Wintersun

25% of what is in a gallon of diesel motor oil is the additive mix which is needed due to the harsher operating conditions with a diesel engine. Some motor oils like Redline and Valvoline have a great additive mix and others like Amsoil have a very poor additive mix and far worse to use than others that sell for a third as much. Diesel and gas engines changed a great deal with the 2017 model years and require special motor oil for best performance and longevity. The API SP oils for gas engines provide a great deal more protection at very low viscosity. The engine manufacturers worked for several years with the majro oil companies to meet the new federal requirements without shortening engine life. The AC Delco DexosD 0W-20 diesel engine oil can be bought on Amazon as a kit that includes the oil filter. At $82 is expensive but then one does not buy a diesel truck to save money. https://www.amazon.com/19370138-10-9277-55495105-19391402-Duramax/dp/B08BS5HD1P

DEF consumption should be 1 to 1.5 percent of the diesel burned. If the truck burns 100 gallons of diesel then it should not use more than 1.5 gallons of DEF. The computer relies on NOx sensors to determine how much DEF to add to the exhaust stream from the engine. If the sensor is failing or the programming is not done correctly then the DEF consumption can increase dramatically. I also found with my Duramax that the error codes were always incorrect which was the result of flawed controller programming by the kids at General Motors. Out of 6 Chevy dealers I was only able to find one dealer with one mechanic who actually knew how to diagnose problems with the diesel DEF systems. My truck was manufactured in 2011 and clearly GM has not improved their sensors and their programming since that time. I had the truck go into limp mode 4 times while more than 1000 miles from my house. I stopped using the truck for travel as it was not reliable.

If the factory leaf springs cannot support the load then add a set of SuperSprings to increase their load capacity. I put a double leaf set on my 2500HD and increased the payload from the factory leaf springs 2800 lbs to over 4,000 lbs. With a 4,000 lb camper or 3,000 lbs of concrete sacks in the bed the truck was perfectly level. It cost me $445 for the springs with shipping and it took less than an hour to put them on the truck. With the Supersprings there is nothing to fail and nothing to adjust - ever. No load and the factory springs support the bed. Add a load and the SuperSprings help carry the load. The only situation where air bags might be worth the hastle and reliability concerns would be if pulling a 5th wheel trailer and needing an exact bed height.

I recently sold my 2500 Duramax and used it to tow a 13,000 boat trailer and to haul a 4,000 lb slide in camper. I got 30% more range on a tank of diesel as compared to a gas V-8 and that along with the added power for safely merging with traffic or pulling a grade and getting past big rigs, made the added cost of ownership worth it. Now that the boat and camper have been sold I have no need for a diesel engine. The expensive repairs tend to be the injectors and the EGR valve and the turbo and the DEF components. If an extended warranty would not cover those items then it is a waste of money. The increased fuel economy will never be enough of a dollar savings to cover the much higher maintenance costs of a diesel engine in a pickup. Overall the diesel engines have more components that can fail without warning and leave on stuck by the side of the road. I had 3 vacation trips cut short due to problems with the emissions control systems that put the truck into limp mode. Try merging with freeway traffic when the computer is keeping the maximum speed to 55 mph - it can't be done. The key advantage of the diesel engine in the Silverado 1500 is that you can get a larger fuel tank from Titan to replace the stock tank. With the gas engine one is stuck with the small 24 gallon gas tank which cannot be upgraded.

The sports bar is the optimum location for high power offroad lights but when I had them on my truck a CHP officer pulled me over and was going to give me a ticket. I showed him that the wires from the lights were physically disconnected and the lights not operable and he let me go. The CHP is very lax at enforcing the vehicular code these days with regard to modified trucks so it may not be a problem. If I was putting a set on my truck today I would use Nelson connectors.

Timbrens only serve to limit axle travel and do not help manage the payload. Sumo Springs have a 2-year warranty which is not encouraging. Air bags are great if you are towing a 5th wheel trailer and need to adjust the exact height of the bed. For underperforming factory leaf springs the simple solution and also the most effective is to add a set of SuperSprings to the rear leaf packs for the truck. It took me less than an hour to add a set to my truck and the truck tires were on the ground the entire time. The SuperSprings will outlast the truck and never need to be adjusted or repaired or replaced.

With a auto extended service warranty it pays to shop around and there is nothing to be gained in buying one before the factory warranty expires. With a diesel engine the parts that are not covered by the drivetrain warranty and an injector rebuild alone will cost more than $2,000. Add in the cost to replace the water pump or the EGR or fuel pump and the value of an extended warranty is a no brainer and part of the reason why a diesel will never save its owner money when compared to the total operating cost for the same vehicle with a gas engine.

