Chuck FB

I knew when I bought my truck that it had off road hill decent or craw control or whatever they call it and rolled my eyes at that but it gets throw on with other options my truck has, I just never had a heads up if the highway speed regular cruise setting had anything to do with the brakes and that took me by surprise. If you've ever been to the top of Pikes Peak and watched those ahead of you on the way down with their brake lights on constantly, one can guess they are probably not gearing down or not enough anyway if their vehicle will allow and a good reason their is a brake check spot part way down where they use an infra red heat gun to check how hot ones brakes are front and rear. Your right that once one gets out of the front range by Denver and I've not been on that stretch of 285 between Denver and Fairplay myself but I know its high and Fairplay at 10000 feet, Buena Vista at 8000, it drops a bit from there but then your going back up and over the 11000 pass and Durango is at 6500 . So yes your definitely right that 6500 and a lot higher is the theme of going anywhere out in that direction from Denver but hey, the down hill sections give fantastic fuel mileage !. I don't even look at the fuel pumps for what premium costs here, since I live on a farm and up to this point get fuel delivered I am rarely in front of a fuel pump and when I am, I am often using card lock bulk fuel stations so it tells me what the price is AFTER I buy the fuel. Looking up on gas buddy and converting to US gallons but in Canadian dollars, regular on average of the prices listed was around 5.95 and premium is around 7.00 . That was one reason I did not go for the 6.2 half ton aside from its lack of carrying/towing if one was going by the rule of using premium fuel and until recently one could only buy regular farm gas if playing the few cents off game for farm dyed fuel for a "farm licensed pickup". But yes I hear you on the fuel price difference and like the diesel theme with it often being more expensive then gas it doesn't have quite the charm to it either as it once did although right now here for some reason the price of diesel has come down more so its now inline with the price of regular gas.

I am sure that was quite the pass experience and not a great place to experience during the winter when the conditions are not good. I've seen video of that pass and also more detailed information and pictures about the wrecks at that one hair pin turn where tractor trailers have flown right off the cliff and I am sure from all the warning signs that you know the exact curve that was !. After all there is a reason why a song was made about Wolf Creek Pass !. By the way and I didn't realize this either when I bought my truck as its nothing I even thought of that would be programmed into the cruise control and this occurs in either the basic or the more advanced cruise that controls your distance behind a vehicle and that is the brakes going down a hill are being applied as soon as the vehicle goes a certain speed over the set cruise speed. While it certainly does force downshifts in the transmission as you found out with cruise on while going down hill, its also dragging the brakes as needed to keep the speed controlled to what the cruise was set to. For me, I find that unsettling simply because I have no concept then as to how MUCH brake input is being used a and just how hot are those brakes getting and the wear factor as well. I can see that system getting a person into trouble on long mountain grades while pulling a trailer as it would not only be standing on the brakes of the pickup without any driver input, it would also be automatically applying the trailer brakes and it could cause a run away unit by overheating the brakes. Its one thing on a shorter hill and if the driver allows it to do its thing but on a long mountain grade is where things could get so out of hand. As someone a while back on this forum said, they had someone following them at night I believe on a down grade and had the cruise set and the person behind them could see the brake lights being energized all the way down the hill. I figured when I saw your comment that you didn't know and would have no way of knowing that your truck was applying the brakes and that you would and rightfully so assume you only used the brakes when you pressed on the pedal to slow down more than the cruise set speed for the slower sharp curves. So its good knowledge to know this about the newer GM trucks, certainly when doing any descending on long mountain grades. In the future try kicking off the cruise and use the the manual mode on a pass to see what that is like as I know myself when I first experienced it I thought no way can this engine be holding me back this well and tried the same hill in manual mode and sure enough the engine was revving way up and still could not hold the trucks speed down like it could in cruise mode. Fuel mileage, that is where a really low sleek type of car can do better at higher speeds, certainly it starts sucking fuel too but a tall pickup is pushing massive amounts of air and also allowing a lot more air under it and the tow mirrors as in elephant ears pushing through the wind as well. Driving like grandpa is about as good as one can do when driving one of these if trying to get the best fuel economy they can. I bet these trucks would get the best mileage they can if driven on a freeway in Florida if not busy traffic at a sedate speed and that sea level elevation without hills, vastly different then Colorado !.

