XY74

At first glance, I was thinking $434 per tire was kinda high for the LTX Platinum, but sadly almost everything is well over $400 each. I think you have 20's on your truck? I have a set of Cooper Discoverer Stronghold on my 2004 winter beater and they hum quite noticeably. Good in the snow and not horribly expensive which was goal #1 for that truck.

I probably didn't get all the miles out of them I could have. As I recall, I had a long trip with the camper coming up when I changed them. I admit to being a bit of a tire snob. You pay for cheap tires every time you drive. We bought a used car out in New Mexico a couple years ago for the wife to drive to work in the winter. It had some brand brand new El Cheapo chinese tires on it. I hated them so much on the drive home they were gone within a week.

I didn't mind the OEM Goodyears, but mine were done at 40K. Maybe the heavy oil burner didn't help that.

I had a set of Michelin LTX Defenders on my 2020 and was very happy with them. Excellent in the rain and super quiet. They had about 30K on them when I traded the truck. However looks like they quit making them and have changed the model to "Defender LTX Platinum". Probably as good or better but they are pricey. I have had good luck looking at the customer reviews on Tire Rack. You have to filter them a bit on your own.

I was never an oil burner guy until I bought one in 2020. It's wonderful to have effortless power towing the camper, set the cruise and drive. No more monitoring momentum and hills. I guess I have been "lucky", both this truck and my last truck have been perfectly reliable. Most of them probably are, whatever brand. I will say I have never felt like I needed more exhaust brake and unless you are towing way heavier than 10K, it's a non issue. So to me it comes down to what do you want to spend your money on? It will never balance out on pure need. Of course that is probably true of most of the things we buy for ourselves. I'm pretty sure I don't NEED this Ultimate, but it sure is nice and I am not getting any younger!

I would say keep your HC, it's a really nice truck with a mere 21K. You'll be paying quite a bit more in the long run for a lateral move at best. You will miss the diesel. I would miss my old HC if I didn't trade up!

I put that on an Excursion I had, definitely worked as advertised. It did make the empty ride worse, but that truck was always pretty stiff anyway. Rode and handled much better with the trailer.

100% agree on the get a beater for commuting idea. I live in the rust belt and have long used a winter beater, the thought of my new truck covered in salt makes me ill. Different reason than yours, but same result. Keep the miles off the family vacation specialist and put them on something cheap to operate.

https://www.helminc.com/helm/product2.asp?Make=GMC&Model=SIER&Year=2025&Category=2&class_2=GMC&mk=GMC&yr=2025&md=Sierra&dt=Owner+Manuals&module=&from=result&Style=helm&Sku=87855255A&itemtype=B $55 to get a paper copy. Gotta keep skimming the costs down for the Generous Mother. In their defense, I suspect you can find a lot of paper owner's manuals in junkyards dutifully stowed in the glove box of said junk vehicle with nary a crease in them. I believe you can also download a pdf copy to your phone in the Chevy/GMC app.

I went back and watched the Motor Oil Geek video about fuel additives on YT. The high potassium is probably coming from the XPD fuel additive I have been using every other tank. Interestingly he says in a pinned comment that if you are not doing oil analysis, then use XPD. If you are, then Power Service is better. Not sure why that distinction. At any rate, I will probably try the PS additive when I run out of XPD. Not sure how I would ever tell the difference anyway....... Is it correct that high pottasium can also be a marker of a coolant leak? The test was $50 with TBN. I had an empty test bottle rattling around in my toolbox for quite a while, I clearly heard it say "use me" when I was about to change the oil on the truck last month. I mainly wanted to make sure the oil wasn't totally worn out when GM decided I should change my oil.

I sent in a sample for a baseline, I'll probably get another after a couple more oil changes. The OLM was at 15% and about 6000 miles on the oil and 16K on the engine, Rotella T6 15w40. Seems like it's OK.

I had 72K on my 2020 truck when I traded it right at 1 year ago. (found out about recall when they ran a vin check) The transmission worked perfectly. (so did the rest of the truck) I dropped the pan and changed the filter at 45K, it all looked fine. I have 17K on the new truck, it's been perfect. (knock knock) Both are diesels FWIW. 75% of the time has a trailer of some sort attached. No doubt it's a real issue, but sure doesn't seem to be that widespread.

89 nice!

Call me crazy, but it sure seems my 2025 takes more oil than my 2020 did. Just did my 3rd oil change on this truck and it took 11 quarts, but I always remember 10 on the 2020. I let it drain 10-15 minutes, but not more usually.

Does it ever get cold enough in Wilmington to gel the fuel?