kodiakdenali

No OnStar or connected services of any kind here. I called OnStar immediately after buying my truck and made them disconnect it all right away. Had to argue with them a little because I still had a few weeks of my free trial, but I wanted it off right then. then I disconnected the antennas in the truck and verified that none of the connected features work. I'm still rather upset that the dealership signed me up and gave them my phone number without clearing it with me first. I was on the way to pick it up and started getting text messages from OnStar and congratulating me on my new truck. had they asked I would have refused. Now I've got an OnStar account I can't get rid of that I never consented to in the first place. At least its disconnected and I'm not getting any messages from it anymore.

It was just the whipple tune. Im unclear on if the hp tuner credits necessary to download that tune could also be used for a custom tune. I would expect so, but not sure. If i wanted a custom tune id definitly go to him no question. There are TRXs around making a smaller pulley really appealing haha. He has a dyno, if youve seen my youtube videos of the borla exhaust, the dyno clips are at his shop. He does tuning. Last time i was there he had a Challenger Demon in getting its stock blower replaced with a 4.5L whipple. There was a turbo charged jeep srt there which apparently lays down about 1300hp. He also had a classic mustang on a lift which was getting a complete build up from the bare body. Hes got a Camaro as his personal vehicle and a truck i think. Basically, dude knows his stuff and has lots of experience.

there's a vent duct that blows cool air from below. not sure if its actually air conditioned or just ventilation, but either way, they did take steps to deal with heat. I've never used my wireless charger either, the location just isn't convenient for me and need to plug in for android auto anyway.

Ernie at EPC is the guy who did mine, I couldn't possibly recommend him enough. He did fantastic work. I know he's further than you wanted to travel, but if you were looking for feedback on his work, I couldn't be happier. He had it for...2 and a half days start to finish, but I did buy a new ECU to do the replacement so my truck wouldn't be down while he was working on it. He was able to find the ECU for me, which was not an easy task at least at the time. I also had him install performance dual springs on mine as I was right in the middle of the build range when GM had that defective spring issue that was killing 6.2s, and I had just put a blower on it so warranty should a spring break...right! He did phenomenal work on both jobs.

I really like my 22s, they look phenomenal on this truck. I run 20s for my winter wheels though and for your consideration, the ride is noticeably smoother with the taller sidewalls of the tires when running 20s.

I was clearing out old stuff from old projects when I came across these and was about to scrap them when I thought...someone might actually be interested in doing something with them. These are late prototypes but not the absolute final design. Used for design refinement, test fitting, and it looks like a little texture testing. The black part fits into the center dash storage compartment and can be used as a platform for any kind of mod you would want in that area such as a gauge pod or anything else under the sun. the second part is a partial prototype of the 5 gauge center pod. Unfortunately I don't see the second part of it laying around anywhere, but I will keep my eyes open. they are far from complete and if anyone wants them would need to be able to do the work to turn them into something usable. they are light weight but a little bulky, I imagine shipping would be in the $15 range? but I won't know for sure unless someone wants them and I back them up to get an estimate. They were going to waste otherwise so I figured why not offer? Here's the project video that shows what I used them for:

My implementation of this idea...

I hear ya. You might find Freecad reasonable to learn then. its interface and UI and all are not quite like autocad but you make your 3d designs in one of a few different ways. you can insert primitives and do booleans on them, or you can draw 2D schematics then extrude them into 3D space. then you can pick a face on any surface in that mesh and create a new 2D sketch on that face and extrude or pocket to add geometry or make holes. And you can easily fillet or chamfer edges by selecting a 3D object, a face, or specific edges. 2D cad experience might translate fairly well.

I use openscad for almost everything. I'm a programmer so the code based modelling is intuitive. Unfortunately I have no experience with tinkercad, heard of it, never used it. I also do some work in freecad. The radius isn't the easiest thing in open scad either but with the right libraries its easy enough to produce. its pretty simple in Freecad though.

