GN2018

A little off topic, but I’m thinking about taking the GMC letters and the Sierra badge off my tailgate. Not sure what I can do about the front grill, but I just want my truck to be a Denali. Though, looking at some of these “clean” Chevy’s makes me think of getting rid of everything. I think the one thing I’d have trouble with is the engine size badge on the front fenders. I know they can be taken off, but obviously, there’s an indentation in the GMC’s that the Chevy’s don’t have there.

I don’t find that to be true. I have the Truxedo TruXport and a multi pro tailgate and the automatic release (inside cab or fob) does not work. Gets hung up on the cover. Person who installed it said about the only thing left to do is shave the rubber seal the touches the tailgate and then it will likely leak.

Not sure if the Truxedo Lo Pro will work any better, but I got the Truxedo TruXport and was very disappointed that the automatic tailgate did not work. If you go with Truxedo, or any brand, get a commitment that your tailgate will work if you have an automatic tailgate. It’s not a big deal, but it drives me crazy when something doesn’t work properly. I also have the multi pro tailgate so it may act different on the standard tailgate.

I honestly just wasn’t thinking about it. If asked, I’m sure I wouldn’t have said it was going down but I don’t think anyone saw this coming. Of course, once the war became clear all bets were off.

That pretty much sums it up. Also, if I can save $50 to $100 with virtually no effort, I’m in for that. I’m retired, I have plenty of time. Most of the time I drive near home in suburbia. Not much I’m willing to do different on those roads - typically 40 to 45mph speed limits. And no, I didn’t expect a truck to get good gas mileage, but I didn’t think gas would get this high this quick. I don’t drive enough to care, but it still hurts a bit going over $80 on a fill up. Still, I love my truck and have no plans to get rid of it anytime soon.

I agree that a 10% improvement in the gas mileage of a vehicle is unrealistic. However, that assumes improvement from the rated mileage. Basically you’re saying if the factory spec for the truck is X, it will be hard to get a 10% improvement on that. However, I’m not suggesting that. I’m looking to improve compared to my typical highway driving style which is to get in the left lane and drive 80. Generally, trying to get where I’m going as fast as road conditions and such will allow. Doing 10% better that that shouldn’t be too difficult. Basically, I need to slow down and drive smoother. The question I was asking is at what speed would I find a sweet spot. Given one of the responses above, it sounds like 62mph. I doubt I’ll be able to do that, but I’ll start there and see if I can adjust to it. On a long, uncrowded stretch of two lane highway, I can probably pull it off. Going through a metropolitan area with three lanes and people driving crazy, I’ll have to revert to my typical driving. It will be an interesting experiment. How much gas mileage can I squeeze out of my truck without driving myself crazy. Trip is for two week later this month. I’ll definitely report back. I’m hoping I can hit something over 23mpg. That would be for the entire trip, not just something like a 50 mile stretch.

Eww

Thank you. I'm at a loss as to how knowing who’s fault it is would help me get better gas mileage on my trip.

Yes, I guess I am cherry picking. I’m trying to see if I can maximize my mileage on an upcoming trip. It will be almost all highway miles and the entire trip will be about 2500 miles. A very rough calculation yields that if I do 2mpg better, I’ll save about $50. Nothing to get excited about but this trip I have no time constraints (retired) and no reason to hurry. So, why not.

Obviously driving a truck means we’re not going to get the best gas mileage but I recall a post about getting the best gas mileage out of our trucks and can’t find it now. The general conclusion was something like driving around 65mph was the sweet spot. Does anyone recall that post or what the actual conclusion was? I have a long road trip ahead. While I’m not thinking about driving 55 (ugh, shoot me now), if I can maximize my mileage and not drive too slow, I could do that. I know I’m not going to be cruising at my typical 10 to 15 over. Thankfully, I’m retired and in no hurry on this trip. All tolled, should be around 2500 miles ETA - I have the 5.3L with the 10 speed and have averaged just over 20mpg on my last highway trips.

