I'm going to be 16 in a few weeks. I've been interested in offroad for about 5 years (this was the magazine I liked at about 10 and I'm still reading it now). I'm not exactly sure when I'm getting a truck, but I want to figure out what I want.

Year

I want a silverado 1500 ext. cab, short bed 4x4. I am not sure on the year. I want an efi beacause gas prices are crazy now. The '87 is the earliest with an efi right? I also want a solid front axle as it is simpler and cheaper to lift. Are the newer efi's much better than the '87. I even like the older bodies better. An '87 might be right for me.

Suspension/tires

It will be a daily asphault driver.  I will be doing a lot of mountain driving on narrow roads as I downhill mountain bike (which rquires driving to a mountain , leaving a car at the bottom, then driving to the top. then once we ride down 2 people go back up and get the other car).

For the dirt, I will be offroading weekends, or every few days. I will do trails, sand (pismo dunes), some mud, very light rock crawling ( I don't want to always be breaking stuff)- basicly light allaround wheelin.

So I am thinking 33's and a 4" suspension lift. How much bigger are 33's than stock tires? Is this a good comprimise between wheelin/road efficiency?I want the truck to be nimble, not like a 10ton truck w/an 8" lift. I want coils and dampers instead of leafsprings and dampers as they are simpler to tune.

Bed

I would get rhinolining or line x right away. Which is more durable? I think Line-x might be. Also, I am going to get a bike rack for the bed similar to the ones you see at schools. Or maybe I could fit more with tie straps like motocrossers. When I am taking alot of bikes up, I would just put them sideways upside down in the bed.

I would like a cover for when it rains. I have heard that hard tops can be broken into as easily as soft tops. Soft tops are also cheaper. Does anyone know of a soft top that can fold up and be put away, but have enough clearance for downhill bikes w/ out taking the wheels off?

Sorry for the thousand questions, but I want to have the right stuff.

'87 is the last year of the square body style, the last year of the sold front axle on GM p/up trucks (except 3500 crews) and the first year of TBI EFI. If you are set on the old body style and want fuel injection, that is about your only option. If you want to get into the 88-98 body style, the '96 and newer trucks run the Vortec EFI V8's and get slightly better mpg and power than the pre 96 TBI trucks. The 88 and later trucks run IFS in the front, and will tolerate 33" tires quite well, but is more expensive to lift compared to a solid front axle.

If you are talkign about converting to coil springs instead of leaf springs (even in the rear), it doesn't matter what you buy, because you are going to have to go all custom (4 link to locate the axle), there are no kits to do this. And leaf springs are quite easy to tune. 

Any spray in liner will be tough enough to handle some mountain bikes, and I have no idea on what top may suit you.  

Ok, then I guess I will go with leaves. How much better is the fuel efficiency of the 90's trucks than the 87? I think the 80's body styles are cooler.  

also.. the pre 88 truck didnt come with ext cab... the crewcab square bodies ran until 91.. however they are 1ton only and 1ton 4x4 crewcabs arent exactly a dime a dozen.. plus they are  longbeds and half the time duallys..  

You may want to consider a blazer, they came w/ solid axles and f/i all the way to 91. It already has a top and could hold a couple of bikes in the back if you removed the rear seat and then put it back in when you want to carry people, just an option for you. As fare as tires and suspension, you could fit 33's on a stock lift w/ minor trimming and possibly zero rates to move your front axle forward a little. THe main thing w mpg and taller tires is to make sure you are geared correctly for the tire size, lower gears can actully make your mpg better because they make your engine work less(to a point).  

The hard tops are a lot better at detering theft. You can get some that lock to. The soft top can be cut through w/ a knife, and most don't have a way to lock. A locked hard top will require a hammer to get into. That makes a lot of noise. Mountain bikes are not cheap. You get ripped off just once, and you could of probably have bought the locking hard top.  

there is no real difference in motor design from 87 until after 96. In 96 the vortecs came in and you can see MPG gains, as well as power gains over the original 87-95 TBI's. The MPG gain is marginal.

As for power, I don't care too much, I could add a performance air filter/ pipe or other stuff.

I like the '87, but I can only find reg. cabs. So, are there only dualies or 2500 and up that have ex. cabs?

A blazer would be good. I would get a spray liner for the back area. But, a downhill bike w/ the wheels on won't clear the ceiling.

So what I want:

-1500 size

-4x4

-solid axles

-efi

-top with sufficient clearance

-short bed (pick up)

-ex/crew cab

Thanks for all the replies

-patrick

...if it wont clear a blazer top, it wont clear a top in the bed of a truck(or would it and I am just missing something?  

If you want to build something you can find about a 95 chevy ext cab TBI. I am makeing mine 4X4 with the solid front axle. offroadunlimited.com sells a kit for the IFS trucks to put a solid axle under it. You can get the trans to tcase adapter for the 4l60e trans that comes in the newer trucks at advanceadapters.com Good luck.  

You say you want to take it in the dirt a lot. Well it'd be better for you to stick with paper air filters. Filters like K&N flow more air by filtering less. It's as simple as that. However a BIGGER paper filter would be a great idea.

Ext. cabs don't exist for the 1973-87 and 88-91 heavy duty trucks. For 3/4 and 1 tons only, a "Bonus Cab" option existed starting in 1975. The space behind was either empty of had 'jump seats' like on the little ext. cab Ford Rangers and S-10's.

Fullsize crewcabs however have existed since 1973. Again only for 3/4 and 1 ton pickups. I don't think a short bed was ever an option on a crew cab or bonus cab truck.

If you want an ext. cab truck it might be easier to do a solid axle conversion on a 88-up ext. cab pickup. (instead of "stretching" the cab and frame on an old pickup) Take into consideration that a solid axle conversion will cost maybe $5000 or more.

If you want a newer solid axle truck with cheap lift kits, consider fullsize Dodge trucks up to the years of 1992. (before they got that "Big Rig" look)

I hear the pre-1997 Fords didn't have solid axles but their lift kits are almost as cheap as kits for solid axle trucks.

Maybe I should just get a 90's. How much are solid axle cons.? Does offroad unlimited do a good job? There is one an hour.5 north.

Unfortunately what you want was never made by chevy. Up to '87 you can get 1500 4x4's that will have a regular cab only. GM never nade a pre '88 ext cab. Up to 1992 you could get the old body style on 3500 crew cabs with the 8'ft bed.

Solid axles went to gm's scrap pile for '88 on all 1500 p/up models, but the solid axle lived on until 1992 in 3500 crew cabs, and 1500 and 2500 suburbans, as well as 1500 blazers.  

I don't know exactly how much it'll cost, but it'll definitely cost more than any IFS lift. There's an article on this website about test between a stock truck, a lifted IFS truck and a solid axle converion. While their solid axle conversion was far superior to all the other truck in most situations, it also cost around $15,000. They used fancy stuff like resevoir shocks though. You could probably get it done a bit cheaper, but not a whole lot cheaper.

 Perhaps if you don't need a truck that's excellent offroad, but pretty decent instead, you might like an IFS truck with a 4" or 6" lift. Most people can fit 33's under an IFS truck with a 6" lift.

You are looking at around 10k to do a solid axle swap, and that is if you do a lot of your own work( alot more if you have it done at a shop). It can be done for cheaper but it is much more then just putting the axle under there, u need the steering, leaves, rebuild the axle(s), probably a new rear axle if you are doing it to a 1/2 ton, driveshafts, ... . A lot more work then a new person should be doing by themselves, you may find someone in your area that has done one and is willing to help, or you may be made of money and have enough to pay a shop to do it!