Smrtasp

When we start seeing 450+ mile ranges, it may start to make sense. The range numbers being provided are a bit misleading and it’s only a matter of time before manufacturers will have to publish city and highway ranges like we see with ICE cars. For the typical driver, the published ranges are not going to happen unless its downhill with a tailwind on the highway. City driving will use a lot more energy and that 350-mile published range will only come at a full charge and for daily driving scenarios, you don't want to charge the battery full each time. It will be more like 90% for daily use plus upwards of 25% loss for city driving. That gets even more compounded in cold climates where the electronics will keep the battery warm which will burn even more range. Now imagine all of that towing or carrying a few thousand pounds and pretty quickly having a truck for anything beyond city driving and the occasional road trip will not be very convenient. Also note that the examples of fast charging we are seeing in commercials and marketing materials assume level 3 charging. I know there has been a big investment to roll out more charging but most of what was available a few years ago was level 2 at best. I come from the experience of having owned a Tesla for 9 years now. I have a 2013 model S with a VIN under 5000 (there are over a million on the road now) and just about to break 155K miles on it. It’s our around town car now. When it was new, we did lots of road trips in it, but the charging thing got old after a while. Tesla has invested heavily in this and there are a ton more charging locations around now but there was a point where it wasn’t as convenient. With so many more Teslas on the road now, charging on the road can be full and it takes a while vs getting gas. With quite a few impending electric vehicles on the way from Ford, GM, Cadillac, Rivian, etc. we are going to see an explosion of people charging. I recall a time when Tesla was sending notices to people who would not charge at home and instead use their superchargers which is one of the reasons they no longer give supercharging for free with new cars. On the plus side, at 155K miles I have had very few issues with it outside of some early on stuff that were handled at less than 25K miles. It drives like the day it was delivered. Using it for local commuting and city driving (errands, local stuff) and having the truck for road trips/camping/mountains is a good combo. I would encourage anyone considering this as their only vehicle to really think about where it will be parked, access to charging stations in areas they usually travel, electricity rates for charging at home, etc. As an only vehicle, it will require some adjustment compared to having an ICE vehicle.

Will chime in with my experience with a new S&B install. I have a 2021 AT4 6.2 with a fabtech kit on it (coil overs up front with new rear shocks lifted about 3 inches over a stock AT4). From an MPG perspective, I was getting about 13.5 around town and after 500 miles with the S&B, I am seeing in the low 14s. With really reserved driving I get over 15. Not a huge jump but more than I was getting before. I did not reset the MPG counter prior to installing BTW so it was still showing its original numbers. I haven’t done enough highway driving yet to see if there is any benefit there but the fact that it did not go down is a bonus itself. I will say that I have had a few check engine lights since installing mine. Each happened after about 150 miles of driving. The first time I pulled the battery and made sure everything was tight and let it sit for a few hours to clear whatever caused it. Even though I had tightened everything at the time of install, the MAF screws were a bit loose and so was one side of the MAF extension cable. The second time it happened I was our running errands and the light cleared itself and hasn’t come back on with another ~100 miles of driving.

Finally got my S-Type installed yesterday. My 2019 had the GM performance exhaust which was the Borla Touring. Exactly what I was going for with a bit more sound out of the S-Type. At idle and initial acceleration it is definitely louder but not overly and with the windows up on the freeway I cant tell the difference inside between this and the touring exhaust. I had it installed by my dealer and the tech had also recently installed a true dual S-Type and said he couldnt tell the difference between the 2 systems from a sound perspective. Maybe after some break in time there will be a difference but seems like out of the box they are close enough so not really sure what the benefit of the true dual is over the regular one.

On my old 2019 Denali I was running a 2.5 leveling kit with 20x9 +1s and originally had 295/60/20 ridge grapplers. Did not ride well with the E load rated tire and rubbed quite a bit, even with mods to the mud flaps. I swapped the 295/60/20 E load for a 305/55/20 D load ridge grappler. Better ride, tires weighed quite a bit less and no more rubbing.

