aseibel

I know. I'm just saying. He turned his high power truck into something that looks good but is ineffective at towing. Now lets sink another $2,000 into it to make it perform the same way mine does with no mods. That's all. If he wants to tow well with that truck, a gear change really is the only option.

I'd look at buying a Z71 with 3.42 gears and OEM sized tires. But paying $2,000 to change to 4.10 gears with 37" tires would accomplish the same thing.

Ok, I get it. "grade braking" does not use the brakes at all. It uses the engine compression and transmission resistance to slow you down. I haven't noticed it downshift to accomplish this, but I imagine it would if your speed allowed for it. Turning this off just allows you to free-wheel down grades more.

I told my wife the other day- as soon as both my kids have driver's licences, I'm selling my truck and going back to a regular cab 8' bed. She laughed. But I was serious. But for the next 13.5 years and counting, my CC short bed works OK. I have a trailer for when I need more room. It really comes down to garage. I could NOT fit a CC standard bed in my current garage. The new house, it shouldn't be an issue. If parking doesn't bother you, then there isn't any other downside to more bed.

I don't know what you are asking here. In WI we don't have too many hills big enough to require brakes when going down. But there is a nice smooth stretch where the speed limit goes down from 55 to 35, where I always let it coast for a while. I notice a considerable improvement in coasting distance when I disable the grade braking first. I don't think there is any downshifting involved with/without it in my truck. You should try it and see what your truck does.

There is an automatic grade braking function that you can manually disable by pressing the tow/haul button for 5 seconds. At lease on my 2015, not sure if its the same on 2019. My computer calculates very close, usually .5 mpg or less higher than hand calc mileage. The more time spent on the highway, the closer it is.

WI is $84 annual for truck under 6,000 lbs. Our beer & liquor taxes are also at or near the lowest in the country, lol.

My best ever 25 mile number was like 25.6 mpg, and that was in ideal conditions: summer gas, exactly 60 mph, flat terrain, no stopping at all for 25 miles, calm conditions through mostly heavy trees. I think I once hit a similar number on the freeway doing 70 mph, but that was with a tail wind. Its very hard to do much better than that in a rolling brick. My average fuel economy per tank is more like 17-18 in winter and 19-20 in summer. I have 3.42 gears. Anybody posting MPG results should state their gears and what speed the trip occurred at. Since those are huge variables in predicting fuel economy. Its easy to get exaggerated numbers for a short trip if wind or slope is in your favor. If anyone wants to get a real result, a full round-trip should be recorded.

The new trucks have all the RPO codes stored in a QR code inside the door jamb that you can scan with your phone.

you have several factors working against you: 1) wider tires - worse aerodynamics at speed 2) more aggressive tread - worse aerodynamics at speed 3) heavier tires - more inertia = worse acceleration So you would definitely improve your fuel mileage with the OEM size of a good all season/highway tire. I also run the Cooper Discoverer AT3 4S at OEM size and I don't think it hurt my mileage too much for being a semi-aggressive tread. But you could get a much less aggressive design. See the crap they put on the brand new trucks to compare (mine were Goodyear SRA's). Those are chosen for economy only.

Maybe if one is actually concerned with towing performance, then he shouldn't install 35" tires on a truck that came with 31.5" tires? The vast majority of lifted trucks with big wheels out on the road are solely for looks. I don't get all this discussion about spending a couple grand to make a truck perform well again after throwing all that money on looks that just seriously hampered the performance. I wish I had that disposable income. But I do agree that if you want to go the big tire + re-gear route, then you do need to account for both the change in your ground speed relative to the driveshaft, as well as the extra angular momentum of the big heavy tires. The OP is on to something. I got a C in dynamics, so I'm not going to attempt to calculate it.

Thats what I was thinking too. I'd clean the inside first and see if that takes care of it. It's unlikely there is any actual damage to the glass. Goo Gone is your friend.

How far of a trip are we talking about? I've hauled more weight than my truck was designed for, (not current truck, but older one). If you aren't in heavy traffic and can can go slow for short distances, you're okay. My opinion is you can do whatever you want with your truck. But its a different story if you are causing a problem for other drivers. Tips: load weight as far forward as possible to put some load over front axle, make sure tires are fully inflated, or even a little over. once your axle reaches the bump stops, then you are relying on your tires for "suspension." As long as you are NOT over the tires' max load rating and not being a road hazard, you can make it happen. But if anything goes wrong, you're on your own. ha.

Due to your increased tire size, your truck now feels like it has 3.08 gears. Going back to OEM size tires would boost your truck back to feeling like 3.42. That would be the easiest thing you can do. But I suppose that is not an option for you?

well, I learned that Custom Offsets warehouse is 30 minutes from me in Appleton, WI!