I have a stock 2000 blazer 4x4 with the vortec V-6. We moved to Florida from Kansas City,Ks. And nobody in my wifes family thought the old truck would make it, but surprise...She made it and 7 years later I'm still driving it...Both my mother-in-law and my wife have bought new cars since being down here.... I won't get rid of it til it totally frags.....

 

me and the wife bought a 99 4 door blazer for 1500$ canadian with 182000km. then we decided to go on a road trip, planned out a map through the states and took the blazer on the road for a week. we started coming into the states via sarnia border crossing. travelled to lansing michigan then down to indianapolis indiana. from there we went to louisville kentucky and to nashville tennesse. after that we headed toward washington dc and back home through the falls over the rainbow bridge. on our trip weve stayed at a couple of hotels, camped on the side of a mountian and seen many hicking trails and scenic caves. weve taken our picture with yogi bear, this is after waking up at 8am, driving 15 min, and having to wait because nothing was open until 8 am and it was now 715 where we were lol... damn central time lol.... we spent around 1500$ on our round trip including parts for the truck. driving down the interstate i found out that i had a ball joint or two that were shot... by the time i got home, the inside of my tires were so unevenly worn that it was a mix between new thread and a drag slick.

 

I drive my Blazer to my cabin in the mountains almost every weekend. It's almost entirely interstate driving the whole way there and I've taught myself to drive carefully enough that I can just barely scrape 20mpg out of a trip. Road trip story in which I was not driving my Blazer. I work for a music festival company so I was hauling a load of sound equipment about 800 miles to the next show in New York. On the way there I stopped for lunch in Charlottesville Virginia. About 10 minutes after being on the road I see a 2 door Blazer literally flying through the air turning head over heals. I pulled over immediately as the Blazer slammed into the pavement. The driver had not been wearing her seat Belt and was thrown through the sunroof in mid-air. She smacked the pavement face first about 30 feet from where the Blazer landed.

 

this could be considered a road trip story... My former S truck was a Jimmy... it was used to haul cars I parted out for my business... We moved to Colorado from Wisconsin and on the move we were driving our 95 Camaro and the Jimmy with dolly in tow.. The Camaro went and we pulled it to Denver with the Jimmy... what a workout!!! All in all it got to a repair shop and the Jimmy got us over the mountain to our new home... Awesome Jimmy!

 

I don't know if this counts but
A few months ago I bought my 2002 2 door blazer with 200k miles on it for $1200 and drove it home 250 miles. I was expecting something to break the whole way but had zero issues. These things seem to be built tough overall but the little things will nickel and dime you to death.
Now if I could just get all of the parts together to start the 5.3 swap,

 

Many many years ago in BC Canada...

... in Winter 1991 we headed over to Vancouver from Europe to visit friends of my GF. Stayed for two weeks and when arriving had one of these surprises with the weather.

The locals say - If it snows it will melt within days - no worries.

Already at that time a meteorology afficionado I thought different. As a rental car I wanted a 4x4. Turned out they had more or less exactly one left in the vicinity. Drove with the local friends Suburban to go get it. It was a Jimmy 4x4.

The next two weeks we put 2'000 miles on it in snow, ice, mud, gravel and oh - before i forget streets and highways. Been everywhere from the Golden Ears regional park to race the large parking lot and get a feel for the Jimmy to Squamish.

Pulled a Honda Accura out of a snow bank. Couple of youngsters tried to race it in the overspill parking lot at the Golden Ears park. Gee the guys were happy to find out someone with a Jimmy is coming their way.

Gone down to Seattle. Got over 1 1/2 feet of snow. Used the scenic route along the coast which saved us from getting stuck on the interstate which was blocked in several places. The 4x4 and good ground clearance got us there in a couple of hours.

The return trip was even better. One foot of compacted snow on the Interstate and then it started to rain. Only traffic was 4x4's and Haulers. These guys were just crazy!
With the one foot of snow on the pavement and the water it had started to form areas of a mile or so with huge holes in the snow. Had to curve around them even in the Jimmy got thrown around. I'm a trained truck driver and know my ins and outs on offroading.

Not being in a hurry drove fast on the good stretches and slow in the bump parts. Then we came up where the snow had blocked the drains. Now we were faced with floodings of up to two feet deep.
The guys with the Trucks would just plow through them. A guy with a small VW was always overtaking us on the good stretches and fall behind on the bad ones. He drove like a berserk through the floodings and not so smartly in the middle of the road instead of closer to the higher side ...

... I drive slowly through floodings. It was a rental in stock trim. No snorkel, therefore you use fording techniques such as judging or walking through ford first (judging was fine here as we could see the jersey concrete profiles on both sides) and driving into at 10mph steady, then accelerating just so it creates a little bow wave.

Last thing I see from the VW is a big splash behind me into the same flooding where we are just in the middle. Concentrate on driving through the next thing i see in the mirror is the VW in the middle of the flooding stopped and a large flatbed covering it with his bow-wave.

The flatbed stops so we continue. Used to do offroading in the 90's and early 2k's so this influenced the decision what to buy once back home.

With these rides experience it was a Blazer. Since 1994 I own still the same Chevy Blazer 4x4. Has 178'000 miles on it today still going strong with the usual parts to be exchanged. Overall a cheap car. 23 years it cost me less than 12'000$ in service and parts. That's some 550$ a year doing on average 21 mpg.

 

Hey,
I've made a few trips from NC to Florida and back - with loaded blazer and dog. In fact going again in a week or so.

Just my opinion but blazer runs well on long trip, lots of room for stuff and dog (Daisy).

Fairly comfortable - gas mileage not so good though, but no problems.

Biggest scare came when a semi just ahead and to right blew his left front tire and ripped his fender to pieces. He handled it well - swerved a little towards me then got it under control. But, a giant field of tire and fiberglass pieces were flying right in front of me. I cut the wheel and aimed for a little clear area in the mess of flying debris and went off the road as all kinds of crap flew around me - left a couple of marks on truck, but at least nothing came through the windshield.

I pulled over and checked my blazer, the semi driver pulled over and another box truck pulled over - in the end everybody and all was fine. It was a little scary and happened completely out of the blue, but no major damage - a few marks that needed to be wheeled out. Once my heart rate returned to normal I finished drive.

Most trips pretty routine though - maybe a good thing.