Grumpy Bears 2015 Silverado 2WD

[Grumpy Bear]

So Steve (post #3) got me thinking. As I had to go to the Chevy store anyway to get more panel plugs lost during the bed liner/rustproofing spay I checked into the black bowtie. YIKES!!!!! I had every dent in it removed for less than that. Sorry Steve. I liked the idea but have better things to spend that kind of money on. No hundred dollar bills around here I can light a match to. Sorry.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Grumpy Bear

[cbrsilv15]

You can upgrade the shocks to handle a little better. Lots of guys go with the Bilstein 5100's and 4600's. 4600 for street and 5100 for offroad. Once again though, it's a truck. Comparing it to an suv is like apples to oranges. A work truck is designed to do just that, work.

[Grumpy Bear]

Removing the SILVERADO badges from the doors. Dental floss or fishing line separates the letter from the panel without denting it or marring the paint. Fingernail to peal the tape off. A wood popsicle stick would work too. An old cotton tube sock & Mineral Spirits gets the glue off. Perfect-It II then reseal the paint. I like the look but more importantly it makes cleaning and waxing easier. That was my main goal. For now the tailgate badge and lettering stays.

 

[Grumpy Bear]

You can upgrade the shocks to handle a little better. Lots of guys go with the Bilstein 5100's and 4600's. 4600 for street and 5100 for offroad. Once again though, it's a truck. Comparing it to an suv is like apples to oranges. A work truck is designed to do just that, work.

 

I rode in my late brother-in-laws Baja competition half ton about 25 years ago. I expected to be beaten like a ball bearing in a coffee can mounted in a paint shaker as he traversed 3 foot moguls at 100 mph crossing the Arizona desert. Instead I could have been drinking a cuppa tea. A co-worker drag races his. Back half four link. I wouldn't haul a sack of peanuts in it but it will haul the mail. Just not around corners. Lonnie shows his. Real trailer Queen. Local body shop runs his asphalt circle track and his brother road races the shop truck when he's not shagging parts. Stadium racing is popular and people even pull with them. What they are designed to do isn't often what they end up doing.

 

This is a daily driver with the accent on "drive". I'll figure it out. I found Addco (re-found) . I used these guys decades ago to sort my gymkhana Corvette. Didn't know they were still in business.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Grumpy Bear

[Grumpy Bear]

Fender plugs came it today. Paid the fiddler for the fender work and replaced the missing plugs. Rained today and as I work outside a rather dull day.

 

I did make it to Johnsons tinting to make the appointment for tint and a clear bra, door handle protectors and still guards. Of course I want what he ain't got so it's ordered and on the calendar for first week-ish of September. 3M Ceramic tint with a the highest percentage of UV and Infrared locking. Limo black back light and 6" visor. Darkest legal tint side glass.

[Grumpy Bear]

They tell me my no drill Weather Tech mud flaps came in. (Sigh). Work is piling up. Those storms last night were tornados in Indiana. Hope everyone there is safe, well and warm.

 

Current work list:

 

1.) Finish shaving the body.

2.) Finish the paint sealing

3.) Seam seal the fender seams and cab corners. (missing plugs installed today)

4.) Finish and touch up the undercoating.

5.) Tire rotation and balance checks, oil change.

6.) Window tinting

7.) Paint clear chip masking

[Grumpy Bear]

Got the Silverado off the drivers door today. Rubbed out and sealed. Did allot of reading both on this blog and the videos they pointed to. Distilled down I was on the right path and preaching to the choir here. My bad. There is a great deal to be said for technique. Floss for instance sawed works much better than drawn. A soaked WD-40 rag held a few minutes on the remaining tape really eases removal as does pulling the edge of the tape up and back 45 degrees. Getting as much of the tape off as possible before using the Goo-gone or Mineral spirits saves tons of rubbing. There is nothing better than good oblique light. Perfect-It II on a microfiber rag is still king for removing the ghost. Which is glue in the recesses of the orange peel. Keep at it until the ghost is gone in low angle light then wax or seal. This one took half the time the passenger side took.

 

Late add. I know I said the tailgate badges would stay. The Silverado is now gone. Wife isn't happy but.....I like it. Bowtie remains.

 

Did I mention that the paint is so thin on these things now that Victory Red is really more tangerine? About a half dozen shades lighter than Dads truck and at least that many lighter than the touchup paint.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Grumpy Bear

[Grumpy Bear]

WeatherTech no drill mud flaps 110035 Front, 120035 back. They fit over the factory protectors. 20 minutes tops. T-15 Torx bit and Allen provided. Silverado off tailgate. Done last night but there is the photo.

 

Visually I think this takes some "space" away between the truck and earth. A visual drop if you will.

