Phatty

Search feature is pretty unusable and did not turn up anything on this. I am looking to add a second battery inside engine compartment to wire up a 2000w invertor in the bed to. The idea is that the second battery would be used to handle whatever I want to run off the invertor while driving or parked. Yes I can just put second battery in the bed of the truck, throw in an isolator and wire to primary but I am looking to see if anyone has done a second battery under the hood, I would prefer not to have a battery in the bed of the truck. Something a little more factory and a little cleaner if possible.

I ended up with the RetraxOne XR that I got on blackfriday for $1160 shipped. Standard Bed (6'7") I absolutely love it. Goes through carwash fine, protected stuff during blizzards, I have driven nearly 4k miles since I got it chasing snowstorms and its worked amazing in -20 degrees, rain, snow, etc. Very happy with it. I plan on getting crossbar system and bike rack stuff sometime before April since I have a big family camping trip to the grand canyon planned.

It looks like you can slide things underneath it all the way to the front of the bed up to 10"-12" high or so. I just got it delivered yesterday, havent installed it yet. It does stick out from the front of the bed to the tailgate about 8-10" and then down around a 8-10" as well. Ill get some good measurements once installed.

I dont know much about the knolly! Looks like a 170/160mm alum frame enduro? Finally got the cover from fedex today. Making appointment for local shop to put it on. Quoted me $150 for installation. Sounds better than 2 hours of my time at 20 degrees outside (no heated shop for me). Ill post up some pics once I have it on.

And within seconds of posting, Retrax announces 15% off sitewide. On the retrax site with 15% and taxes it came to 1,275.38 I went to https://tonneaucovered.com/ and called them. $1169 free shipping, no tax. Placed my order. Retrax One XR, 6'7" standard bed. The standard embark poly from GMC with the 25% off and tax would have been $1035. Feel like I did pretty well. since the xr is usually $100 over the standard poly I would have only saved $34 had I been able to get it through GMC. Good luck and happy shopping guys!

Im looking at the Retrax One XR model that has the slot in the side rail to attach cross bars to put on extra storage bins, bike racks, skis, etc. So i wont ever strap anything to the cover itself. And like beauso79, the option to slide and lock is important to me. Ive been waiting on Retrax to get a black friday deal out, every other tonneau cover company has 15-30% off. Id do the 25% off from GM in a heartbeat if it was the right version. Hopefully Retrax announces something today...

I love aluminum. I just think its overkill for a cover. I'm not going to be standing up on it and the poly will hold up to weather just fine. My truck is parked in garage and gets taken out for mtn biking, snowmobiling, camping, basically play time or family trips etc. Hard to justify extra $500 for aluminum when it doesn't really benefit my situation at all.

Yes It appears to be the wrong description. The Poly will only hold up to 200lbs. Aluminum will hold 500. https://retrax.com/retraxone-xr/2020/gmc/sierra-1500

So both of those you posted are the aluminum covers. The difference is the LS has the rail slot for Crossbar attachments, hence why its $100 more. The poly version NON-LS is here for $1259: https://accessories.chevrolet.com/product/standard-bed-embark-poly-retractable-tonneau-cover-by-advantage-associated-accessories-19416970?year=2020&make=Chevrolet&model=Silverado 1500&modelId=491&body=Crew Cab Pickup&bodyId=22&wheel=Standard Box&wheelId=652&trim=LT&trimId=430&drive=4WD&driveId=8&engine=3.0L L6 DIESEL&engineId=17881&bodyNumDoors=5&categoryId=98027 They do not appear to sell the LS in a poly. I tried calling a couple dealers yesterday and never got through to an actual parts representative... surprise, surprise.

Update: GM is running the 25% off MSRP. They have the Embark LS Retractable Aluminum which is the same as the Retrax Pro XR with install at dealer for 1,650.35 However I do not see the Embark LS in poly on the GM website. Thats too bad, with 25% off I would snap that up in a heart beat. Does anyone know if this can be ordered from the dealer in Poly? I can get the Retrax One XR (Poly) for 1299. But would have to install myself, which is fine, I just like having it all under warranty at the dealer if possible.

Looking for deals on Tonneau covers. No folding, no soft shell, must have locking. Would like something comparable to the Retrax One XR (cheapest I have found is 1299). Locking and side channels for attachments above the bed for bikes/skis, etc. Does GM have anything going on? If you see any good deals post them up please!

Order the black vinyl stickers off ebay for like $30. Then super clean the red part of the letters with alcohol. Once dry make sure that the letters are not baking in the sun or that its too hot out. You also dont want it below freezing. Then slowly and carefully put the vinyl into place over top of the red letters.

Well update on p26C0. i cleared the code so I could drive back home. Dealer did nothing about it. It has not come back. They will not fix it unless it throws code. Took another long camping trip and threw code p0421. It put me into limp mode at 65mph limit after 175 miles ( i was 300 away from home). This time I did not clear it. Dealer said unless it was "ACTIVE" that they were not authorized to fix it. They cleared it and gave me truck back. A bunch of BS. Keep the code so we can fix it, so I keep the code and they dont fix it. I cant win. This is getting old. Truck has 8000 miles on it. Beginning to think pulling 7000lb trailers in the rocky mountains is too much for this truck. Whats going to happen on my next long camping trip... stay tuned.

Well threw a code... 300 miles from home. I had just dragged my trailer (7500lbs with water)- 280 miles from home mostly on the freeway at 75mph, over several very large mountain passes. I then was hauling the trailer up to a ski resort at 10,000 feet up an 6-18% grade road (https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/4005-beaver-canyon-byway.html) for the curious. We had a race we were running up there and wanted a shower and comforts for when we were done. She was running hot pulling those steep turns and three turns from the top threw the code and went into limp mode. We were there 3 days. we camped a couple of miles from the race start and so after driving back and for a bunch on day 2 i finally got the code to clear with my scanner. Dealership said to leave trailer and limp home. I had no locks and didnt want another weekend shot. I ended up making the drive home late at night (cooler temps) and much lower speeds and limped home. Code never came back on. Truck is at dealer, who says they may not be able to do anything since I cleared the code... Anybody else get this code yet?

