[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.

[CrashTestDummy]

Sounds like you're enjoying the thing!! I don't remember what the mileage on ours was when we did tires, but it certainly was more than 8500, even though, like yours, the truck usually had a trailer with a 3000# car on it attached to the hitch. That's awesome mileage!! I drive like an old man, and was 'only' getting high-teens MPG in our 2500. Note that the mileage did drop notably when we changed the tires. I opted for the next size up, and went from GY to Michelin. The larger size really punched the MPG in the nards.

When doing the bump stops on the B4C, I also noted how hard it was for me to lift the tires back into place. I can usually just leverage the tire between my legs and arms and boom, it's on, but really struggled with both of them this time. I guess I need to spend more time in the shop doing stuff, as I seem to have lost my touch, too, and these tires don't weigh anywhere near 100 lbs. That was one of the deciding factors on taking the bus to a shop to have PM and the rear shocks put on. I figured we could get the wheels off, which is necessary to get to the rear shocks, but would probably not be successful getting them back on, even with our tire lift, and then we'd be stuck with a bus on jack stands in the shop forever.

I think gravity is getting stronger as time passes. Yep, that's my theory!!