EDL

How does that SuperTech stack up in terms of quality and performance compared to the big brands?

How much they gouge you for that cover plate?

Oh, I agree, but if they're dumb enough to do it, they're probably ignorant of the law as well, because, you know, they saw it on youtube. I have a habit of giving these maroons a face full of my brights when I pass them. Wife gets mad at me, but I figure, heck, if you're going to blind me, I'm going to blind you. Fair trade as far as I see it.

Yeah, I can set that with fob 2 no problem. It's fob 1 that won't save it's settings, and instead of beeping twice after pressing set, it does that go to the floor and bend you over thing. I need to take it in to to a dealer and have them reprogram the fob correctly, I just haven't had time to do it.

Ok, thanks, was just curious. I did some reading and watched some videos of the installs and in many cases they still recommended a diff drop just to try and keep the CV angles as close to stock as possible. Heck, from the videos, the drops were only spacers and not terribly difficult to install. I learned the hard way many years ago about drive shafts, drive angles, u-joints and such when I used to jack my trucks to stupid levels, so maybe I'm just being too sensitive :-)

Thanks. I'm not ashamed to say I like Dodge trucks, that 2500 diesel was the best truck I've ever had (so far). In the 12+ years I had it (even after lifting it 6" and adding 35" tires), the only thing I ever had to do to it was replace one brake caliper, replace 1 u-joint (I did replace the others when I put on the lift though just to be sure), replaced brake pads, and the little gear housing on one of the power seat motors cracked ($68 replacement off ebay). That's it. I really hated selling it, but had some financial struggles at the time and needed the money, or I'd still have it. I'd love nothing more than to get a shiny new Ram 2500 Cummins diesel again, but good lord, I can't justify $65,000 for a truck (over $70,000 if you get some creature comfort goodies). I can buy a decent little house here in PA for that! I will say this about my new Silverado though, so far I'm loving it, and as far as looks go, I think it's the nicest looking truck I've ever bought in terms stock out of the dealer. I don't look at it and immediately start running a list of a lot of mods and changes I want to make to it. I want a tonneau cover and to clear bra the front end. I'm on the fence about a 2" level kit. And I am considering the little plug in device to remove the pedal delay, but now that I'm getting used to it, it doesn't bother me much. One thing that I was concerned about was the offset steering (I'm a little OCD) and things like that typically bother me. It is a non issue, not even really noticeable unless you sit there and look for it. In fact, having the wheel slightly to the right is actually a little more comfortable since I drive with my right handle a lot. While I do miss my big Ram diesel, I don't think this Chevy is going to disappoint.

Purchased my 2018 Wednesday June 20th. I bought it from Progressive Chevrolet in Massillon, OH. I originally was looking in PA (my state) and found some with what I though was some good discounts, but they had certain qualifications like financing with GM, etc. I then started looking in Ohio and ended up on Progressive Chevrolet's website and found a black truck (no midnight edition) with the LTZ Plus package, Z71, tow package and the 6.2L v-8...and it was a double cab, which I wanted. It's loaded, nav, leather, heated and cooled seats, upgraded Bose stereo, step bars, spray on liner, etc. It has a few chrome bits here and there, but I fell in love with the 7-spoke silver (actually a kind of grayish silver) 22's that are on it. Progressive Chevy didn't list all the various discounts individually like the other dealers were doing, they just had the sticker price and their price. The sticker on the truck was $58,295 and they had the price listed at $43,631. Only about $1000 more than what I originally found the LTZ crews with the 5.3 (and I would have had to add that $1000 back in anyway as I wasn't going to finance with GM. So, I headed over there and bought the truck. There was no special qualifications and I didn't have to finance with GM to get the price either. They said that's the price for everyone, period. They were prompt, they were low pressure (the only two things extra they tried to sell me was a paint and fabric protection package and an extended warranty). I said no thanks to both and that was the end of it. The only issue we ran into was they wanted the funds from my bank in their account before they'd release the truck, but my bank only sends funds via UPS Ground (kinda silly, but whatever). The finance manager spoke with my bank rep and agreed to accept a written guarantee they'd get their funds even I drove off the lot and totaled the truck. It took about 5 minutes to settle that deal. My salesman was knowledgeable, polite and hustled his butt off. I was at the dealership for a total of about 2 hours, and some of that was me and the wife hanging out and just looking at their huge inventory. I traded in my 2014 Grand Cherokee with 102,000 on it (still owed some on it), got very close to what I wanted for the trade, not a penny out of my pocket and drove off with my new truck for $8 more per month than I was paying on the Jeep. All in all, one of the smoothest, hassle free car buying experiences I've ever had at a dealership and I think the discount price was pretty darn good.

Oh, so the aluminum one is having leak issues? Hmmm.

Will one of the devices to eliminate the gas pedal delay void the warranty?

Lol, that big black mesh grill makes me think Lexus and the rest screams CX-5. However, with that said, I think if you intend to just make another ubiquitous cross over, there's not much you can do with the styling without doing something off the wall. Meh.