Edited August 26, 2016 by Grumpy Bear

[cbrsilv15]

Ever thought about the painted handles/mirror caps and a chrome/painted grille? Just to change up the WT look. It's coming along nicely though. I removed my silverado badges from the doors 2 weeks ago. I got tired of the trapped dirt between the letters and the wool mitt leaving fuzz when it caught the letters.

 

I would be very careful in using mineral spirits on the clear coat or any painted surface in the future. Spend $10 and get an eraser wheel. It'll save a ton of time and safe for the paint. I got mine at my local auto body supply store. It's not a 3m brand, but works just as good and 1/3 of the price.

[Grumpy Bear]

Painted trim? Yes Matt, I will play with that idea. Interesting. Chrome however I don't see happening. Polished metal perhaps but chrome isn't what chrome was. Especially on plastic. Most of it I see is pealing. I was thinking, in fact, of removing the chrome from the Bowties until I saw one today. Black tie on the black grill. Didn't hide it like I thought it might. Looked awful IMHO.

 

On another note. Took a 250 mile trip today. Go see my son, enjoy the day, et cetera. Collected another piece of data exploring driving style vs mpg and computer vs hand calculations. Trip netted 28.2 mpg miles/fuel and 31.1 mpg GM meter. Drive style was gezzer mode. In other words keeping the AFM in four cylinder mode as much as possible. This about the third attempt at this mode on three different circuits I have laid out. 28.2 - 28.8 mpg. In my "Just Drive" mode it's returning the EPA claimed 24 ish. Read that 24 - 25. Understand that I live in a semi rural area where everything is 15 miles to any town of size from here. Even the smaller hamlets are 2 to 5 miles away so city driving is rare in the EPA sense of the term.

 

So what is gezzer mode? 55-60 Interstate. 50 primary roads. 45 secondary roads and limit in construction, church and so on areas. Easy acceleration and braking at a distance. In J"ust drive It mode" is legal speed limits. Around here that is 70 mph interstate, 55 primary and secondary. Moderate acceleration and still I brake at a distance. I can see the sign.

 

So gezzer mode is worth nearly a 20% increase. I don't drive like that with the wife aboard. Does that require and explanation?

 

I have two products I've taken an interest in. Range AFM + and the Black Bear Performance TCM flash. I don't need a tune. I need the AFM to stay on a higher percentage of the time and I need the transmission to shift correctly. That active torque management drives me crazy at light throttle and low loads where is acts like slipping Powerglide. I'm thinking with a few tweaks I can get about 30 mpg with a more aggressive driving style. Keeps the Mrs. and I both happy.

 

If anyone has real world results from either produce I would love to hear from you.

 

Lastly. To torment the wife I stopped a took a snap of Pepper in 2016 trim. I think it's pretty. The wife likes Pepper better.

Edited August 28, 2016 by Grumpy Bear

[Grumpy Bear]

Caveat Emptor. Slept on this painted trim idea. Gave it a look in photo mockups. Realized that these areas, grill, door handles, bumpers et cetera that are now in easy to maintain black plastic are some of the most high wear areas on a vehicle. Bugs, stones, rings, fingernails all on the assault. There are additional 3M clear protector items to cover them which is already in the works for the hood, front fender edges, lower door area and door handle cups at a cost of a couple hundred dollars.

 

​Buying the parts pre-painted from GM cost more than what having them painted would cost. Having them painted isn't cheap and has the truck out of commission for some time. Overlays for some of the work is possible. Mirrors and handles attached with tape. Not liking that idea either.

 

So to do the project would cost me dearly. To protect the project almost doubles the cost. To protect the work defeats the intended result. I like the current look as does the wife. She actually prefers it to the 2016's look which in the end is much as Matt suggested. If I paint them there is no going back. If I overlay them ???? If I buy replacement items I store the old or sell those?

 

​Personally one item did agree with my eye. The part between the grill and bumper is begging for it. I'll look into it.

[cbrsilv15]

The bumper trim would be a good place to start with painting it body color. Once you see it painted red though, there's no stopping from there. Lol. You will want the black headlight trim and grille painted as well. the mirror caps and handles can be purchased cheaper than you can paint them. Obviously this has more done to it, but you can get the point.

 

 

 

 

My truck is black and after seeing this truck with the painted grille and headlight trim, mine will have this look also. I will do the paint work myself to save costs though.

 

Edited August 28, 2016 by cbrsilv15

[Grumpy Bear]

Geezer Mode is Hypermiling I’m told. Hum. New term very old practice. Was part of Dad’s basic driving instructions 45+ years ago.

