Yes, a very sad situation for the longest continuous automotive model
line/badge at over 75 years
The market ID folks no longer understand towing
chipping away at the 8.6K GVWR Sub with that very poor GMT800 receiver,
then the 1K max tongue receiver on the GMT900
I keep mine forever...did noodle the Excursion when it came out, but
it had less payload than mine...then noodled the 8.1K, but that very
poor receiver thing...
Mine used to be my daily 70-80 mile round trip commute (Silicone Valley
so dead stopped to creeping about half of that each day) and now just
my weekend/towing/etc fun vehicle. So not many miles are going to be
racked up.
Like you, am stuck because of the need for the room and tow rating.
A 1 ton full sized van, but no good 4x4...Bryan's is of interest, but
not going to let go of my Sub for a long while. That was my first
choice when looking and ordered my Sub when found no OEM 4x4
Nothing wrong with keeping them and just fixing them. The GMT800 and
GMT900's seem smaller on the inside for me.
Mine is at +160,000 extremely hard miles and the day it needs or I
want to rebuild the 7.4L...it's getting the works. Headers (long tube),
cam...maybe forced induction of some sort...etc
Take care of yours and it will last...it is a TRUCK and built to work
and last (or at least from the GM800 back)