Are you guys that are adding the 2" to 2.5" leveling kits also adding a diff drop?

Thanks Mike. I do like the powered version too, but $2400 is more than I'm willing to pay for one. I cringe at the $1700 for the non-powered version as it is. I understand the gap issues around the tailgate, but that has nothing to do with the cover itself. Glad to hear it doesn't leak anywhere other than the tailgate gap. I race hydroplanes in APBA sanctioned racing and I need a cover to put all my race gear, cooler, tools, etc in the back for a race weekend. I want the heavier duty aluminum and locking to keep someone from helping themselves to my gear and I just like the functionality of the retractables vs the flippers. Unless someone else has any bad experiences with Retrax, that's probably the direction I'm going to go, but the manual version.

Been reading through a lot of the posts here on lighting and just wanted to share some of the info I have about lighting in general what I've learned over the years and from experience: First, why are HID bulb retro fits to standard housings bad? Well, for one, they are illegal as per the National Highway and Safety Administration. They are not DOT approved, and the fact you haven't been pulled over for it or managed to pass inspection with them is irrelevant. If you do get pulled over and the cop notices, it is something else they can tack onto a ticket (and they will). I personally know a number of people who have been popped for it and depending on your state, we're talking upwards of a $250 fine and a time limit to "get them fixed." If you don't care, that's fine, but don't be surprised if you get stopped for it. Secondly, HID bulbs in standard housings blind the holy heck out of oncoming traffic. Standard housings with halogen (incandescent) bulbs do not focus the light like projectors do. They scatter it all over the place, but because halogens are not nearly as bright as HID, you end up with a brighter area toward the middle and spilling of light all around it. There's not enough light to blind oncoming traffic. Now, pop in some HID bulbs and all the scattered light is blinding everyone else because they are so much brighter. One other issue with standard housings, the placement of the light emitting portion of the bulb has to be in the right spot for the housing to reflect and focus the light properly. Many of the HID bulbs, while they fit a certain halogen bulb number, are not the same in terms of the physical bulb dimensions so don't always set this light emitting portion of the bulb in the correct place, further making the issue worse. When I had my lifted Ram 2500, I took a pair of cheap Hella 700's and retro fitted a pair of 55W HID bulbs, but I had to make some stand off brackets to back the bulb out a little to get the light emitting point of the bulb in the right place. They worked great, but only for back road driving, of course. All in all, I particularly despise people who put HIDs in standard housings. Seems every 17 year old kid for miles around feels the need for 12K HIDs in their '89 Civic. If you want HID you need a full retro fit of a proper projector unit. They are designed to work properly with the HID bulbs and have the cutoff shield to create the distinct line where the light is cutoff horizontally so as not to blind everyone coming toward you. Projector units for halogen bulbs also will not work properly with HID because they don't have the cutoff shield. They are slightly better than standard housings, but will still blind everyone else. Many don't like the cutoff of HIDs because it appears not much light gets beyond it and it seems like you can't see as far as with halogens. To some degree this is not true, but it's really an issue with the human eye. The effect is much like walking from a brightly lit room into a darker room, you can't see diddly, even though there is still light in that room. We have pupils that dilate and constrict based on how bright the ambient light is, similar to how a camera lens has a diaphragm that can be opened or closed down to control the amount of light entering the lens. Our pupils don't constrict and dilate instantly and they can't be both open or closed down at the same time. All that bright HID light below the cutoff line constricts your pupils, so any light that is actually making it beyond the cutoff is not visible. Some factory HID systems include a control in the vehicle that lets you control the cutoff shield so you can set the placement of the cutoff line (my wife's 2012 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport, for example has HIDs and this control). They are great for darker roads, you can crank up the cutoff a fair amount and really see, but you have to turn them down in oncoming traffic or you'll get flashed. If you do decide to convert and you do get a proper projector unit, don't get the ridiculous 8+K color temp bulbs because you think blue or purple is "cool" looking. The fact is, light at that end of the spectrum is the hardest for the human eye to focus and our retinas are less sensitive to this temperature range, so although they are brighter, you cannot see as well with blue lights. The sun's light is approximately 5800K, so I wouldn't recommend anything over 6K, and personally prefer somewhere down in the 4K range at most. I find 6K light to to be "too white" and while it looks really bright, I actually see less than something more toward the 4K range. To my eyes, a 6K temp looks more like an over exposed photo, it's just too harsh and lacking detail. Even though 6K more closely resembles natural sunlight, at night it is too white and too stark of a difference compared to the dark surroundings. Of course, everyone's eyes are different and you might be happy with 6K bulbs. Some factory HID systems use a second set of lights for the brights instead of a variable cutoff shield. I find these to be the best set up mainly because when you turn on the brights, the low beam HIDs stay on as well. HIDs take a few seconds to reach full brightness when you turn them on, so they don't get turned off when you hit the brights. I also like the fact you can physically adjust the height separate from the HIDs. I've driven a lot of vehicles with HIDs, some factory, some converted and as odd as it sounds, my wife's Outlander Sport has the best factory set up of any of them. Separate brights, low beam HIDs that stay on all the time and vertical adjustment via a knob in the car. They're simply amazing. LED is the new rage and they are a simpler system than HID, but they too require a proper projector unit. They will suffer from the same light scattering and blinding issues in standard housings for all the same reasons. LEDs also require a difference in the reflector itself as the placement of the light emitting portion varies from bulb to bulb. Some bulbs have a single LED, some have multiple ones placed in various positions around the bulb. The only issue I have with LED in the current vehicles I've seen with them is that it seems none have the adjustment knob to alter the cutoff shield for driving conditions. It also seems the factory systems, at least from what I've experienced, have too high of a color temp. In fact, my 2018 Sliverado's LED lights give me that too white over exposed look. It's not as bad as some high temp HIDs I've seen, but still leaving me wanting a temp in a lower range, and definitely the cutoff aimed a little higher. The problem there though, is the brights are not a separate set of lights. The system just opens the cutoff shield and you get the full light as your brights and it seems they are aimed a little too high. I will have to drive it more at night though before I really make any considerations about that.

