2009 Chevy Tahoe PPV Build Thread

After several months of hunting for a new work vehicle that would meet my needs, I located a 2009 Chevrolet Tahoe PPV in the state of Oregon. After riding the train 22 hours North, taking a taxi 3 miles to the vehicle yard and then driving the 800 miles home straight through in 12 hours, myself and Tahoe are back home and ready to start a build out.

Ive spent the last day cleaning the exterior of the vehicle - clay-bared the paint surfaces, a medium and fine cutting polish followed by a wax and sealant of the paint. Almost all "ghosting" from the logos are gone and the paint really looks great. I cleaned up the Go-Rhino front push-bar by removing the side headlight panels just leaving the center section.
Next up will be to strip out the interior of front and rear seats for cleaning, A/B/C/D pillars and headliner to remove existing antenna mounts, drill new holes and install new mounts.

Current plans for antennas:
VHF Lowband
VHF Air
(2) VHF High
(2) UHF
800 Mhz
(2) LTE
WiFi
(2) GPS
XM

All antennas are going to be Antenex/Laird Phantom or Phantom Elites, except for 1/4 wave for VHF Low and something for VHF Air.

Radios are mostly Motorola CDM1250s and 1550s, MCS2000, Icom Air and possibly one or two XTLs. Most remote mount.

Radios are going in a Havis Shields console along with Macbook Pro computer mount.

Lighting is going to be mostly Whelen - LED spotlight, Vertex LED hideaways in the front/rear OEM lights, IONs on the front/side push bumper and in the rear side windows. Dominator LINZ6 8 head arrowstick in the back window. 2 linear Slimlighters bottom of rear window I think, Dominator LINZ6 4 head somewhere, maybe front window. Dual mode LINZ6 Tahoe specific foglights in the front bumper that have the white driving mode as well as warning. 30" Ridgid LED lightbar on front push bumper.

Besides the center console which Ill be ordering new, I have all the equipment ready to go. Rear cargo area has a Truck Vault installed that will be staying.

Im sure there is a ton more but I wanted to get a build thread started here. Ill keep this thread updated as progress is made, hope to have the build completed within 2 weeks or so.

Sounds like a plan. Picture of the current rear cargo area?

Very clean looking and sounds like you've got it planned out really well. Looking forward to see how it goes! I really gotta get on to finishing my Radio Installs in my Tahoe, ya'll are making me jealous.


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Sharp looking vehicle for being six years old. You will be able to put plenty of accessories into it!

Mike

The real question is ... was this Tahoe rebuilt from a collision? :0)

Looks like it may have been an accident investigation/reconstruction state agency truck..
theyre a common addition to most HP/SP agencies..

Youasking due to the ghosts left from the decaling on the rear quarter panel?

Could possibly buff them out with some rubbing compound..

All logo ghosting is gone now, those first couple pics are from Mt Shasta and the drive home before I touched it. Ill take some better pics with a real camera of the exterior status this evening. Ive got 12+ hours with the buffer on the paint LOL.

Here was the rear cargo area last night



And here it is right now. Going to drop the headliner tonight and start drilling!

Is there a manufacturer name on those numeric lock/on the drawers?
Id love to pick up a set..

The cabinet is made by Truck Vault, I believe the combo lockswitch is made by KABA.

Still cell pics but I just pulled the truck outside for some paint shots.... almost all the ghosting is gone.

Ohh,,Very Nice..Love those SteelWheels too..Lo-Profile and good looking!...ALotta folks are putting them on their trail/offroaders and taking off the factory alloy's..

Good looking ride Sir!..Thanks for the lead on the lock set also..

Please keep sharing pics..I Love PICS!!!

fourthhorseman said:

Looks like it may have been an accident investigation/reconstruction state agency truck..
theyre a common addition to most HP/SP agencies

Click to expand...

I know, I am very familiar. I was joking.

I've got a good feeling about this install; a "WX4EMT doin' it right" kinda good feeling...thanks for the stripped down cargo area "before" shot.

Heres a few NMOs and 2 integrated GPS/NMOs ready to install. Going to tackle the antennas tomorrow.



Added a set of IONs on the front push bumper, Ill post a picture of those later.

First set of IONs on the front push bumper. Going to do a set of surface mounts to the sides when they arrive. 30" white LED lightbar mounted under the bar the IONs are on coming as well.

The rear hatch had a set of unknown brand amber alternating LED surface mount lights underneath so they face the rear when the hatch is lifted. Also a white LED dome light. A door rocker switch was installed as an automatic cutoff for the lamp and flashing LEDs when the hatch is closed, as well as the dome light having its on on/off switch. When the rear plastic interior panels go in Ill install a rocker cutoff switch to turn the amber flashing LEDs off while the door is open if needed.

Is that a sharkee i see on the roof? Minus the aerial

Not sure, havent even looked really whats on the roof yet lol, all leftover from the old agency. I will mostly be doing Phantom lopro antennas due to fitting in a garage for secure storage.

Made a bunch more progress this evening, removed the headlight housings and installed LED headlights along with Whelen Vertexs in the DRL housings. Also discovered that this unit has the factory headlight/tailight flasher installed LOL.

Looks very good.

LED headlight replacements as well as Whelen Vertex in the DRL spot.

what brand of LED headlights did you get?
I've got a pair in my cart at amazon waiting for payday.

And the more I look at the pic with the antenna, im sure its a sharkee.

May want to seriously consider looking to see where the wires terminate for it, and figure out which one is which, then get a VHF whip for it.

I know you already bought your GPS bases, but that sharkee probably has an active GPS module, dual band wifi, and multi band cellular that you could use for 700/800.