They can speak the truth ( and for arguments sake lets say they are speaking the truth based off of real data they have generated by UOA's and dyno data etc ) and inform those interested in their efforts such as us being remotely interested in what goes on under the hood so to speak. And their own gain as in the ones producing the videos, often comes down to money gained from viewership or in a round about way by prompting their business and expertise. Besides, it was GM themselves that came out with the technical bulletin to have owners of certain years of 6.2 engine to come to the dealership for a pico test of the engine and if it passed that then the engine was "officially" given the stamp of approval to switch over to the new warranty approved use of 0W-40 oil. GM could easily have just done the pico test ( or do nothing and pretend there was no problem with the engines ) and sent them back out the door and never utter the words 0W-40 relative to the 6.2, to ever see the light of day but they did ... Of course in Lake Speeds situation I imagine its a lot of dollars out of his own gained funds from youtube ( and he clearly states that as well ) that he turns around and puts back into paying these specialty oil testing facilities to conduct testing to come up with results from such testing. But at the end of the day the percentage of the driving public that see these videos are probably fairly small, no different then a forum like this as only so many GM owners have any interest in reading posts on a GM forum.

I caught three different videos, Lake Speeds and two of Gregs videos on the weekend and I instantly thought of your truck and if you had heard about these items yet which is why I took a peek in the 1500 series just now. Some very interesting findings were discovered by the looks of it and I was shocked at the results from the oil testing as the low engine speed with high torque load places a very different load on the bearings and hits home that viscosity certainly has relevance depending on the engine type and its operating speed and load.

I am surprised you got 15 going across Colorado as the up and down and the high elevation over all are never kind to fuel mileage, however that also goes to show that the much easier drive to North Platt was worse in fuel economy which at least in my mind I conclude that forcing a brick through the air faster takes a lot of power !. Mind you that also depends on if one has a tail wind or head wind as that can change the picture big time but that is always the luck of the draw situation. Would I be guessing right that going to Durango you took 285 and then 160 and going over Wolf Creek Pass ?. I never had the chance of going over that pass myself, certainly a few other passes and the very interesting scenic 550 Million Dollar highway with Red Mountain Pass as one of them which is also one of the 11000 foot passes. Did you pull it down into manual mode and shift down some to hold yourself back ?.

There is a Chevy joke in there as well ...

Fred was in the fertilized egg business. He had several hundred young pullets, and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs He kept records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced. This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now, he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells. Fred's favourite rooster, old Butch, was a very fine specimen, but this morning he noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all! When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover. To Fred's amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring. He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one. Fred was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the City Show and he became an overnight sensation among the judges. The result was the judges not only awarded old Butch the "No Bell Piece Prize," but they also awarded him the "Pulletsurprise" as well. Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making. Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the unsuspecting populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention. Vote carefully in the next election, you can't always hear the bells.

