UofAZCats

Don't know much about re-gearing other than I hear that upsizing from 3.08 to 3.42 would improve performance and from what I can tell reading this thread that gas milage improves. Are there drawbacks? I don't tow often. Is there a recommended brand? Cost to install? TIA

I don't have an answer for you on this but thought I would mention there is sub-forum for Audio that might get you a response. https://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/forum/28-audio-electronics-onstar-mylink-intellilink-siriusxm/

Installed Speed Engineering traction bars on the truck today. Actually started last night and finished today. Like everything the first side takes the longest and second side went pretty dang smooth. On these traction bars you end up drilling through the leaf spring to help secure that end. I started that but din't make much progress on that part before deciding to come back to that some time in the future when I had more patience. I was hoping that it would eliminate the vibrations I get around 68-73 mph. While it didn't eliminate the vibrations, they were reduced. It certainly feels more planted when I launch.

Black and red is definitely a great combo. Definitely don't need chrome in the mix to look great.

Agree with CamGTP with the exception that the drop shackle being in the hole farthest from the hanger means it is in its highest setting and it could be lowered by putting it in the hole closer to the hanger or even more by putting in the factory shackle. As it is currently configured you are probably getting a 4-5" drop (depending on which truck - CC, EC or RC) which is typical with a flip kit and the full 2" drop shackle. With factory shackle you can usually get about 6-7" drop on the rear. There is a lot of space between the axle and bed and if lowered the two would get closer to the point that you would really need to install a c-notch to go lower. There is an excellent thread on Lowering that is pinned in the Mod portion of the forum whihc has a lot of information. It is great area to ask questions like this one.

