After parking his 1990 Suburban next to a short box 4-door pickup one day, Stephen C. Weisbrod started thinking.

"The Suburban rear flooring and sidewalls looked just like a pickup box," he notes. "So I cut off the back half of the roof behind the second seat."

Weisbrod then took part of a Chevy pickup cab of the same vintage and sliced the back of the cab off, from roof to floor. It fit the back of the Suburban perfectly and was soon welded in place. The sidewalls and tailgate on the Suburban were capped with sheet metal. Then the unit was repainted.

After mounting a home-built 3-pt. hitch and pto on front of the Suburban, Weisbrod pulled the 6-cylinder engine with belt- driven governor and automatic transmission out of the Chevy pickup he had already sliced up. Along with the battery and gas tank, all the components mounted on a skid and set in the back of the Suburban with all the controls mounted inside the cab. A shaft shielded with 3/16-in. steel was then run through the passenger and engine compartments of the Suburban to drive the snow blower.

"This way the snow blower is totally independent of the Suburban engine," explains Weisbrod. "I start up the engine on the skid and once it gets up to speed, the snow blower starts working.

"I paid for the Chevy pickup and for modifications to the Suburban. It took about 150 hours," recalls Weisbrod. "It looks a lot like a new Avalanche. I can put a regular pickup toolbox in it and an econo cover over it. Now I am beating up a cheaper pickup instead of an expensive tractor when blowing snow."