Certainly as the new model year comes along and that may mean a new refreshed model such as for example the upcoming 2027 half tons and lets just say for arguments sake that current year trucks are in decent supply on the new lot and its not guaranteed but some years and depending on the current economic state that buyers may turn their nose up at the so called old stock/old model and want the "new new" shiny object. When those stars align and in this case GM corporate puts out a great discount on what is becoming the old stock as well as dealers willing to deal to get that inventory off the lot, that's when it would be easier to deal as long as, as it was pointed out that your willing to take what is there for choice of inventory in an area that makes sense to you shopping wise. What you don't get deals on or typically so is the incoming new toy in the showroom, that is where if they don't have much inventory of the new model year and customers that are willing to pay to beat the Joneses and will pay top dollar for it just because. Also sometimes there is that vehicle that few are interested in for whatever reason in how its equipped that becomes two years old and they really want to get rid of that vehicle. New in all cases and warranty the same typically although plan on changing that battery out on the older used one, lot rot of batteries with todays vehicles that draw power constantly. I too was just too leery about buying a newer used truck as I know how all too many seem to treat their vehicle maintenance wise and up here in Canada there wasn't the used market to choose from like one would assume because of all the bull crap going on with under a year old trucks and under certain mileage being bought up by USA brokers and being hauled/driven south to be sold in the sates so the used price was too demanding here. Also a certain insurance coverage I wanted was only available on a new truck at time of purchase and not even a so called new demo on a lot could have that no depreciation loss coverage. I made the best deal I could on a truck I personally chose for options on an order so they knew it was most likely sold before it ever hit their lot so no lot interest charges for the dealer to swallow. I also wanted a new vehicle so that I could plaster the crap out of it underneath with fluid film and see if that will help slow down the rust issues we have here due to the crap they spread on the winter roads.

By rights these trucks should come from the factory or at least have a factory optional anti sway bar for towing high trailers and certainly slide in campers. GM always used to have their trucks fitted with rear sway bars if optioned properly but for some odd reason don't do that anymore. Certainly a sway bar would help that issue a lot, not the ride though but the leaning/control.

Since the ride appears better, does that mean they are adjusted up so that it lifted the truck up some and therefore taking some of the workload off of the main spring pack and also preventing the main pack from landing down onto the bottom overload spring ?. A friend of mine put them on his half ton chev for towing a bumper pull RV as the half ton has rather sad springs to begin with and carrying much weight isn't what they were made for ... ride is the half tons bonus though because of that. I imagine it probably states in the instructions or application that its not meant to fit the 1 ton or I assume it would not fit as the overload leafs would be in the way and perhaps even the frame pad for that matter when the suspension would get stroked out with weight or a big bump.

Great info to have, I printed out what you had in your document as well as Newdudes post as I could see this mistake with the hardware happening very often if not realizing what type of special bolts are being used and just guess on bolt size for torque or the good enough "easy" method as per whack in the used bolts with an impact and send it !.

If all oil manufacturers had to meet a higher standard for not just the initial filtering of the oil but that they had to improve on their formulation so that the oil cleaned the engine such as the Valvoline R&P or the new Mobil product ( assuming it works similar of course ), and the oil was changed on an interval based on good UOA data, there shouldn't be any gremlins running around like miniture rats on top of your heads to be washed down into the oil pan below

A while back on another thread there were comments and thoughts on air filters and I know that can tend to be a bit of a hot topic because of outfits that have a vested interest in selling aftermarket air boxes fitted with the gauze type of oiled elements touting the lower air restriction. However and unfortunately I don't know where I have seen the test results in the past about the amount of dirt through a test procedure that these style of filters do pass more dirt through than a properly designed ( not some cheap Chinese knock off ) paper/synesthetic media filter can do. Lake Speed had a conversation on that topic with one of the employees at Donaldson and there seemed to be a consensus of these oiled filters falling short in the absolute percentage of dirt holdback. Which all ties back into how good the air filter is on the engine at keeping dirt out as that is going to reflect as a contaminant introduced into the oil as well as cylinder wear even if some of that dirt does find its way out of the exhaust rather then the crank case. Put another way that one can throw the kitchen sink at filtering the oil and using a bypass system which I fully expect will do nothing but good for the oils contamination but if the air filter system isn't doing its job then its preventing the engine from reaching the best wear/lasting case scenario instead. Now perhaps this topic is or isn't for this particular thread but Grumpy Bear or anyone else for that matter, do you have access to some scientific trust worthy testing on engine air filter types to get some proper comparison data to post up.

