LDM

Interesting article, pretty much exactly what you would expect. I know I don't feel like dealing with the fines and problems of towing overweight, especially here in IL. Why I stay under the 10K tow limit on my trailer and stay under 16K limit on my class D license. I don't want to deal with the costs and headaches of a CDL Class A here. Oh, and I talked to my insurance guy this morning about something not related to towing, but when I was done I asked him what would happen if I was towing over sticker limit on either my truck or trailer, he told me that my insurance wouldn't cover any costs and I'd be liable for any damages and injuries. I asked him if that applied here or in all states. He said all states, State Farm doesn't change that policy due to the state. Guess as long as you don't get caught, you can tow whatever you want. Personally, I'm not going to risk it here in IL.

Take your own advice, you can still prove me wrong by trying to tow over weight here and find out what happens. The IL State Troopers here will absolutely pull you over for being overweight. But we all know that isn't going to happen.

Great, you are terrible at looking things up then. I get it. If you want, feel free to drive a truck with those things over the limit here and find out what happens when you get pulled over by the police. Or a truck that you've modded and tell that to the police here that "its okay, I did these mods, so it can tow more than the sticker." I'm not spending 20-30 minutes of my time posting every single IL Combined Statues and classification regulations to satisfy you. You aren't that important. Still wrong but not important.

Once again, look them up yourself. I have a feeling you've been told this more than one before by other people than me. I'm not here to do your own research, anyone in IL that tows knows this information because they did exactly that. Or should have so they don't end up getting in trouble with the police and DMV. You can read through the IL Combined Statues and the DMV website to look up all this information yourself. Or call a DMV here and get someone to tell you it (good luck with that one though). Everything you need is right here: https://www.ilsos.gov/ I've lived in IL my entire life (unfortunately) and own a 10K car hauler trailer, as well as a 3K utility trailer. I put the information for the various classifications in this part of my previous post, along with the class info, exactly like you asked since you spent 50 minute looking up info and couldn't find anything. The fact that you think I need to spend my time giving you all this info is pretty damn funny. Federal law is pretty much an after thought here as everything in IL has far higher requirements. Hell, just to get a Class A CDL you have to have blood pressure lower than 140/90 or you need medical checkups and verification of medication every year. All so the state can steal more money from the people who live here. But I suppose that is another issue entirely. My truck has the Max Tow package, so it can technically tow 11,800 pounds. However, because I live in Illinois, in order to tow that much I'd need a Class A CDL as any trailer with a GVWR of 10,001 or higher must have that class. I also need to have a trailer plate with a 10,001-15,000 pound classification. As my truck weighs less than 8,000, I still use the standard B class plate for my truck.

My truck has the Max Tow package, so it can technically tow 11,800 pounds. However, because I live in Illinois, in order to tow that much I'd need a Class A CDL as any trailer with a GVWR of 10,001 or higher must have that class. I also need to have a trailer plate with a 10,001-15,000 pound classification. As my truck weighs less than 8,000, I still use the standard B class plate for my truck. Can I tow more than the rating on my truck or licensing in IL? Sure, if I want to deal with the fines, possible impoundment of my truck, trailer, and cargo, as well as the time to deal with all this. Oh, and as I said before, you tow above the limits here, insurance will deny any claim if you have an accident and you can also be held criminally liable for damages due to exceeding the weight limit. IL police or sheriffs can pull you over if they believe you are over the limit, force you to go to a weight station, and verify your weight. If you are over, they can pretty much do whatever they want after that. Maybe the laws are different in Florida and they don't have the type of stuff we do up here. Don't know and don't really care, I don't tow there. I do know that everything I said in my original post about how making modification does not change the tow rating of your vehicle legally, especially here in IL. You can't change out any equipment that would make your vehicle have a higher tow rating and then make it legal. IL goes by that sticker and its licensing/plate requirements. You have a truck with a 5K tow limit, you get caught towing 7K, you will have to deal with the consequences. Modifying your springs, shocks, rear end, or anything else may improve how the vehicle tows and makes it better. But you can't take a 5K truck, add any of those things, and legally make it tow a higher number. Not in this state.