If one manufacturer does not have what I need then I go to another manufacturer. I have owned trucks from Willys, Dodge, Ford, Chevy, and Toyota, depending on what I needed at the time and what was available. Last month I sold my 2500 with the diesel engine and the 36 gallon fuel tank. I plan to buy a 1500 pickup with a gas engine. My first three vehicles were Willys and with their small gas tank any backcountry travel meant bolting on a couple of 5 gallon jerry cans. Go out into the deserts or the forests and there are no gas stations around and you need to take enough gas to get out and to get back. And crawling along on trails the miles per gallon is going to be worse than city miles per gallon with any truck. In terms of gas tank capacity I can go with GM and have a 24 gallon tank or with Ram and have a 33 gallon gas tank or Ford and get a 36 gallon gas tank or with Toyota and get a 38 gallon gas tank. With a diesel engine I could replace the factory tank with one from Titan but this is not an option with a gas engine. For me the GM 1500 pickups are off the list and my next pickup is going to be from Ram or Toyota. Ram also provides an electronic locking rear differential which is icing on the cake.

Usually the limiting factor for the payload of a pickup truck is the tires on the rear wheels. The ones from the factory for my truck were rated at 3095 lbs and I replaced them with ones rated at 3750 lbs and gained 1300 lbs payload capacity at the rear. Then the limitation was the leaf springs and so I added SuperSprings. There is no tooth fairy and there are no weight police - sorry to burst anyone's bubble. I wear a seat belt not out of fear of getting a ticket but out of concern for my life and the same applies to how I set up a vehicle for towing.

With a diesel engine the type of driving is more important than the miles driven. Diesel is a very dirty fuel as compared to gasoline and even with 98.7% filtration there are still 240,000 particles that get past the filter media and hit the injector solenoids at very high pressure and some of these get into the motor oil. Someone who drives mostly short trips of less than 30 minutes duration is going to need the oil changed much sooner than a truck that is driven mostly on the highway with trips of an hour or more in duration. Consider the first situation and driving on average at 30 mph as compared to the second situation with an average speed of 60 mph. The first truck driven for 6,000 miles will have 200 engine hours as compared to the second truck with 100 engine hours and the first truck's engine will have been driven with the engine cold for a much greater percentage of the time. The DIC determines oil changes based on driving pattern for that vehicle and is a better indicator than an abstract number. In addition with modern engines and modern motor oils, especially those that meet the new API SP specification, hold up far better and even truck fleet operators are greatly extending change intervals for their trucks.

Very difficult for base oil stocks to meet the new API SP specification that applies to 2017 and later engines. A few engines can take a dino synthetic blend if the viscosity specs are high enough. When it comes to a 0W-XX motor oil it takes synthetic oil to meed the API SP specification. Any motor oil for a gas engine that meets this spec which is shown on the container, is going to be as good as any other motor oil despite all the advertising from people like those at Amsoil.

It took me about an hour to add the Big Wig anti-sway bar to the truck and I did it with the truck's wheels on the ground. If you have the tools it is a very easy install, and actually a lot easier than replacing the shocks on the truck. I replaced the factory shocks with Rancho XL adjustable shocks so I could change the shock settings depending on whether the bed is empty or has a very heavy load. Takes me 10 seconds to change the rear shock settings with a twist of the valve dial on the side of the shock. Even with 4,000 lbs in the bed the shocks perform very well and then when the load is off the bed I dial down the settings for the rear shocks. Once I got the front shocks set they are not changed as only 10% of the load in the bed is supported by the front wheels.

With the Chevy 2500 trucks one gets a 36 gallon fuel tank and that is plenty. With the 1500 trucks one is stuck with a tiny 24 gallon fuel tank as GM provides no big tank options unlike Ram and Ford and with Toyota Tundras the stock fuel tank is 38 gallon capacity. One good thing is that Titan makes replacement diesel fuel tanks so you can replace the factory fuel tank on a 1500 pickup with a larger capacity one and keep your fuel under the truck. With my 2500 diesel the mpg when towing was 11-13 mpg as compared to 7-9 mpg for those with gas V-8 engines. That translated into an additional 140 miles of driving range between fuel stops. Unless you add a cap to the truck whatever is in the bed has a good chance of going walkabout, including a 5-gallon jerry can.

I have had so many problems with my LML Duramax engine that I stopped using it for long trips. With some emissions related problems I could go to 4 different dealers and the problem would not be fixed. Finally found a fifth dealer with a competent mechanic to fix the problems with the first visit. There are problems with the sensors (NOx, DEF tank, DEF warmer, DEF pump, and with the wiring harness and with the programming that tries to diagnose problems. Three vacation trips in a row had to be cancelled due to emission controls problems. Very few mechanics have any ability to troubleshoot the problems and depend 100% on an error code to know where to start. Many of the problems are bugs in the code, for example my truck went into limp mode and the error code indicated that the DEF tank was empty when it actually was 100% full. Only option was to drive at 55 mph a couple hundred miles back to my house. Driving on an interstate at 55mph and trying to safely merge with traffic, including the tractor trailer rigs are doing 70mph, is dangerous. I will never own a vehicle that puts myself and my passengers at risk with "limp modes".

From having owned a 2011 Duramax with the LML engine for the past 9 years I can say that problems are seledom resolved within a model year and fixes are provided with the next year's production. Many examples of this happening if you check the specific engine problems by model year. At this point in time it would be smarter and safer to buy a 2021 model truck.