The not as clean as one would assume theme with the new engine oil, that reminds me of comments over the years with mechanics not always being so on board with filling an oil filter, not from the center anyway due to that typically being the clean side of the filter, danger of some contaminant falling into the filter if not careful but the realization now that the oil may not be as pure as one had assumed it would surely be. Yes it would be possible to fill from the small holes but that means messing with something to prop open the anti drain back valve if the filter is so equipped and not damage that valve in the process. Me, I have hardly ever prefilled an engine oil filter however I have prefilled diesel fuel filters with a filter on a fuel bulk tank and for anyone that has messed with diesel engines with filters and units that have a limited or no way of priming them, putting on a dry filter is a bad day to say the least with those crappy systems. But anyway back to not so clean engine oil, indeed perhaps its not so bad after all that I have not made a practice of prefilling oil filters. As Grumpy Bear commented on keeping things clean, that I really have to wonder what the typical practice is at a dealer or any other shop that changes engine oil, do they make sure to wipe or wash off the oil plug and certainly if it fell into some gunk or onto a dirty floor, or that they wiped the filter mounting flange and didn't go and use some dirty rag and end up adding dirt to the inside of the head of the filter mount. Or be careless in how they stored or handled the new filter and if they were bumping into items under the vehicle with the filter opening facing up and having dirt drop right into the filter and if so right into the threaded center that is on the clean side. The top side, did they clean away the built up gunk that may be around the filler before removing the cap or to be really careful at that point that something right close to the filler hole that was hidden under the caps flange won't fall into the engine. Or did they clean the funnel or was that just laying there covered in oil from the oil change before and dust kicked up from sweeping the floor stuck to the oil and now that will go running into the next persons engine due to just not cleaning the funnel as "they won't know anyway" attitude as that young guy is more worried about taking a break so he can go outside and smoke a joint. Just random points that came to mind when I think about what some hired personnel may do that the shop foreman has no idea of or perhaps the whole attitude of some shops may be "eh ... who cares, they will never know the difference anyway".

And I was thinking of this factor as well in that if a customer does not well maintain their vehicle ( which means going by the manufactures schedule in most cases ), that vehicle in theory by the time they trade it in or sell it privately will have potentially a shorter life span on some major components as a result and so that vehicles life either cut short or a lot of parts thrown at it to keep it on the road. In either case the manufacturer wins because its either selling more parts or that vehicle has hit the grave yard and becomes a win win for the manufacturers. So indeed the salesmen love a scenario like this .. yes yes, treat that vehicle I sold you like garbage so I will be seeing you sooner then you think for your next new vehicle purchase ! OnTheReel, I looked up my OLM percentage for the last oil change that was done with 2500 miles on it and it read 48% and that was an interval through the winter so more idle time and so on and while not scientific, when I changed the oil it had this weird color to it that I can't say I have seen before and to keep in mind that I burn dyed fuel but so does all other gas vehicles I use and I have to wonder if fuel dilution and allowing more of that dye into the oil was showing up or what but it sure didn't jump out at me as saying I was dropping the oil way too soon. Instead it made me think of what a local long time mechanic had commented on with my truck that he recommended I change the oil every 2500 miles as the number one thing to keep this engine type in good mechanical service. But again its not like that oil was sent to a lab to see where its life was at so this is only anecdotal.

I hear you, its just not something one would even think of that the new oil in the container isn't filtered to a spec one would expect it to be. As to a passenger vehicle theme and the maintenance requirement to meet to ensure a warranty is honored, these days with claims of life time transmission fluid on some models and the limited amount of oil changes that would bring one to the end of the factory warranty, that sells vehicles for those that like to hear "easy care maintenance free", but the manufacturer certainly knows different as to what that more than likely means for the longevity of some of the components if given that minimum spec maintenance. Then again I imagine there are a fair number of people that really don't care as long the vehicle gets them a certain number of years down the road because they are the type that want the next new thing, new and improved ... more bells and crap etc on the new one on the show room floor. Manufacturers have learned the phycological game to entice the customer out of their money !

