HoosierZ

Got parts to knock one thing off my list. Eibach Pro Truck lift and 2” rear blocks. Waiting for warmer weather to install.

I believe all tires in a 275/70/18 are E rated (10ply). There are some 265/70/18s in a Standard load which is basically C rated (6 ply). Narrow tires are definitely better in snow. I run 265/70/18 E rated General AXT on my ‘16 Silverado in the winter and on my ‘08 Silverado I ran 265/70/18 Standard Load Cooper AT3 in the winter.

This showed up today. Probably wait for warmer weather to install them. Also got some Motofab 2” blocks for the rear. I’m gonna run the stock UCA for now and probably buy aftermarket arms when the upper ball joints wear out. My 2016 has the aluminum control arms.

He didn’t speak highly of them. He bought them when they first came out. The first set he bought were 3 function, low, high, strobe. Sometimes, not all 5 would come on and they would get out of sync with the remote so that some would be on low, some on high, some on strobe. He sent them back and exchanged them for single function lights. They claim to have 12 hrs of run time on a full charge. He says some of his only run for 2 hrs, none last 12 hrs. Sometimes his don’t even last for his 10 min drive to work. That’s after sitting in the sun at work all day the previous day. His have tinted lenses so I’m sure that affects the solar charging some.

Guy at work put them on his Dodge. I’ll ask how he likes them and how they’re holding up.

Noticed my front left tire looked like it had a little more negative camber than the right tire. Checked it with my homemade digital camber gauge and found it was -0.6 deg. Right side was only -0.1 deg. Adjusted the left side to -0.1 deg and reset the toe with my fishing line and jack stand alignment “rack”. It takes a while to get it setup so that the lines are parallel to each other and inline with the truck, but once it is, it’s as simple as measuring from the line to the trailing and leading edges of the front wheels to set the toe. I always aim for 1-32”-1/16” total toe-in measured at the wheels. I haven’t paid for an alignment in years. My trucks drive straight down the road if I let go of the wheel and the tires wear evenly.

I used Valvoline Dexron VI. Menards had it for $5/qt. It’s $10/qt at all of the local parts stores. Pump as much fluid as you can out of the dipstick tube. Way less messy that way than dropping the pan and wearing trans fluid. I added a drain to the pan while it was off.

When my Ranchos rusted all to hell after the first winter, I pulled them off, cut the pink boots off, sanded and painted the shocks black, and put on some black bellows style boots.

I also use the rust reformer to touch up the rust spots, and then, I hit those spots with Rustoleum Pro Grade undercoating. Boxed frames usually rust through from the inside since they hold moisture and they can’t be re-coated inside. A friend recently had to park his 2000 Silverado due to the frame rusting through from the inside. He had coated the frame with POR15 several years ago. After researching different fluids to prevent rust, I decided to use ATF to coat the inside of my frame and cross members. It’s thin enough to spray without thinning and it appears to contain corrosion inhibitors. From the places it got on the outside of the frame, it seems to wick and spread fairly well which means it should do a good job of coating places not directly sprayed. I used an old bottle of Dexron III that I wasn’t going to use anyway. To spray the ATF, I used a rechargeable sprayer that is pressurized with compressed air. I used a 2 ft spray tube that came with the cans of cavity wax that I sprayed inside my doors, rockers, fenders, tailgate. There are enough holes in the frame that I believe the entire frame is coated inside. The ATF seems to be friendly to the factory coating as I have seen no evidence of it pealing or softening as I’ve heard mentioned from folks using Fluid Film. Time will tell if my small investment in time and money was worth it as I plan to keep this truck for a while.

My truck had a ticking and creaking sound in the same area. If you push on the trim in that area does it stop making noise? Mine ended up being the plastic rubbing together where the A pillar trim meets the dash top trim. The A pillar trim fits down into a slot in the dash trim. I pulled both A pillar pieces and the dash top piece out and used some thin adhesive backed foam tape to cover any places where there was contact between the trim pieces. The factory does a pretty good job of putting a felt type material where pieces may rub, but that is one of the areas they missed.

‘88-‘98 GM, ‘94+ Dodge, ‘97+ Ford. Rarely see any older than that living in the rust belt. There are a few nice square body GM trucks in my neighborhood because there’s a local farmer that buys them from out west and re-sells them. He has a really nice black ‘80s big block 1 ton 4wd. Another guy up the road has a nice 2 tone brown and tan 1 ton 4wd that looks similar to the truck from the old show Fall Guy.

Nice clean install as usual.

Does the fan stop or does it keep running and no air comes out of the vents?

Blends in nicely

Coated the box with spray-can bedliner. When it warms up in the spring, it needs a few more coats.