I don't think so. The OP confirmed that the true dual is a 2-1-2 such that its 2 separate pipes that drop into a single muffler and then split back out. The regular is a bit easier to install as it meets up behind the y pipe past the cats so only needs a single cut. It is also the same design that the touring and atak use (as well as Corsa and other systems) with the single in dual out design. One thing to also notice is that the regular stype and the atak are the same setup with the exception of a small resonator behind the muffler. That can be removed and their straight pipe put in and now you have the atak setup so easy to adjust if the stype isnt loud enough.

Traded my red 2019 Denali with the suspensionmaxx level kit and fuel wheels for a grey 2021 AT4 that the dealer had lifted after it was delivered from the factory. The total lift is 4 inches over the factory AT4 2 inch for a total of 6 inches along with 18 inch fuel wheels running 35x12.5x18 Toyo open country 3s. The kit is a fabtech with 2.5 dirt logic coil overs up front and 2.25 rear shocks. After some research it looks like more like a 5 inch lift plus the 35s which give it the full 6 inch over a stock truck. Rides fantastic, better than my Denali did with the level kit. 2 weekends ago I also took it out on the Burns Canyon Trail (So Cal) which runs from Yucca Valley (Pioneertown) up to Big Bear. It did awesome so looking forward to spending more time off road with this one.

Just finished installing this setup over the weekend. Not much more to it than the OEM kicker add on but sounds a ton better if you are looking for a harder hitting sub. I was also able to cut up the underseat storage box and keep a section of it under the single passenger rear seat so looks pretty factory. Wiring was pretty light as well with just needing the power wire ran down the passenger side from the battery. The harness I added plugged right in between the factory harness and amp with high level speaker wires coming out. It even came with a volume knob that I ran to the driver side under the steering wheel so its hidden away but easy enough to reach down and adjust as needed. For nearly the same price as the kicker setup, this is 2x-3x the sound.

For what its worth, I had a 19 Denali Ultimate with 22s and leveled it and also dropped to 20 inch wheels with D load rated nittos so they weren't the E rated 10 ply heavier tires. Would not do it again. I initially went with an E load rated tire and immediately pulled those and went with a lighter tire to help the ride plus the combined weight of the 20 inch wheels and lighter tire were near the stock weight of the 22s. It did help a bit but the biggest issue was a constant vibration. In 2WD it always felt like a tire was out of balance starting at about 65 MPH and got a bit worse up through 85. In AWD/4WD it always vibrated under acceleration above about 30 mph. I paid to have the tires rebalanced 3 times at 3 different shops after the initial install as well. I didn't drive it anywhere near as much during Covid so it wasn't that big of a deal for a lot of the time that I owned it. I traded it back in May for 21 AT4 that came with a proper coil over lift (fabtech dirt logix) and 35x12.5x18 Toyo Open Country 3s and it rides a ton better than my Denali did - mostly because it isn't constantly shaking at higher speeds.

The big difference with the GM CAI is they were going after CARB certification for compliance and haven't gotten it yet for their 2021 models. You can order a new one with the GM CAI included and its fine so this is only an issue for adding on later, at least for now. This is also why it is available for 2019 and 2020 as they did get the CARB cert for those years. Just about any plug and play CAI will work just fine but you will notice a call out now on almost any site/brand that says not CARB compliant where a state requires it. In CA, smog is only needed after 6 years on a new vehicle and I'd bet half don't keep their trucks that long anyway nor have I heard or seen anyone ever complain about failing smog for a CAI being installed.

I just ordered the same setup. Prices have gone up though. The box with integrated amp is 289 and they also offer the harness referenced above directly for 89. I also ordered a 10 inch JL from Crutchfield. With the converter and wiring it will run just under 600 or about the same cost as the kicker option and install should be similar thanks to the harness that comes off the factory amp. I wanted to keep some of the under seat storage this time (Will have to cut part of it away but should be able to keep 60% of it) so went this route given the pricing being nearly the same as the kicker solution. The 8inch kicker sounded pretty good but this 10 should sound more where I would like it to and save me some of the under seat storage that I wanted to keep. Will follow up with how it turns out. The box will be here in about a month so will be a bit.

