Bug-Out Blazer

Part 7: Crawlin’ slower, crawlin’ stronger with an Offroad Design Magnum Box planetary underdrive and NP205 transfer case swap.

- Ben Battles

WE’RE NOW BACK TO MAKING GOOD PROGRESS ON OUR ’88 CHEVY K5 BLAZER doomsday-survival rig, the Bug-Out Blazer (B.O.B.). If you haven’t been keeping tabs, we’ve knocked out some of the bigger line-items on our mechanical-survivability checklist, including the basic & reliable leaf-spring suspension system, modified 1-ton CUCV axle swap and beadlock wheels wearing 40-inch tires. The list still remains long, but this installment gives us a glimpse at the light at the end of the drivetrain-tunnel.

To draw from the library of redneck-analogies cataloged in our heads: the struggle of building a highly capable, highly reliable off-road rig is like floating a duck boat that’s been ventilated with OO buckshot—you’re forever plugging holes to keep the vessel afloat. To us, that’s all become part of the fun, but given that B.O.B. is being purpose-built as an ultra-capable life-sustainment vehicle, there’s no room for trial and error with this one. Any component that won’t hold up to the thrashing of a lifetime, any component that limits B.O.B.’s basic capabilities in any way, and in general, any component that could potentially demand you stop doing what you’re doing to deal with it immediately had to be given the heave-ho in the name of 100 percent (or as near as we could get) “you’re all on your own” reliability. Fact: Everything mechanical will give up the ghost eventually, but as with all of B.O.B.’s modifications, it’s all about stacking the deck in our favor with dirt-simple, robust and reliable components.