And you are still wrong like I already said. Illinois has a very nice amount of info on their DMV sites, maybe you should go spend a little time educating yourself and stop being this ignorant. Any trailer over 10K in Illinois requires you to have a CDL. So no, I can't register it as my truck as any of those things here in Illinois as I don't have a CDL, just a standard Class D license. Maybe you should try to learn something before you spout nonsense like this.

You are perfectly capable of doing that yourself. Google is your friend. Or you can feel free to call around to the local police departments and have them explain it to you. You can also call your insurance company and ask them what they will do if you get into an accident while towing over the limits on your sticker. Once again, you can't increase the numbers on your truck by making modifications to it. If it comes from the factory with a 10K limit, you get caught towing over that limit and you can be held liable for it. This fact isn't going to change because you want to pretend otherwise.

Because they actually are law. Depending on the state, you can get fined for towing overweight all the way up to having your vehicle and trailer impounded. Also, if you are in an accident your insurance company can deny your claim and you can be held criminally liable as well. "Beefing up" your towing capacity doesn't exist even if what you do technically gives you more capability. If you are towing over the limit of any of those numbers on that sticker, you don't get to say "Well, I upgraded my truck with better springs, its ok."

You can't. Go buy a Max Tow truck if you want one and then don't put a lift/big tires on it if you actually want to tow something.

Just like the title describes, I'm looking for the TCM info from these trucks. I'm mostly interested in the Service # and Prog # that is on the label of the TCM but if you had a pictures of the entire label I'll take that as well. My goal is try to figure out a way to make the T87 TCM work in the 2017-2018 trucks that use the T87A, which requires expensive unlocking, reprogramming, and extra licensing fees from HP Tuners to tune the TCM. As my truck is a Max Tow, I need to know the info from another truck from those years to make sure it has the same programming. Below is an example picture of the T87A, the T87 will look the same but will have different info. Thank you in advance to anyone that can provide this to me.

Has the intake manifold gaskets ever been done on this truck? This will cause all sorts of issues when it decides to start leaking and they all do eventually. With 215K I would assume it has at some point but maybe not. It looks like you've had the other stuff done, spider assembly and regulator, as well as a new fuel pump that is holding properly pressure now.

Charge it up and test it is the only way to know for sure. The volt meter in the dash doesn't tell you much, you need to measure the cranking amps to be sure. Unfortunately lead acid battery quality is very hit or miss these days. AGM batteries do seem to last longer, if they don't fail before the warranty is up. I just had to replace the batteries in both my Camaros last year, one of them failed in about 8 months after I bought it and was replaced under warranty (AC Delco batteries that I bought at Menards) and then replaced the battery in my truck earlier this year. It was less than half its rating even after letting it charge more than 24 hours. The batteries in my Camaros lasted over 9 years but they also spend most of their time in a garage with battery maintainers connected to them. Truck battery was maybe 4 years old, I went with an AGM for a replacement due to the weight and all the extra stuff you have to remove to get the battery out. Hopefully it will last a lot longer than the original lead acid battery did.

Aftermarket sensors tend to be hit or miss. You can try using the tool to reset them but if they are still off you can't calibrate them to make them more accurate. I'd go with the OEM option as it will probably give you the most accurate reading since you have the option available.

The answer is very simple. CAFE. Nothing else. I've ran 5W30 in my 2018 since I got it. No issues at all.

That only applies to the 8 speed transmission with the T87A controller for 2017+. The 6 speed still uses the regular T43 controller thru 2018. In 2019 they switched to the E90 controller (I believe, not 100% sure on this) for both the 6 and 8 speeds, which I don't believe is even able to be unlocked yet.

Not sure on the new 19+ trucks but 14-18 and the 19 LD all have the pigtail plugged into a dummy connector on the frame and just need the tune changed to allow use of E85 after adding the alcohol sensor. Wonder why they would claim DI has anything to do with it when 4.3 and 5.3 came from the factory with FlexFuel as an option during these years? The only one that never got it was the 6.2 for some reason that I really can't understand.