Sounds like it’s only for 2021s right now. If it’s ordered and factory installed and delivered that way its fine, it’s just the dealer installed ones after purchase. 2019 and 2020 have CARB approval so not an issue. It sounds like it’s in process for 2021s so just a matter of time before it will be OK for a dealer to add on afterwards. Realistically you could probably install it anyway as no other CAI comes with a tune but those also advertise as also not being CARB client. I’m sure the CARB approval comes with some minor adjustments to AF ratios with the tune which is where the testing comes in and the delay in releasing it. I put intake and exhaust on almost everything I buy and never get things tuned unless it’s an OEM option.

You did the same that I did to my 2019 Denali. It never rode the same and I was running D load rated ridge grapplers to help with the ride. It was really bouncy like it was ricocheting off everything it hit and a constant vibration around 70 like an out of balance tire (had all wheels checked for being out of round and multiple balances from 2 different shops) and the worst was a harsh vibration under load in AWD mode. It wasnt terrible around town so not a huge deal for the last year while I have been home but I always suspected that leveling it wasnt a good idea. I just traded it a few weeks ago for a new 2021 AT4 that the dealer sent off for a proper lift. Its running a Fabtech kit with dirt logic 2.5 coilovers up front and 2.25s in the rear. Its advertised as a 4 inch lift over the stock 2 inch but the rear block went from 2 to 5 so I think its more of a 3 inch lift with the front leveled plus 35s so thats where I think the full 4 inches over stock comes in. This setup came with new UCAs, steering knuckles, chassis braces to properly move the differential down, etc. For wheels and tires I chose 18x9 fuels with Open Country AT3s which are 35x12.5x18. I've put 1K miles on it so far and can say without a doubt that it rides nearly as good as my stock Denali on OEM 22s with highway tires did before I leveled it. This is with my new AT4 also running an E load rated tire. These coilovers make quite a different up front and 0 vibration at any speed in any drive mode now. I know its unfair to compare given the huge difference in cost but after having messed with my old one for the last year and being convinced that leveling it threw too many things off, this basically confirmed what I always suspected.

I replaced a set on my 2019 Denali with the chrome and black ones and that went perfect. I traded my 2019 for a 2021 AT4 2 weeks ago and just replaced the front emblems again but this time with an all black set where the chrome is painted gloss black. They will not lock in all the way for exactly the same reason that you described above. What I noticed is that these all black ones have those tabs also painted and that probably added just enough extra size to those clips. I ended up focusing more on locking the top ones in and on the bottom you can reach your hand in underneath and behind the mounting area and wrap your fingers behind where the clips lock in. I was able to get a few of them locked in this way as you can touch the clips. On top however its impossible for me to wrap my fingers behind to get to those clips. Messing with it this way for a while finally got them all locked in.

The GM one isn't approved yet for 2021 unless it was ordered and factory installed. Dealers cant put them on yet so they wont sell them right now.

Highly doubt it can be done as the suspension, transmission, etc. are all tied together on ARC equipped trucks with a bunch of different sensors and computers controlling everything to work together.

Thought I would share my experience here with a minor upgrade. I have a Denali with the Bose setup and last year I was able to get my hands on the kicker sub add on for about 30% off. GM had some 20% off MSRP thing going last fall and my brothers work for GM and were able to order with another 10% off through a dealer. Install was easy and added a decent amount of sound. A few weeks ago I replaced the door speakers front and rear with JBL concert series along with adding quite a bit of Dynamat. Crutchfield had the speakers discounted a decent amount so I purchased though them. My experience with the door speakers is mixed. The rears are definitely an upgrade as the OEM speakers were basically 1 way and sounded like a clock radio speaker. The rears are now bright and clear. The fronts on the other hand don't sound a lot different than OEM. The OEM speakers were more mid bass focused and even though the new speakers are 3 ways, there are no highs. They are a bit crisper in terms of mid bass vs the muddy low Bose so a very minor upgrade. I'm assuming this is due to how the system is tuned as the front of the truck has the dash speakers that are pretty bright. I left the dash speakers alone for now as they sounded OK. What I have done now is adjusted the fade to the rear a few notches to help lower the volume on the fronts so now quite a bit more sound from the rear can be heard so there is much more of a 360 sound now. Its actually pretty good. One thing I never see mentioned that I thought might be helpful is that most new phones (I always stream and never store any music on board) have built in EQs that can be adjusted. Androids for sure have this under advanced sound settings. There is a 10 band EQ that can be used to fine tune output. I also use premium music services through Tidal, Google Music and LiveXLive (Used to be Slacker). Yes I spend upwards of 30 a month on all of these but the premium versions provide access to the higher quality music so they sound better. Many use the free versions or Sirius XM which will always be at a lower quality due to bandwidth and wont sound as good. They are not terrible but just wont be as good as the high rate stuff. I have adjusted the EQ to help maximize the quality of the sound output as much as possible. At this point I am really happy with the results. Nice and clear and loud. I am going to go bigger on the sub and am mulling over the direction. I think that will round out the system pretty nicely.