I had skimmed through that article when you posted the link and honestly I felt rather defeated in a sense and realized that all these years in changing oil that in fact putting in what I was told was a good quality oil was probably not filtered as well as it should be although the filter put on the engine would be what ( as long as it never went into bypass mode ) would be the final filtering of the new oil that the engine components would first see, but then the filtering media itself is not up to par to what is ideal because a full flow filter would be too restrictive to filter fine enough for the engines best outcome in the long run. Only one of our tractors over the years which was a Versatile with a 855 Cummins had a separate bypass filter, some engine manufacturers did spec a partial bypass system within the main oil filter but I don't believe any other trucks or equipment I was servicing used such a filter. No doubt a product like the Amsoil bypass system is of benefit as long as nothing goes sideways with the extra plumbing and filter such as a rupture/leak that could cause the oil to pump out of the engine ( yes that Versatile had a remote canister with hoses routed to it as well ). With the idiot egr system on a diesel and as a result forcing a lot more soot into the oil, that certainly isn't helping the diesel engines cause or as you pointed out the GDI engine issue with creating more soot and aside from having a fancy secondary filtering system, changing the oil more often helping lower the total soot load. So oil manufacturing and the end product is not something one can control and I wonder if there are specs on what various oil packaging companies produce in particle count or size. As to the filtering, if the OEM is not designing a filter size and spec that is really what it could be, they too are short changing the end user and so what is the answer. Of course as you say the oil side can only do so much if the air side isn't keeping up its end of the picture and air filters are only so efficient and if in a dusty environment such as farm or construction or driving gravel roads there is a lot of dirt to filter out and some of that ends up into the air stream. Of course the irony in places like where I am where they dump the salt on the highways but also will mix in some calcium or outright pure calcium for problem road area's, or using calcium as dust control on gravel roads, the vehicle that gets used in that environment may rust out before a properly engineered engine and maintenance finally wears out so one has to face that reality in the rust belt.

I imagine the cold winters up here with repeated short runs in town every day for those that live and work in town and given what I have come to learn on this forum with DI engines having fuel dilution issues, and if they don't change the oil until it says to but keep driving it for a while, I bet all that is just lovely on those finicky lifters.

I certainly could be wrong but I hear of pickups far newer than that 2007 cutoff which may not be going to the wrecker but are having engine work done and be that a reman engine or new engine or trying to repair the existing engine. Some of it would be design issues as per the cylinder deactivation system that GM has and one of those lifters wiping out the cam and the question of oil changes moving the needle or not on that whole mess, or in the case of Ford pickup engines that have the long timing chains and wearing them out and the roller followers and phasers and some of that certainly goes back to oil change intervals. But in those various cases the truck has all sorts of life left in it and so the unfortunate owner and may be original owner or used market owner that is pouring money into repairs so the truck is not seeing the salvage yard yet but damage is happening by infrequent oil changes. A friends son had bought a 2018 I think it is half ton GM and it had some sort of extended or used dealer warranty on it and of course the lifter issue bites and its rattling and so the dealer had to swallow the bill and was at least 7000.00 and I think they only replaced what they felt they had to replace so yeah, I can see that being a ticking time bomb in the not too distant future. Would frequent oil changes cure all these engineering "marvels", probably not but some engine designs have shown that they do much better if the oil is changed a lot more often then if the manufacturer service claims are followed. New trucks cost so much that there is an incentive to keep the existing truck on the road by repairing.

I hear you over the negativity towards dealerships as some most certainly have earned their reputation and not exactly good reputations either, in either the quality of work done or with outright ripoff tactics and the problem is when one lives in a rural area where there are only so many dealers in a main town and don't have the options that someone who lives in or is surrounded by cities with multiple competing dealer businesses has available to them. Then there are the independent shops and again some can be more on the up and up while some are always waiting to pounce on that circumstance where they can rip the customer a new one and the customer does not realize what just happened was not how it could have gone. And interestingly enough and I don't know if all dealers have the access to genuine parts and a completely different lower line of parts and suspect rebuilt parts but there are certainly dealers that play that game and the customer can be lead to believe they got the genuine part like what came on the vehicle when in fact they got some inferior part that in some cases is extremely failure prone and they know it but they replace it with that junk anyway as that vehicle will come back again with the same issue once again. If one comes across a dealer or independent shop that actually does proper work and stands behind their work if it goes south, that's the shop one certainly wants to associate with.

