Grumpy Bear

I had been looking for a new truck for nearly two years and I was not looking for the right truck as much as I was looking for the right deal. I’d never owned a truck and I’ve had brand loyalty pistol whipped out of me. You see, at 62 I’ve finally become aware that you don’t know what you don’t know and what you don’t’ know can and will hurt you; right in the wallet. Maybe it’s my age but I think trucks have two doors and are two wheel drive; have manual transmissions and AM pushbutton radios. I get a lather on when I see finely restored 30’s or 40’s prewar half tons that are so vanilla it says Borden’s in the door sill. Studebakers and Internationals are some favorites although I love a good mid 30’s Chevy or Ford. Point is, I like durable and I like reliable and easy to work on and with which in my thinking means keep it simple and keep it up. That said time has softened my base needs to include air conditioning and cruise control. Roll up windows are fine. I don’t need a theater grade sound system. I have some hearing loss from that in the house. No need for in dash navigation. I like maps and a compass. Too old and too broke to start a restoration I decided I’d buy as close to new as possible and do my best to keep it from falling apart or rusting out before the payment book coupons were all used up. Besides, have you seen the “ask” for anything worth restoring? More than I paid for this one. Yikes! I was exploring options from GM, Ford and Dodge and shy as a Coydog when I ran across this 2015 Silverado WT1 Regular cab short bed. I know, the build sheet calls the six foot six a “standard” bed and the eight footer a long bed. It’s part of the experience of aging. Those younger than us at some point decided to redefine “words” for us without our permission but that’s small potatoes. The general lack of overall caring about what one builds is quite another and not so small a deal. Not sure when it happened but at one time engineers built to improve the product. Now it’s the profit margin and the marketing gurus have made an art out of selling the illusion of quality instead of delivering it. You hear the spin on why a factory steel wheel MSRP is twice that of many good aftermarket alloy rims? $245! Really? Maybe someday we will return to pricing “worth” instead of what we think we can “steal”. So…what that means is…this trucks “build” isn’t going to be centered around “speeding money I don’t have to impress people I don’t know and maybe wouldn’t like anyway” on eye candy they value but who have no vested interest in the end product. Rather it will be to improve safety, reliability, longevity, economy, utility, and if anything is left over…then maybe some old school tastefully done curb appeal. Lord knows there isn’t much to work with. The previous owner of this very clean (and cheap) 4.3 liter flex fuel V6 six speed automatic Borden’s truck has done me the honor of taking very nice care of it for the year he owned it and the 1300 miles he drove it. The Lund soft roll up is nice and a choice I would have made. He added the Go-Rhino stainless step bars to ease entry and egress for his 80 year plus frame and a Bed-Rug bed mat. We will take it from there then. ​Thanks for dropping in. Marty P.S. Yes. I enjoy editorializing (writing). Don't take it personal. Just me being me.

I've read in this thread that a 2" drop has some people shortening the driveshaft and causing pinion angle issues? So...are we saying we can't put enough load in the box to squat the rear 2" without damaging the truck? Taking the shocks past travel and...and...and??? ​ ​That isn't much of a load.