hole drilled in the exact center of these and when I figure out what size the Oem core support needs I can drill it out accordingly!

 

[Connorellisx]

So we picked up the new kit!
This time around for kit number 3 on this truck I decided to go with the Izzy fab race kit, I opted for the optional higher up travel shock towers and got the uprights tabbed for wilwood brakes.
I personally feel for Silverado kits these days this kit truly raises the bar, with the J-arms it allows for a 4.0 bypass to get squeezed in, and with the weight of a full size truck I feel that’s massively beneficial. It also pushes the wheels about 2” forward and is 5” wider per side. It doesn’t necessarily gain more travel with the wider track width it seems to more so prioritize proper geometry and not causing shocks to become diverted at full compression like some kits do to get the highest possible travel numbers to advertise. Truly impressed with this kit I guess to say the least.

 

[Connorellisx]

Here I got the shock towers tacked in and threw the rear bedsides on. These are what fiberwerx calls their “extreme bedsides” which basically means they are intended for full tube chassis trucks typically so they shorten the wheel base a lot more, more than a crew can bedside and they also lay over the cab so no more gaps!
I got the lazers out and measured center of the wheel well to the center of the front wheel well and it looks like the final wheel base will be 130.5” which is a 16” drop in wheel base from stock one! I feel wheel base is a very overlooked subject sometimes, the shorter it gets the less bucking you get, tighter turning radius, lighter drive train, and overall lighter vehicle (cut out 16” of tube work and throw it on the scale) super stoked and I think they look awesome!!

 

[Connorellisx]

Well I got the rear structure of the truck mounted! Many things to cover in this update, for one the links are designed and welded by hunter Fullwood with fulco racing. All tig and 4130 and they are uniball front and rear!

I used Izzy fab link mounts that actually run as a pilot hole and then drilled with 2” tubing going through the frame which made these much easier to mount absolutely perfect so I wouldn’t need to run heims on the links



I then was able to bolt everything onto the truck and onto the rear end and was able to start working on the Izzy fab frame rail kicks! These were a massive amount of work, going on and off the truck maybe 30 times trying to get the bumps
To strike perfectly to the rear end and also get them absolutely perfectly true. With that being said we finally got them in and welded them in place, not only that but in order to yield the mount about of uptravel I had to trim for the frame kicks and also the upper links to clear the bottom of the cab. Those complications are largely my own doing striving for the shorter “luxury Prerunner” wheel base in the rear so they sit 4” deeper than originally intended to.


After that came the rewarding part of getting the rear trunk on that I was able to buy pre fabricated from Izzy which saved tons of hours of work! And I was also able to then throw a tire on and truly take in a little more of what the final product is gonna be!