[trackbird]

I've been driving a Jeep Liberty for a couple years as my daily driver (and I've hated virtually every minute of it). Long story short, a 2105 Silverado crew cab followed me home this weekend (just in time for fireworks, my wife and I are both licensed "Exhibitors Assistants" (pyro techs) for professional shows). Within 12 hours of signing paperwork, we were hauling stuff around the site and driving through in 6" of soft muddy grass (oops). It's a truck, right?

I need a front license plate bracket. My truck came from out of state and what they gave me requires drilling holes in the bumper (I'd rather not due to rust concerns). Is there anything like the SLP bracket for the 4th gens that fits the new trucks?

I'm looking for a roll up (semi rigid/secure) tonneau cover.

Throttle response sucks, so I'm going to need a programmer to fix the throttle feel. I'm not worried about power (it makes enough for now), but the throttle could use some help. It opens really slow and then you start stabbing it to get it to move. I'm not a fan.

Has anybody fixed any of these issues? Tips, tricks or recommended parts?

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[CrashTestDummy]

My wife and I have been helping a friend for almost 20 years now. Saturday's show was at a local country club we've been at for about 11 years now, after the previous team pretty much blew themselves up (put a shell in the tube upside down) (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/banghead.gif)

This friend had been doing it for many years, and was doing shows when he was in a local Impala SS club we belonged to. Many of us from that club joined him. We'd make a club event out of it. Since a couple of the members were great cooks, we'd bring the BBQs, ice chests, families, set up, and have front row seats during the event. Afterwards, there was a legion of Impala SSs lighting the up the field during clean up. (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/2thumbs.gif)

Back then, it was a manual event, we'd run a hand auger to dig the holes to drop 3", 4", 5" and 6" pipes into the ground. They served as the launch tubes. During the event, we'd drop the shells into the tubes, and one of us would run by with a road flare tied to a stick to light the fuse. Then you step to the next pipe and wait.... for the shell to go off. After that, a guy comes by and 'rakes' the remains out with a stick that has drywall screws driven into it. That keeps the next shell from being set off by the burning embers that are the remains of the last shell you set off.

I really miss those days, but what we do now is safer. When we manually-fired, the fuse you light has two burn rates, the tip burns at about an inch a second. It's about 3" long. The rest of the ~2' fuse burns at a rate of about 300'/sec. So you light the fuse, take two steps to the next pipe, and WHUMP! the shell goes off! 3" and 4" shells make a nice bang, the 5" and 6" shells take your breath away. Great, great fun!! (IMG:http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/style_emoticons/default/2thumbs.gif)

We're electronic now, but it's a manual electronic show. We touch a 12v probe to the circuit running to the tubes on a trailer. It's about the same work, and we still have a very front-row-seat to the fun (especially when a shell short-shoots), but you're not up close and personal any more, and misfires are more common than before. We put 400 shells into the air in 29 minutes, not counting the 'grand finally'.


I understand about the tune, thing, though. You have a warranty. The Tahoe didn't, so I'm fine with that. The tuner doesn't lock his tunes, though, so if I want to get into that stuff, I can play with the tune we have, or swap it out for the old tune if necessary (he saved that to the hand-held tuner, so I have that, too). That is one of the nice things about BlackBear, is they'll save the factory tune, in case you have a warranty worry. You DO have to buy the EFI-Live package, though, which is a requirement of BlackBear, but since I already had it, I was only out the tune money (and he updated my way-out-of-date firmware for free!). IIRC, though, they can now tell if you have flashed the ECM (I'm guessing they keep a counter, so the dealer will compare the number of official times you've been flashed, vs. the counter), so that may be moot.

We got our truck tuned for 93, got the torque limiting tune removed, and got the shifts firmed up,and moved around a bit. It's a LOT better that way, and I was able to get almost 20 MPG on the highway with that tune. We kept AFM, as this isn't a race truck, no matter how my wife drives it. That annoying hesitation off the line is completely gone, which makes me a very happy driver.