I converted my 2018 6.2 over to be able to run E85 a couple months ago. My first tank I ended up with 8.70 mpg, which was about 20% loss in mileage from premium. The E85 cost about 20% less than premium at the time so it ended up being a wash in savings. The truck definitely makes more power though, the datalogs show a good 10-15 increase in HP and TQ across the board. This makes sense, given the HP and TQ increase the 4.3 and 5.3 get when running E85. My last fill up a couple weeks ago I did 17 gallons of E85 and 6 gallons of regular 87 octane with 2 gallons of left over fuel in the tank, which my alcohol sensor is showing 62.7%. Next fill up I plan on adding 8-9 gallons of regular 87 octane and filling the rest with E85 to see the difference in fuel economy with around a 45-50% alcohol content.

I run full synthetic 5W30 in my 6.2L. 0W20 is only for CAFE reasons. If you want to use a thicker oil, do so, it isn't going to hurt the engine despite all the claims some will make to the contrary.

My guess will be 2500/3500 with the CNG/LPG conversion for the 6.0 engines. You could order them directly from GM with the conversion equipment installed, not sure if the 6.6 gas has that option these days. Gas mileage is definitely lower than gasoline but if you have access to easy CNG/LPG filling it can definitely be worth. I know the garbage trucks in my area run of CNG these days, they have big signs on the side of them advertising that fact.

Yep, just like everything else in Illinois. I always say the same thing, Illinois would be a great place to live if we didn't have Chicago. But unfortunately the rest of the state gets to suffer with Chicago's greed and corruption ruining the state. Also, wish the E85 was that cheap by me. Then it wouldn't even be worth considering running premium with that price spread, E85 would be a winner without even having to calculate it.

Yeah, I'm going to test some other ethanol levels with it as well, see how accurate it is. 72% on the sensor vs 80% on the vial tester isn't too far off, but it never hurts to verify. I also might have put a little too much water in as well, so its only as accurate as the user doing it right too.

Well I filled up today with e85 and did a couple of data logs before and after. Shows about a 5-10 HP at WOT vs premium and an ethanol content of about 72%. 5-10 on the data log isn't a huge amount and it was only a couple of comparisons so nothing to major to get excited about there. Biggest question will be the mileage vs the cost, which I won't know for a while as I'm not taking an major trips currently and most of my driving is local. Only thing I did notice after the fill up is that the idle seems to be smoother, both by feel and by less jumping around in the timing in the data log. I'll continue with some logging and see what else I see while I run this tank. The ethanol tester I bought showed around 80% so not sure which one is more accurate, the sensor on the truck or the tester.

Yeah, if I could run 87 without any issues then it wouldn't be worth it. The cost difference around here is about 20% for E85 vs premium, so depending on the mileage it may come out ahead. I don't plan on tuning the truck just to run on e85 so I can always switch back to premium if I find out it doesn't work out for cost saving.

No kit, I just bought the alcohol sensor, a plug for the sensor, and the fuel line. Wasn't overly expensive, the sensor was around $50, the plug around $25, and the fuel line around $30. I also had to buy the VDF file and the security seed key for my OBD2 Tunercat program, which was $80 and $45 as well. But now I can also tune my truck and any other 2014-2019 truck (although 17+ all require a $45 security seed key as well) so its worth it. And now I can do all the other tuning on the truck, except for the TCM since Tunercat doesn't support the T87A yet.

Finally was able to do the E85 conversion on my 2018 Sierra 6.2 on Sunday after receiving the fuel line I needed. Everything went together just fine although I had to length my connection harness to make it go to where I needed it to for the sensor. After uploading my e85 enabled tune with Tunercats OBD2 (yes, I have a Roadrunner for the 411 PCM and the full version of TunerCats OBD2 RT Tuner), I was able to see about 8.6-9.0 alcohol content in my current tank of gas. I plan on filling up with E85 when I get down to less than 1 gallon and then will see how the truck both performs and how much it costs per mile to operate. Right now E85 is around 20%+ less expensive than 91+ premium here so depending on the trade off in fuel economy it may end up being cheaper to run. Also interested to see the data logs for any performance difference as the L83 gets a good 20+ HP and TQ when using E85 in the flex fuel vehicles. Still not sure why GM didn't make the L86 flex fuel in the first place, since the only thing it lacks is the alcohol sensor and the few things in the tune enabled for use.