Blacked em out... but left them on. Gotta get rid of the Sierra on the tailgate or something...

Yes oil temps were like 255-295 constantly. Ill have to add the generic pid.

Well I wanted to report back on my trip. Did 1500 miles with 2 different trailers. 1st trailer is my personal one. 32 foot imagine and we were fully loaded with 2 kids, dog, and toys galore for the week. I’m sure it was over 9k. we averaged 11.2 mpg at speeds of 75-80 for that 7 hour portion. We parked the camper and I then drove 4.5 hours to get my sister and her family and her camper and bring them up. Going to get them I averaged 31 mpg at 75mph. This was a 28 foot jayco around 4500 fully loaded. I got 11.8 pulling that trailer into a 30moh headwind at speeds around 60-65. I didn’t pull that trailer home as her husband came up later with their truck. These was white knuckle drive as I didn’t have distribution hitch and was getting pushed around. going home with my trailer we got 10.7 mpg with 20 mph headwind and 75mph speed I didn’t see a lot of 10th gear and spent more time in 7-9. I did get fairly hot on one long 6% grade where I held at 75mph and saw coolant temps to 228 and tranny to 215. 90 degrees outside. Egt were pegged at 1260 for couple miles. But she came right back down. The oil temps on my obd- torque pro never read correctly. Wanted to push the truck and she responded nicely. I’ll slow down to 65 on that pass next time. were downsizing our trailer soon as warranty expires and in very pleased with how this truck pulls. I include photos of hitch height(21”) hitch sag (17.75”) hitch with distribution bar (19.25”) and with airbags filled (20.25”). i went through 7.5 gallons of def (full at start and full at end) which seemed like a lot. But we were high altitudes and going over MTn passes and running high speeds towing.

Note the cruise control setting. I had just exited freeway. These trucks are ridiculous.

Came from a 2014 Ram hemi 5.7. Was a great truck. No complaints at all. Actually wanted a new 2020 Ram. Until I drove the 3.0 dmax. The 3.0 with 10 speed just drives so nice. The GM interior is like years behind the RAM and the ride quality in the ram is so much better. But I am in love with this new dmax and the way it does everything I need efficiently is the reason I snagged it. That and it was about 15k cheaper than the Ram...

Couple of photos 1 is with no air in bags, hitch height 21” 2 is connected no equalizer bars no air bags : sags to 17.75” 3 is equalizer bars but no air bags 19.25” 4 is equalizer bars and air bags up at 40 psi 20.25”

My elevation (x31 with rancho shocks), when hitch height was properly set sagged 3.75". (7k trailer, 600lbs tongue weight, wife, dog, 2 kids, 5 bikes in truck bed). I ended up throwing on airbags, eliminated the squat easily, still have decent distribution weight on front (need to run over scale for firm numbers). She pulls really really well with my 7k trailer. Ill post up bunch of pics friday when we hook up for our long trip, including sag with empty air bags, etc...

Great write up! This is so similar to my set up. 32 foot 7k lb trailer that we will be setting out in on Friday for a 1000-1500 mile roadtrip. My previous tow vehicle was 2006 LBZ duramax. I did at the airbags to my 3.0 and set up my distribution hitch. It improved trailer ride dramatically from my first camper run. I think I will hit the scale on this trip just to see where I am at. Did you measure sag at the hitch or wheel well at all? Have you done this trip with your old Dmax to compare against?

No, I didnt scale it. I did have the hitch lower initially for ride home from storage, I didnt have my measure or tools to adjust there, but it still sagged like a mofo. Honestly after setting proper height and adding the bags, she tows so damn good its ridiculous for a 1/2 ton. I've towed this trailer with 2015 Hemi, 2006 LBZ, 2018 Ram 2500 Cummins, and the 2020 3.0. The smooth quiet easy shifts of the 3.0 is crazy nice and ride quality was top notch. I miss the power of the HD diesels up the big mountain passes, but everything else the 3.0 wins easily. 1500 mile trip coming up starting friday! Ill snap some photos of the setup before I air up the bags so people can see. Cant wait to see your truck with the lift!!

I came over to the 3.0 from the 5.7 hemi. I loved the ram truck, the ride, the interior, it was a great truck. I could not find any sort of deal at all on the the ram ecodiesel (generation 3 motor) or I probably would have picked that up just because I love the ram interior and ride. The 5.7 hemi pulling my rv and snowmobiles every weekend was always redlined over any sort of hill. I cant even imagine the 5.3 RPMs. I ended up buying a 06 LBZ just to handle the RV but frankly after riding around in the new 1/2 tons the ride quality on the 06 was crap and I sold it within a year. Enter the 3.0 and I have to say this thing paired with the 10 speed is a freaking dream drive. Its quiet, smooth, torquey, and surprisingly quick. It handles my RV just fine at 1900 rpms cruising on the freeway and no redline everytime I try and go up an incline. Have not had it in the winter but Im expecting 18+mpg towing 2 sleds couple days a week. The only real extra expense besides the intitial $2500 will be fuel filters and a couple of dollars for def. It takes the same quarts on oil as the 5.3 I believe. Ill make all of that up at the pump easily because it gets about double the MPG towing than my hemi did and probably what the 5.3 would get too. All that said, even if I dont tow like I do, Id still probably drive the 3.0. Its just so damn nice to drive, only wish it had a comparable interior to the new rams.