I just watched MotorWeek, my weekly Sunday morning ritual. Pat Goss, the mechanic segment, said that it wasn’t a good idea to use jumper cables on modern cars due to the electronics. He said to use one of those power pack type battery jumpers because they have safety mechanisms in them to prevent damage to the vehicle electronics. I do not know if he’s correct, but I think I’d look into it further before I spent money on jumper cables. My guess is that some heavy duty long jumper cables probably cost close to a nice battery pack jumper. Either way, if he’s correct, it will certainly be cheaper in the long run if it prevents you from damaging your vehicle.

Do this: If/when mine leaks, I’m going to find someone that has their repair stuff together, a real professional, and have them do this repair. Frankly, I don’t even think I’ll mess with the dealer. Looking at that post and how shoddy the original build was (missing washers, etc.), I don’t think I want the dealer to even try their half hearted work they call a service bulletin.

I guess. I was really hoping to hear what MVI did to help with this.

I think this may be the only practical solution. With the Impala, there was a way to get to the linkage and let it release manually. I don’t see anything like that for the truck. This leads me to thinking a should get a battery pack, even if a small one, for emergencies. Even if it can’t start the truck, it seems likely that it could at least let it be put in neutral.

I can’t really “try” something right now. I was just trying to be prepared. When my battery went out on my Impala, I had no idea how to get the car out of park. I was stuck in front of a gas pump. I wanted to just push it out of the way and go buy a new battery. Instead, I had to call road service to get the car jumped. I vowed not to let that happen again. When I look at the manual, there was a procedure to manually move it out of park. I couldn’t find that for the truck. It may be that the trans is fully electric and there’s no way to manually get it out of park. Hoping someone here would know.

I looked through the manual but could not find an answer. I have push start. If my battery dies, how do I shift out of park? I had this problem with my Impala and there was a process to move it out of park manually so you can move the vehicle if the battery is dead. I couldn’t find a similar procedure for my truck. Is there one?

Canceled OnStar on both vehicles. My 2017 had basic functions for free and I paid a reasonable fee for awhile for the safety package. Now, it’s just too costly for the service received. Same with XM. However, I do have XM because they had a deal when the pandemic started and I just renewed for the same price. For $60 per year, I’ll keep it. Anything more and I’ll let it go. I’d probably pay $5 per month for the safety package from OnStar, but even that would be getting expensive with two cars. They really do need to reevaluate their pricing. It’s just not worth the cost with current pricing. Especially with all you can do with your phone for free.

Still would be interesting to hear back on what MVI is willing to do on this.

I’m so thankful to Leevon for posting this. My original plan if I got a leak was to get the solid window. Now I’m thinking I’ll find someone to do the repair properly as shown in this thread. And, if I ever have the headliner or spoiler off for any other repair, I will make sure this is done. So sad that it’s not done this well in the factory, especially since it’s a know issue. Thanks to the forum admin for pinning it.

Interesting, I just got an automatic update on my truck. Of course I was given the option to install it, but I’m assuming at some point I would have been forced to do the update. Seems like eventually, the OP would have run into the same problem whether he went to the dealer or not.

You may not have lost an app, but it’s not uncommon at all to have the app error out with a new OS update. And as for being a tech company, how often have you ever seen Apple (a tech company for sure) allow a module to be removed from its phone and allowed a third party to perform “their magic” on it and still support the product? In fact, their products are highly locked down. I think your resolution will end up being with MVI. They need to support their process which is apparently not supported or coordinated with the manufacturer.

Agree. This is an MVI problem.

For now, I’m just living with it. It’s a less expensive soft roll up cover so I’ll replace it at some point with one that actually works. When I first got it, the tailgate hardly worked at all, let alone automatically. I took it back and they adjusted it forward a bit and it worked better, but still doesn’t drop down automatically. I’m thinking about having them cut the weather strip and see if that will work, but then I’m almost guaranteed to have water infiltration (not really a big deal) and no guarantee that it will work. I really detest when things don’t work right and/or have to be rigged to work so I’m kinda just doing a slow burn right now waiting until a can justify getting a new cover. Should have just bought a good one in the beginning. But, I guess I could still have had this issue since I wasn’t aware that it was an issue when I was shopping.

Yes it is. I will not let that happen again.

Thanks, I’ll do my homework. I may even go to a summer/winter set up. Got time and looking for advice.