The steering wheel and center bezel from the badlander picture is probably hydro dipped vs wrapped. Hydro dipping uses an actual carbon fiber layer and usually gets clear coated when finished. You can see quite a difference between those pieces in terms of color and clarity vs the OEM faux pieces. Wrapping them in vinyl is probably the least expensive option and shouldnt be difficult for most to do. It wont look any better than the OEM pieces but it will cost a quite a bit less and is reversible without having to keep the old parts laying around. Im actually thinking of painting/covering the silver trim ring around the center console where the cup holders are which will mean doing all of the silver to keep it matching. Not sure if others have run into this but the mid day sun hits that trim ring and can be a bit blinding and comes out of nowhere depending upon the direction you are driving and how the sun hits it. Same for having a phone in the charger. Ive already started to mod the center arm rest to support induction charging to resolve that.

Had the 305/55/20 ridge grapplers installed last week. Ride is a ton better than it was with the 295/60 E load rated ridge grapplers. The 305s are D load rated vs the OEM C load rated so they are still a bit stiffer than OEM but still the 305s are a 4 ply tire and softer overall. The visual difference on the truck is so small that I cant even tell the difference so didnt bother taking more pictures. I will say that even with some minor trimming of the mud flaps, the 295/60 had some minor rubbing at full lock. There is 0 rubbing now with the 305s. Even though the the 305s are 1 inch wider (11.5 vs. 12.5) on a 20x9 they are right about 12 wide. Im guessing that on a 20x10 they would be closer to the 12.5. With this change my speedo is also back to normal (was off by 2-3 mph depending upon speed) and I removed 60 lbs of rotating mass (15 per wheel/tire). This seems to be the sweet spot for my truck now so hopefully others with a Denali who are contemplating doing something like this will benefit from this info.

I have another thread going on the wheels and tires thread. I have a '19 Denali and I would highly recommend against using E/F load rated tires with ARC. I went with a suspensionmaxx 2.5 front and 1.5 rear level and a 295/60/20 ridge grappler. GM is a customer of my companies for some software and after having a number of ride related issues since putting on my 295/60/20 E load rated ridge grapplers, I reached out for some help with the suspension. I was finally able to talk to a GM engineer last week and he said that I will likely ruin my shocks with 10-15K miles due to the harshness of the tires and the sensitivity of the ARC system. I had already ordered a new set of 305/55/20s with the normal P car XL load rating but still wanted to ask some questions about the ARC system. Needless to say, replacing the tires should help a lot. He didnt have any concerns with the leveling kit as its not very big and it relocates things properly enough such that it shouldnt be causing any issues with the computer. Replacing the shocks on a denali is also a no go for now. There is a company named XIngineering I think it is that makes eliminators for the old mag ride shocks which then make it so you can put new shocks on. If you pull the shocks as is many of the electronics will fail as its all tied together with the various modes you can change (touring, sport, etc.), ABS, transmission behavior, etc. There are no options for the new ARC system yet so I went with the basic level but I would stay away from E/F load rated tires for the time being.

A 285/60 should fit just fine with either wheel size. A 285/60 is about a 33.5 x 11 and a 285/55 is 32.3 x 11. I would personally run the 285/60 as its only .5 inch taller than stock whereas the 285/55 is nearly an inch shorter. That 285/60 under load will probably sit at about 33 inches on the truck. The 285/55 under load will be less than 32 inches and look small on the truck/wheel plus will cause the speed to be off more.

