tnchevy

I think you put too much trust in what GM tells you. There is no such thing as "better quality" tires that GM keeps over what Good Year factory produces and never trust the dealership to do anything right. The SRA's are some of the cheapest tires out there for a reason but GY does make some excellent tires but like most things in life they will cost you more.

The touch screen in my 14 has always pretty much sucked. It is not very sensitive, likes to randomly freeze, backup camera stays on even after in drive, and one that bothers me the most is my album art for my mp3's only about half show up. My 18 company truck is a base WT model with a 7 inch screen that is very responsive, does not freeze up, and shows all album art on the usb drive all the time so that shows you how much they have improved over the last 5 years!

The 99 to 06 are a proven truck but as mentioned earlier, you don't know who had hold of it before so going the used route may or may not work out. If you have the dough I would just trade it in on a new truck but if you really like your truck then get a new trans put in it and hopefully get 4 or 5 years more out of it before any other major problem.

I drive a 2014 dbl cab with the 5.3 as my personal truck but I drive a 2018 dbl cab/5.3 as my take home work truck. IMO the 2014-15's look better but my 2018 work truck rides better, has better throttle response, and after 6 months still does not have any annoying popping sounds or weird electronic anomaly's that my 14 has. Like someone mentioned before, stay away from a first year release! I guess the 19 is only half of a true re-design so maybe it won't have as many bugs the 14's had in them.

For drinkable water just carry some iodine tablets or a small water filtration unit, both take up little to no room. As far as your battery goes my work trucks have always had a dual battery setup because we have winches on both the front and rear of our company trucks due to the large amounts of time myself and the other guys/gals I work with are offroad plus we have a radio communications system installed in some trucks. I got a 2018 silvy to replace my 2015 F150 back in the summer and it only has one battery this go around and I have been fine. I only run the winches with the truck running and these newer radio systems do not use up near the electricity they used to but if I forget to turn my radio system off at night I will have a near dead or dead battery the next day.

My 14 has tons of pops, cracks, rattles, etc that have been there within a year of when I bought my 14. Some I have remedied on my own, some the dealer fixed under warranty, others I just live with. My 18 work truck that I have had for 6 months now has now creeking and popping sounds yet, again I will never buy a first year model of anything again. It didn't help that my 14 is just not a new year model but that is was made in the first month of production!

I will agree with you on the Colorado ZR2 but not the Trailboss. The Trailboss has nothing special going on with it that you can't easily do to any half ton silverado/sierra. The front has bigger/longer strut assemblies which a spacer kit (though not ideal) will get you the same front lift and anybody can put a set of 33 inch tires on any silverado after that so it is not a huge step forward from any other 4x4 silvy/sierra out there. I have owned an 82, 92, 02, and now 14 plus many company silverados over the years that I drive off road on a daily basis and I am currently in a 2018 silvy. After all these trucks I can tell you they are much nicer as far as technology and power goes but they are just getting worse in the off-road department which is not GM's fault really since they make these trucks for what the average full size truck customer wants which is the look of a 4x4 but the gas mileage of a prius. The trailboss is heading in the right direction but it has a way to go before it gets there. The problem is that with the older trucks (800's and back) you had plenty of approach angle which is what matters the most when going off road because gas mileage was not a huge issue. When GM trucks got worse was with the 2007 and on models when the front end was made to almost drag ground for gas mileage reasons and you had to put a 2 inch spacer kit on them to try and get the same approach angle you got with a stock 4x4 from 2006 and back. As I have mentioned before, I drive off road and get paid for it on a near daily basis and have been doing it with stock 4x4 trucks for over 20 years and never had a problem till our company started getting the 07 and up silvys and soon after the Rams. The ford half tons were alright because their bumpers are still regular height with the air dam tucked under but I am afraid they are heading towards lower front ends for mpg reasons.

My 14 does the same thing. I have weird beeps, a strange static noise that come out of my speakers when I open the door, and a backup camera that likes to stay on when the truck is in Drive. These three things are intermittent but have been going on for the last 4 years. The joys of buying an early build of a brand new design truck! I have an 18 base model as my take home company truck and it has none of these issues.

I don't know the age of the posters on this thread but I have been around long enough to have owned an 82, 92, 02, and now my 14 silverados. Each time a new design came out I was always a little hesitant. The only design I never liked and still do not like was when the gave the 800 series the face lift for the 03-06 models. That "cat eye" headlight design was just terrible IMO. I am also not a big fan of the 07-13 models either. I have stopped by the lots and looked at the 2019 and I do not think it is all that terrible but I do not think it is all that great either. After owning a GM truck from 4 different decades (and driving them for 10 years or more) I have found that they just don't make them like they used to. I live in a rural area, do a little huntin', help family and friends on their farms, etc. and the sad fact is that the half ton GM trucks made after 2006 are just not up to par as the older models as far as their "off road" capabilities. Just not enough front end approach angles and the trucks are just getting to big in overall size. The way things are going I will probably be in a Tacoma for my next truck because the size is close to what an old half ton used to be and their off road capabilities are much better.

Either your truck radio doesn't offer HD or you don't have it turned on. My suggestion would be to get your owners manual out and read up on it.

I have to carry one in my work trucks but I have never mounted one, just put it under the back seat. My last two work trucks were Fords that have a flat floorboard with indention's under the seat that held the extinguisher in place pretty good. The downside to the backseat, at least the double cabs, is that the floor board is not flat and the extinguisher will just slide out from under the seat. My solution for now was to put the extinguisher in a small rectangle box under the seat.

They both put your suspension (ball joints, cv angles) past stock angles which lead to premature wear, its not that complicated.

The 5100's are just as bad for your front suspension as the spacers were. A true lift would be better.

Or you could go with a 285/65 18" if you want. I don't think I have ever seen a 265/70 mainly because most go for looks over function and that size will be tall and skinny looking. The 285/65 will give you the same height (32.6") but a wider foot print and will look much better on the truck and will still fit on your stock rims.

Not sure but other factors can come into play like a colder than normal winter or higher percentage of in town driving than highway. When ever I haul heavy loads or pull a trailer I don't put that tank of gas into my spreadsheet as to not skew the numbers to bad. Could just be the nature of a DI engine but don't really know.