 

I was going to buy a Range Technology + unit to put old girl in V4 mode a larger portion of the time. I’m pretty good at extracting big numbers…I thought. Six decades later and I still get “schooled” from time to time.

 

I looked at allot of data display systems and a good number of them are add on to chips or other forms of ECM management alteration software. Not what I wanted. Not now anyway.

 

Scan Gauge II is what I bought.

 

Did the install and calibrations and off to market we went. I mentioned getting schooled right? What felt like light throttle and is compared to many was costing me about 3.5 mpg. Yea, First use has upped the mileage from 28.5 to almost 32. Recall the EPA number is 24 highway. TPS signal drop of just 3% which is almost impossible to detect by tactile sense. That's a dead on 33% increase just as the packaging says. 12% better than my best effort to date.

 

Off to do some more testing. Back later with some photos.

 

http://media.gmc.com/media/us/en/gmc/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2013/May/0516-gmc-pickup-aero.html

 

While I’m out give the above link a read. Right from the GM wind tunnel.

 

Ordered a DeeZee gate assist today as well.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Grumpy Bear

[Grumpy Bear]

This scan tool works by giving eyes into the ECU which in turn reprograms your noggin and right hoof. Hopefully. The second test was during some pretty poor weather. Raining pitchforks and hammer handles with a nice tropical breeze tossed in for good measure. 31mpg and change for a 175 mile loop. Air temperature was 15 degrees cooler which in turn lowered the running pressure in the tires a few pounds.

The instructions have a long term calibration which requires inputting the actual fuel loaded vs the fuel used. I will keep on this until I have a better set of numbers and report back from time to time. It is a longer term endeavor.

At this point what I know for sure is:

1. Tool use has improved the result.
2. Comparisons between the scan tool and trucks read out say the tool is much, much closer to the real number. Now we fine tune.
3. Tool readings are closer than all dash displayed information. That said the fuel information screen is the most out of whack. Tach is very close. Water temp is also good. Speedometer is dead nuts to the scan tool and my Tom-Tom GPS measurements and a local traffic radar.

I’m going to add the X-gauge AFR meter to the display in the next day or two to replace the MAP gauge.

Edited August 30, 2016 by Grumpy Bear

[Grumpy Bear]

20 to 24 mpg is what people are reporting at fueleonomy.gov for the 2015 Silverado 1500 4.3 Ecotec3 for highway driving. A bit shy of the EPA 24 on average. It's a common complaint. Not meeting the EPA numbers.

 

On this 450 + mile calibration cycle the trucks meter showed 33.5 mpg. The un-calibrated out of the box Linier Logic Scan Gauge II showed 32.1 mpg (photo) and the calculated mileage was 30.15 mpg. Yes, I drove nearly the entire distance at 50 mph slowing for town and construction zone lower limits. One trip to 60 mph for about a mile to get a second data point for the mph corrections.

 

The trucks meter is 11% happy and the Scan Gauge 3%. I entered the correction at fill up to reflect the actual fuel used VS the calculated use. I'll do the same for velocity and distance checked against both mile markers and GPS. I know they are real close as it has been radar checked. Lacking a decimal the two gauges seem about 1% apart reading the same sometimes and 1 mpg different others. Over the distance there was under 3 miles difference with the Scan gauge showing the lower value. 1% is the minimum correction that can be entered.

 

Closer numbers indicate Pepper is 25.6% over EPA. Earlier post number was based on the meters shown difference and the assumption is was closer than it was.

 

That a given it's still 37% higher than the government reporting average and 6% better than my previous best hand calculated numbers. I am not unhappy with this. I'll continue to tweak calibrations until it's as close as I can get it and repeatable over several cycles giving me a tuning basis. I'll continue tweaking my driving as well.

 

I did attempt the AFR X-gauge install and while it took the coding it failed to produce a working output. 5800 miles on it now and needs a cleaning. Been raining every day for some time now.

 

I am not a true Hypermiler. There are many things I will not do. Like draft within 200 feet. I like my trucks finish. Windows up, air conditioning and vent fans off on a muggy 85 degree day. I like my comfort. Buying half worn out tires second hand or tread shaving to reduce rolling friction. I like my safety. Dead sticking. I don't lag lead drive the speed set point and am on cruise control when I feel it is most efficient which is most of the time. What I will do is bargain hunt. There is a low TPS/MAP fuel cut off that can be tricked on down hills of sufficient grade and when entering small towns or approaching stop signs. There's a sweet spot combination of TPS and MAP that keeps the AFM engaged longer and/or more often. I correct tire pressures when there is more than a 10 difference in the days peak temperature. I don't over inflate. It rides rough enough although Iowa does have better roads than Illinois on average.