I'll even give you a hand if you need it. What software do you like to use for 3d models? the critical dimensions that worked for me, the ones for the part that gives a good tight fit on the inside of the square cross member are: width 68mm, height 71mm, corner radius 20mm. on my plugs actually the corners are the primary area of contact (where the fit is the most interference), this keeps them nice and tight but helps to make sure they are removable for periodic cleaning throughout the life of the truck. After all there are other passages for stuff to get inside the frame other than the open ends of the cross members. When capped it should reduce the introduction of debris and salt a huge amount. It's still good to be able to occasionally flush them out just in case.

I so wish the truck was like this stock! I love this modification. Unfortunately is wasn't the easiest thing in the world to pull off, but I did a pretty detailed video on how I did it here: The project isn't 100% done yet, its kind of in a testing phase, but what's left is just cosmetic really. the functionality is working great and I love it!

Modified my mode switch to put my truck in sport mode automatically on startup. So much better!

It's much easier to show how this was done in video, so after a bit of discussion check out the project video! For those of us into sports cars and trucks, sport mode is the every day setting for my Denali! When I first got this truck I thought the ergonomics of this mode selector, with the rotate to toggle was really odd. Why isn't it just a rotary switch? And why does it keep going back to auto when I keep telling it to be in sport? I've gotten into the habit of rotating the mode knob to put the truck in sport after engine start up every time, but that gets annoying! So many different things I have to do and settings to change every time I drive to make it work the way I want. I'm just used to sport mode, shift speed, shift pattern, steering feel, ARC settings etc It just drives the way I want when its in sport. I only use auto when I'm on a road trip and I am ok with the softer suspension feeling which is more comfortable when you're just cruising down the interstate. But if I ever forget to use sport while normal driving around town I'm instantly reminded why I never do this. Why are you shifting so soon!?! This thing drives like crap in normal mode So, something had to be done. If you look at the schematics in the upfitter guide the mode selection is not as straight forward as I'd like. it doesn't just have a discrete wire that gets ground for example when the knob is rotated to tow and mode. It uses a high and low reference and a single output wire and it must put a different resistance on the circuit when rotated left or right. I don't know why they did that, but it makes it this task much more difficult. I ultimately had to electronically turn the mode knob by attaching directly to the pins on the actual switch inside the mode/transfer case switch to rotate the knob. I also got switched power and ground from the switch contacts and was able to do this without modifying anything on the truck side. all the connections are done in the mode switch itself. I needed things to work with proper timing so I designed as circuit board with a small microcontroller on it to automatically rotate the mode knob shortly after the ignition is turned on. Obviously I don't just want sport mode every time. sometimes I'm on a road trip and also winter seems to happen once a year, so instead of sport mode automatically I added a rotary switch of my own to select the default startup mode, a switch that doesn't spring back to normal all the time but stays where I put it until I decide to put it somewhere else! I can set the circuit to leave things stock for auto mode, or to automatically set the truck to sport, or off-road as I want. I wish the truck had some way to do this factory, it really gets on my nerves when things keep resetting the settings I choose making me fix it constantly! Problem solved now! This project is still ongoing, the install is not finalized yet but its summertime so I don't drive my truck that often right now, I want to allow plenty of drive time to make sure it all works fine before I finish everything up. So, here's the video of the project for anyone interested:

hmm. well, as a big supporter of open source, I will think about this after a time. I've been too occupied with other projects lately, I really need to finish this all up. I still have a new tester for the round piece I need to go install and see how it fits. its been sitting here for several days. life is too busy!

Thanks for the compliments! I'm glad they are working out for everyone. I am going to design plugs for the other holes too, might as well right? I got distracted by some other priorities so I haven't finished them yet. Making them to save my own truck from rust but would definitely be willing to make them for others as well. The design is not quite done yet but here's what it looks like so far. I added a little bevel to this one for easier alignment and it also features the same outer ring which I think looks nicer as it covers the outside of the cross member as well while also providing a perfect prying point in case they ever need to be removed for occasionally flushing the cross members to make sure they stay clean. I need to test fit prototype 2 to see how close I am to a final design. I also will make some for the oblong cross member up front but haven't started that one yet.