Right, I know Demonworks youtube channel talked about the the new pan design, I just never knew when that came out but your right that in theory it should drain out more. The neighbor that has the 2022 model 3.0 drives his front end up on blocks and made the comment that it more than likely drains out better due to where the drain plug is situated to have the front end up on his series of truck.

That's interesting about the oil splatter, makes sense though the thinner it is as it doesn't have the body as such to it that helps slow the flow slightly and also holds itself together better for a lack of a proper term. I've never handled 0W20 yet to experience what its like. I probably had asked this before but have you been cutting your filters open to see what shows up within the filter media. Certainly to begin with no doubt there would be a bit of something show up on that initial filter but after that there shouldn't be much, that is unless the thrust washer takes a dump and the crank shifts from end to end as that would show up as quite the spectacle in the filter.

The sad fact is that some of these oil pans and it certainly makes no sense to me, that in the case of the GM 6.6 Duramax and the 3.0 Duramax as a couple of examples, neither of those pans are designed with as good of complete drain then they could have made them with by a fair margin. So getting every other oil change done by a sucking method that may not be quite perfection, its a far cry better than not changing the oil at all at that interval and having it done only every 10000 miles. And at Valvoline they never touch the drain plug by that method so one less thing to screw up is never a bad thing. Your watching and paying attention and making sure they fill the engine with oil and no doubt noting if there was ever any oil leaking at home for reasons of a leaky plug gasket or the filter not snugged up enough. I can just imagine how horrible ( way extended ) the average north american vehicle does get its oil changed in this current era and the amount of engines that run low on oil because of becoming leakers or burners and the owners having zero clue as they don't check the oil, after all they need that money for fancy coffees, doing their hair and nails etc ( ok maybe that is a San Fran exclusive on some of that )

I feel better now for my own view point and actions or lack there of towards the dealership service theme reading your post and others. GM corporate is who offers the two free oil changes on the HD trucks and I bought my truck in Feb of 2025 and those oil change offers run out within 2 years I believe and I highly doubt I will be using either one of them. I had asked if I could officially give those free services to another customer ( a friend ) and they said no, its all a GM corporate thing based on the vehicle in question. What that service advisor did however was go into a little story about how such and such customer was denied engine warranty because he had done his own oil changes because then they are not documented ... you see where that goes and so an employee playing the game of scaring the customer into having the service work done there most certainly triggered my thought process. At a later date I did talk to the person who handles warranty claims at the dealership and she said to be sure to document the oil changes and keep receipts for the oil and filter ( coped the receipts from cases of Mobil oil and case of filters I bought from them ) and the vehicles VIN, the date of service, mileage etc and staple that together as a record I would give them if that was ever needed and I keep my own log book for services for each vehicle as well. Oh and about 8 months after I bought the truck the dealer starts calling me to offer a maintenance service since they haven't seen my vehicle show up on their system ... for the mere fee of 300.00 Canadian to change the oil and rotate the tires and a few other minor checks and I declined the offer, I get the call again a couple of months later for the same thing and she could tell I was not interested and she asked if they should take my name off the call list and I said yes, do that !. By the way did you happen to keep your factory oil filter to open it up and see the surprises inside as I expect some will show up as per the odd little sliver of metal shaving and particles that the filter does trap along with bits of grey silicone sealer that come off of the inside edge of mating surfaces. I have cut open every filter so far on my truck although few miles but have changed the oil often and the second filter was vastly better with very little of anything, that first filter was the unsettling one as I expected it would be.

I doubt two wheel drive pickups are a hot seller off the new vehicle lot in your area !, I highly doubt any of the dealers around here have brought in one two wheel drive pickup for many years as that four wheel drive system isn't along for the ride here or I can well imagine in Vermont during the winter. Of course some of our more poorly maintained gravel roads are so bad that during the summer if it rains a person could get stuck right in the middle of a gravel road in two wheel drive LOL.