The exterior trim on the truck always kind of annoyed me. Not sure why GM chose to ship these trucks with dark gray colored exterior trim. On my red/black truck it always struck me as wrong. I really like what they are doing now on the premium versions, particularly the red line edition GM vehicles where the trim is a smooth, gloss black. I had been researching had to either buy new black trim or to re-color it. I couldn’t find any good replacement trim for sale so re-coloring was the way to go. I tried using Solution Finish to darken the trim. I really love Solution Finish because it did a great job, when combined with Cerakote, on the trim of my 2005 Suburban. In this case though, Solution Finish did not darken the trim color. So I moved on to painting the trim. After looking at a bunch of YouTube videos ranging from useful to low quality, I found a guy, Monty Crisp, on Lowered GM Fullsize Facebook group that does this type of work in Georgia. Not having the time or energy to drive to Georgia to have him perform the work, he was good enough to give a quick explanation of how to paint the trim. He has his own shop and the pictures of his truck and its trim look phenomenal. Armed with his advice and the YouTube input I decided to give painting a try. Having a shop Monty has access to better painting tools than I do. I don’t have an air compressor, paint booth or any other fancy tools so I had to do it with rattle cans. For the most part I used paint and supplies from local auto parts places. I did order a couple of items from Amazon, including a can of SEM Trim Gloss Black paint. The items I used changed as I went along as I found different options at different stores. The following ware the items I used: Sand paper 180, 600, 800, 1000, 1500 and 2000 3M 7447 Scuff Pad Blue Hawk Painters Tape Tape and Drape 6’ Disposable gloves Adam’s Polishes All-Purpose Cleaner mixed with water Tack Cloth Dupli-Color Plastic Adhesion Promoter Dupli-Color Primer Sealer SEM Trim Gloss Black Paint Raptor 1K Gloss Black Steps: 1 – Removed the trim around the wheels from the truck, which required removing the wheels. I did them one at a time because I didn’t want to put the truck up on jack stands for the length of the project. I took this trim off because I didn’t want to mask and paint all of that on the truck. It took a while but it made the process easier with those smaller trim pieces. I did not take the bumper trim off. I wasn’t interested in taking the bumpers off. 2 – Sanded the front bumper trim with 180 grit sandpaper. I followed up with 800 grit and then 1500 grit. The 800 and 1500 were probably not needed but I wanted to get the front bumper trim as smooth as possible. The back bumper has more pronounced texture and that I did not want to remove since it is a safety feature (and it would have taken a lot of work). All sanding was done by hand. As with the rear bumper trim, I was not interested in removing the texture from the wheel trim so I used the scuff pad as part of the next step. 3 – Cleaned everything down with All-Purpose mixed with water. Once clean the plastic has a dull gray color due to the sanding. 4 – Masked up the front and rear bumper. This always takes longer than I want. 5 – Applied adhesion promoter to the plastic. I followed the directions but Duplicolor uses the same basic directions regarding coats – 2 light coats and 3rd medium cost. With the adhesion promoter I am not sure that isn’t too much or maybe I just put it on too heavy. 6 – Applied sealer within 10 minutes of applying the adhesion promoter. Same coating directions as the adhesion promoter. After putting it on I noticed that the surfaces that were sanded smooth on the bumper trim had a gritty look along the surface. I did not have the issue with the wheel trim. I attribute the grit to too much adhesion promoter though it may well have been something else. 7 – On the front and rear bumper trim I wet sanded the gritty sections with 800 grit sandpaper and smoothed them back out. Since I sanded I washed them again with All-Purpose mixed with water to get the residue off. 8 – Painted the wheel trim with the SEM trim paint in 3 coats and left to dry for a couple of days. 9 – Painted the front and rear bumper with the 1k Raptor paint in three coats. After the second coat I ended up sanding down some more gritty sections that were missed with earlier sanding and are now more obvious with the paint on. Used 800 grit to wet sand then cleaned again with All-Purpose mixed with water. Waiting for it to completely dry in humid Florida was a chore given at this point in the process I am ready to be done with this thing and have my truck back. 10 – Pull masking and re-attached wheel trim. I did buy some SprayMax 2K Clear Gloss but decided not to use it. The pain that goes with applying 2K gloss is more than I ultimately wanted to deal with on this project. Also the trim is already more glossy than I really wanted let alone adding more gloss. I am concerned about durability without the clear gloss but that is part of the reason I chose the 1K Raptor which is supposed to be harder that typical paint. I am really concerned about the SEM Trim paint. I don’t think it was intended to be placed over sealer and won’t soak in as intended. I noticed that it scuffed pretty easy before it putting on the truck. I may have to pull it off, sand it and paint it with the 1K Raptor it doesn’t last. Time will tell on both of these decisions. This process took me about two weekends plus fitting these steps in between my work schedule. It took most of the last two Saturdays, a few hours on each of the past two Sundays and a few hours on Friday. This doesn’t include all of the research time which I did a lot of before undertaking a project like this. Original color: (I didn't paint the sidesteps but I didn't get a before picture of the pieces I did paint). Compare/Contrast: Final product: (I will get more pictures).

Finished painting the dull gray exterior trim on my 2015 black. Took a lot of time since I had to work it in around work. It is bit more gloss than I wanted but it looks pretty damn good to me. Now just need to get the bumpers properly color matched. Original color: (I didn't paint the side steps) Comparison/Contrast: Final product:

Did a little touch up work on some of the paint chips. I will be using the Chipex kit this time around to compare it to the Langka kit. The Langka kit paint did not match as well as the Duplicolor pens did.

Is the IO6 the Andriod Auto/Carplay capable version? Do you have that for sale?