Not to mention, you're blinding the begeebus out of everyone heading the other way. Now, with that said, if you want to go grab a set of cheap Hella 700's at Wally World and retrofit with some DDM 55W HID bulbs for back roads use, you'll be quite happy.

Opinions and/or experiences with either a Retrax Pro or Peragon? Retrax - I like the looks the best and the apparent ease of operation. Pros: Ball bearing, easy operation, sturdy, and can be locked in any position along the track Cons: price, canister (it takes up bedroom. Has drain tubes to drain water from the canister, but I've only found one tiny drain hole in the bed of my 2018 and a bunch of really tiny holes the tubes won't fit in and I have no desire to drill holes in the bed). Peragon - Pros: accordion folding means less used bed space like a canister, still aluminum, sturdy and lockable, price (half the price of the Retrax). Cons: The weird bracket arms that have to be mounted in the bed, can't be opened at exact intervals, only in increments of the panel widths Main requirements: Sturdiness, water tightness, longevity (I don't want to have to buy another one a few years down the road because something wears out). Also, no drill installation. Given that, which of the two do you guys think fits the bill the best? Is there something better in your opinions? I'm not a fan of the flip style ones, but if something like a BakFlip is that much better, I won't rule it out totally. Thanks.

No pics yet, but bought my 2018 double cab with the 6.2 on Wednesday. Trip from dealer to home was 2 hours with mixed 55-70MPH highway and a few short jaunts on 35-45MPH side roads. Averaged 26.6 MPG on the DIC. On highway I set cruise at 74MPH. That 6.2 just lopes along at about 1700RPM and the change between V4 and V8 is completely unnoticeable (I'm kind of impressed with the V4-V8 thing because I also had that on my 2014 Grand Cherokee with the Hemi, but when it would go into V4 mode, it always had a shudder to it and I hated it). I agree, the throttle delay thing sucks and is very noticeable. When I first started driving it, I felt like an old lady with long delays to get going as I'm pushing on the pedal waiting for acceleration that didn't come for a bit. I've also noticed at the right speed and amount of acceleration there is a bit of shuddering from the rear and the steering wheel has some vibration. It's not horrible, but noticeable. I have the Z71 package and 22" wheels, so I expect less than glass smooth ride and the rear end rides about how I thought it would, but the front, even with the Rancho shocks seems to bounce up and down more than I thought it would. It's not irritating or anything, I was just kind of surprised by it.

Did you get the 5.3 or the 6.2 engine? I got the 6.2 in mine and was surprised how good the mileage is, it's better than what I was getting with my 2014 Grand Cherokee with the 5.7 Hemi. The day I drove it home (three days ago), I got about 26.6 MPG on the highway all the way from Ohio back to PA (2 hour drive from dealership to home).

Just got a 2018 Silverado the other day. First GM product in about 17 years. So far, I have learned one new thing about my truck, it has a taco folder in it. When one of the key fobs doesn't want to play nice with the seat/mirror/pedal memory set up, and you try to save the settings, it will move the seat all the way down, the seat back will tilt all the way forward and there you are, practically sitting on the floor of your truck, folded over like a f'in taco.

Been a Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep driver for the past 17 years. Had a 2004 RAM 2500 quad cab diesel 4x4 that I just sold a couple years ago. Got into a 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee with Hemi. Was a nice vehicle for the past 4 years, but at 102,000, was time to trade her in (besides, I want my truck back!). Wasn't happy with the reviews of the 2018 RAM, so I've decided to give GM a chance again. Just got her three days ago. 2018 Silverado 1500 double cab (I want the bed space!) LTZ Plus package Z71 package 6.2L V-8 Loaded to the gills.