What width of a 20 inch wheel and what brand/model? Your offset will depend a lot upon that. Im running a 20x9 Fuel Rage with a +1 offset running a 295/60/20 which is a 34x11.5 tire. Running a 20x10 will be different. A 20x9 with a +12 offset seems a bit pushed inside (positive pushes the wheel closer inward) but the backspacing may play a factor here with the wheel design. A 285/55/20 should fit a stock GM 20 inch wheel so what you are asking for should work in theory.

What specifically do you need for this? Looks like the larger tailgate harness, amp, no drill bracket and the speaker harness? Optionally the cutouts if you dont want to do it yourself? https://multiprorocks.com/collections/all/products/soundstream-st4-1000db-blutooth-amplifier https://multiprorocks.com/collections/all/products/multipro-tailgate-harness https://multiprorocks.com/collections/all/products/amplifier-mounting-bracket https://multiprorocks.com/collections/all/products/speaker-wiring-harness

Went back and double checked the wheel and tire weights comparing the OEM 22s vs my new setup. Its actually a 19lb difference (Stock is 85lbs total and current setup is 104lbs) so quite a difference. If I change out to a 305/55/20 Nitto that will drop this to 89lbs so only a 4lb increase over stock but a 15lb difference with my current setup. I must have mixed up one of the tires when I was originally researching all of this as I was looking at a ton of different combinations. I also measured the current amount of space between the current 295/60 tire (runs at 33.9 x 11.77 width per Nitto) and my UCA and its right about 1.75 inches on each side and that was measuring off of the raised tread blocks. The 305/55 runs at 33.2 x 12.44 wide on a 9.5 inch wheel which I think will settle more into a 12.25 on a 9 inch wheel plus they are a bit shorter. Should be plenty of room and I have already done a bit of mud flap trimming to better accommodate the 34 inch tires on there now. Needless to say I went ahead and ordered the 305/55/20 Nittos today with the shop I use agreeing to buy my originals back at a decent price as they only have about 1,500 miles on them. I wont have time to get this done until the end of the week at the earliest but will report back once its done.

I was running the 22s so this new setup is only about 12lbs more per wheel vs 25 but yes they are definitely heavier. I had originally looked at those 305/55s and while they are about .5 inch shorter (The 295/60/20 is a 34x11.5) they are also nearly 1 inch wider and there were concerns about rubbing with the offset of the wheel I chose - 20x9 +1 offset. Running those would also get me under the weight of the stock 22s and a shorter tire but I will have to do some measuring to see what another inch of tire does with rubbing on the UCA. I'm already getting a minor rubbing at full lock with these so anything wider will probably make that quite a bit worse.

Update on mine for those that have been asking how the ride is. The ride is definitely nowhere near like it was and its actually bad in some cases. I was completely expecting a firmer feel and actually wanted a bit more feel to it. I’ve got this annoying issue with the rear hopping all over all the time. I've tried a number of different air pressures all the way down to 30 in the rear cold and no better. The front is butter smooth. Unfortunately in CA, every highway is under construction and with the new tires it’s just a rough ride all the time. I’ve had them balanced 3 times now and even had 1 tire replaced for being impossible to get balanced. I've also had the level kit checked to make sure nothing came loose and everything torqued and no issues there. I even called Suspensionmaxx and had them go over things with me just to make sure something wasn't installed wrong by the shop. One thing they and the shop I worked with pointed out is that with the ARC system, it could be that the heavy duty tires coupled with the stock leaf springs which will deflect a lot more are causing the ride control to attempt to constantly smooth things out which is in turn exaggerating things. I am now looking at putting Deaver leaf springs. Their design is such that it should smooth out any leaf spring based suspension as they use many thinner leafs vs a few thick ones and that on its own will remove some of the natural truck bed bounce we all have anyway. I don’t need it back to stock as I actually prefer a bit more feel of the road but it’s no longer comfortable to drive above 70. Local driving up to 55 is fine but once you get up to highway speeds on anything that isn’t 1000% perfectly smooth it’s pretty annoying.