Been a while since I did more than wash and drive her around. Not that I drive her much now that I daily drive my 05 Suburban. Last weekend I took her to the Battle in Bama in Mobile. Just short of a 1000 miles on the trip and she drove great. On the tighter lanes and curves in Mobile I got tired of the rubbing of my front tires. My truck has rubbed on tighter turns no matter the adjustments I had made, short of getting smaller tires. I didn't want to get smaller tires because she rides smooth now and I didn't want to impact that. I am running 284/45/22. Since I did just get new tires I figured it was time to do something about it. One of things I'll note is that before changing my tires, I was on the stock Bridgestone 35K tires and they were worn out. Before replacing them my ride was suffering. When I got up to that 70-77 mph range I would get a variable shake that I thought was an issue with my driveshaft - etiher unbalanced or the angle was bad due to the lowering. I added some shims and the ride improved for a whiel but then the shake returned. After replacign the tires with Continental's the shake has diappeared. Obviously part of the issue was that the old tires were very worn and apparently didn't wear evenly. I think the rubbing contributed to the wear issues since the rubbing had worn through the wheel well liner and the tires were rubbing on the metal seam. So today I was able to take the day off from work and perform surgery. Inspired by the Nor Cal mod that the big wheel, tall boys have to do to avoid rubbing, I performed a Cen Fla mod (just made that name up). Basically I pulled the inner liner out and then using a grinder I trimmed the metal seam down where it was rubbing. Not as involved as the a Nor Cal since I didn't actually cut any of the metal parts out. Took about 3 hours total. Now the rubbing is gone and I am immensely happy.

Sorry I missed your question. My drop is 2.5/4.5 basically though I typically just say it is 2/4 to keep it simple.

Been a while since I did more than wash and drive her around. Not that I drive her much now that I daily drive my 05 Suburban. Last weekend I took her to the Battle in Bama in Mobile. Just short of a 1000 miles on the trip and she drove great. That said I got tired of the rubbing of my front tires. My truck is lowered 2/4 on 22" stock wheels and has rubbed on tighter turns no matter the adjustments I had made, short of getting smaller tires. I didn't want to get smaller tires because she rides smooth now and I didn't want to impact that. Since I did just get new tires I figured it was time to do something about it. So today I was able to take the day off from work and perform surgery. Inspired by the Nor Cal mod that the big wheel boys have to do to avoid rubbing, I performed a Cen Fla mod (just made that name up). Basically I pulled the inner liner out and then usign a grinder I trimmed the metal seam down where it was rubbing. Not as involved as the a Nor Cal sicne I didn't actually cut any of the metal parts out. Took about 3 hours total. Now the rubbing is gone and I am immensely happy.

Been a while since I did more than wash and drive her around. Not that I drive her much now that I daily drive my 05 Suburban. Last weekend I took her to the Battle in Bama in Mobile. Just short of a 1000 miles on the trip and she drove great. That said I got tired of the rubbing of my front tires. My truck is lowered 2/4 on 22" stock wheels and has rubbed on tighter turns no matter the adjustments I had made, short of getting smaller tires. I didn't want to get smaller tires because she rides smooth now and I didn't want to impact that. Since I did just get new tires I figured it was time to do something about it. So today I was able to take the day off from work and perform surgery. Inspired by the Nor Cal mod that the big wheel boys have to do to avoid rubbing, I performed a Cen Fla mod (just made that name up). Basically I pulled the inner liner out and then usign a grinder I trimmed the metal seam down where it was rubbing. Not as involved as the a Nor Cal sicne I didn't actually cut any of the metal parts out. Took about 3 hours total. Now the rubbing is gone and I am immensely happy.

Putco makes a fender flare that is low profile similar to what you are describing. They have chrome and black platinum (though I can't find any place that has the black platinum in stock. Link to Putco website for the black platinum: https://www.putco.com/black-platinum-fender-trim Link for chrome: https://realtruck.com/p/putco-stainless-steel-fender-trim/v/chevy/silverado-1500/2015/?kpid=go_cmp-135323109_adg-22677118869_ad-99421359549_kwd-5206448949_dev-c_ext-_prd-_sig-Cj0KCQjw1ZeUBhDyARIsAOzAqQLDnan0jJm0Zd1K3hGdb6-gucK_esvSei_4L-14JeDKKsCqOt5z6XQaAnpKEALw_wcB&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=Fender Flares&utm_term=putco fender trim&gclid=Cj0KCQjw1ZeUBhDyARIsAOzAqQLDnan0jJm0Zd1K3hGdb6-gucK_esvSei_4L-14JeDKKsCqOt5z6XQaAnpKEALw_wcB

I painted my calipers using this kit. I did 2 coats and otherwise followed the directions. I have not had any problems with the paint.