[trackbird]

After 7 glorious years, I finally retired my faithful 2015 SIlverado 1500. It was a 5.3 with crew cab and the electronic transfer case with the AWD option. We have been using it to tow our camper for about the last year and it did an admirable job overall. Sadly, the brakes were not up to the task and on more than one occasion I ran completely out of truck brakes and the trailer stopped the truck. That finally convinced me that it was time for an upgrade.

Last Monday, I drug home a new Silverado 3500 HD (Crew cab, short bed, 4x4/AWD, diesel with the 10 speed allison, 5th wheel/gooseneck prep, Z71 protection package, etc). I'm trying to put break in mileage on it before the next time I have to tow the camper, but so far I'm really impressed. It feels a lot larger than my last 3500, but it feels remarkably light on its feet with all that torque. GM was supposed to do a facelift and a power upgrade for the diesel in 2023, but they held it until 2024. I picked the truck up Monday, Tuesday I went to the chevrolet.com site and they are now "Introducing the 2024 Silverado HD". Awesome....

Despite that, I really like the truck and the facelift isn't really an improvement (I really think these trucks are rather ugly, but the chrome front end on mine is "less bad") and the diesel seems to have plenty of power so I'm not sure if I'll really care about the upgrade. Maybe I'll trade it in a few years....maybe I won't.

I've been trying to verify that the shocks didn't change between 2022 and 2023 so I can order Fox shocks for it. The OEM ranchos provide almost zero damping.

Also, I ordered the Advanced Trailering Package with the multiple camera views. However, you have to buy the "technology package" to get all of the camera views. So, I don't have the front bumper view (could be nice for parking) or the trailer side view cameras (that would be great for pulling around tight corners, etc). I'm a little irritated that the "Advanced Trailering Package" isn't the complete package unless you take lane departure warnings, parking assist, etc....all stuff I specifically didn't want.

So, be aware if you order one, check that stuff out. I ordered this one June 19th, give or take and got it last Monday. I hope I'm not sorry I bought a diesel.

[trackbird]

Yea, I'm not mad about the $100 price. I ultimately wound up with the lights for "Free" (using GM points) and the tuning cost. So, it was $25 cheaper than ordering them on the truck (I may have mentioned that already), but it's a really nice feature to have and I'm glad I could add it.

We towed the camper 191 miles each way last weekend. We got 11-ish MPG at 70 MPH with some wind. On the way home we had 15-20 MPH head winds and we got north of 9 MPG. ON the way up the truck stayed at 1500 rpm and never shifted, even for the hills. On the way home with crazy winds, it occasionally downshifted one gear for a few moments and then went back to 1500 rpm. The old truck struggled to get 7.5 MPG on flat ground and in 17 MPH winds (gusting to 23 MPH or so) the old truck got 3.5-5 MPG and got the crap kicked out of us in the wind. This truck is super stable. The trailer blew around a little, but the truck was very stable.