Chuck FB

Your packing lots of other items with you for sure that will aide in prolonging your stay at a location that has no services to physically connect the camper into. I assume the bladders if put to use would be laid into the back of your pickup and the camper having been dropped off so you can run around with the truck to a location that has potable water and a sewer dump. Those racks you have rigged up are a big deal in being able to pack the extra propane and yes as your very aware a camper like yours only has room for one tank in its tank storage compartment. If a person isn't needing it too much for heating the camper, that makes a huge difference to how much propane gets used. The burners and hot water tank would no doubt take far less and last for quite a while. From what I gather with those that use a camper in colder weather that is even claimed to insulate reasonably well like a Northern Lite, they are using up a 20 lb tank in two days !, that gets very expensive to heat a space like that per month and the hassle as tanks having to be refilled constantly. Following the sun/weather like you are doing is far more comfortable anyway !. As to fuel type compatibility, with a gas gen set and a gas pickup and your jockey tank, your very well set up in that regard. So that air con you have, it must be a more modern unit that uses less power to get fired up as older air con units take too much power for a Honda 2000 to think of running from what I understand. That size of generator is at least one which can be lifted and moved, bigger than that and its a two person job. Your solar capacity is decent as well as long as you have some sun and not doing anything crazy with draws. That is the issue with my brothers camper, using the furnace means the draw for the fan motor and its an older camper so all the interior lights are high draw as he needs to round up led bulb replacements. His solar is 15 years old and is only an 80 or 100 watt panel and the less efficient converter solar charging system, and his vehicle charging to camper battery is almost a total joke which is very typical without a dc-dc charge system. I looked up to see where Mission is and I see its not far from Brownsville Texas. My dad and mom drove down there one winter way back and am guessing must have been the early 1960's or something like that, before I was born anyway and that was there late honeymoon trip I guess, did that and also over to Big Bend NP and so forth. That was with an old GM step side half ton pickup and an 8 foot camper and no doubt would have made your camper seem like an out of this world palace in comparison !. An ice box fridge and would have had zero bathroom and I doubt any running water, typical of the time period. And speaking of Big Bend, I never had the time to stick around there but tried to explore it a bit when I went through that area, various hiking trails etc if one has the time to be around there for a while. At least with your trucks power and gearing ( and obviously you have four wheel drive and low range ) the 15% grade to the west of Big Bend along the highway that follows the Rio Grand would be nothing for your unit, the hill that just about claimed my dads gutless wonder of a 235 GM engine and a high speed first gear of a 3 on the tree LOL. As you travel north from where your at over to Big Bend be sure to stop at the Pecos river bridge and take in that drop and the gorge, and over at Langtry and take in the little museum and some Judge Roy Bean history. It was later in the day when I was headed south from Alpine towards Big Bend and I was not expecting the views of the mountains, the angle of the sun sure can take a high sun washed out view and turn it into something spectacular. I don't know how far west you plan on going but there's Carlsbad caverns in southern NM, and the Guadalupe NP on the Teas side and so on with things to see into southern AZ as well.

Are you often staying in RV parks with hookups as per that example photo and the reason I ask is because of the limited fresh water and sewer tank sizes that I expect would make it tough to be off grid for very long. Weather always plays a huge roll in what any RV can deal with to comfortably live in and not be tethered in one way or another depending on how much self reliant supplies one can stuff into it and keep from spoiling, by way of fuels or electric power from solar or a generator etc. Unless I am not seeing correctly, did you mount an air con to it after the fact ?. Because you also own or at least did have a trailer, you have a comparison in rigs under your belt to compare the amenities and storage room. I know my brothers camper because it really lacks in solar, that has been a problem to get enough charge and it does not have a dc-dc charger to make good use of the trucks alternator when it is running. However he always has the fridge running on propane but during cooler weather camping and I don't mean winter here in Canada but getting into the early part of the fall he talks about the propane being sucked up because of running the furnace at night and morning when its cool out. On the other hand his camper has no air con and years back he was in southern BC and was not having fun as it was hot compared to where he normally camps up here and then was limited with the electricity to even run the fans he has and no room in the camper storage to even put a portable gen set on his camper. But he has a crew cab and has that back seat area stuffed to the gills with stuff. Which brings me to your front rack, is that a generator your carrying ?, and a propane bottle I see as your camper only fits one propane bottle. That to me anyway when I watch my brother is the crux of the truck camper, running out of room to pack stuff and the limitations of water storage/sewer storage. He pulls a Jeep TJ behind and runs around with it and will have the 5 gallon jugs in the back where he can find a place to fill them and then use a 12 volt pump to suck them out and into the campers holding tank to help extend his fresh water needs at a no service site by a lake for example. He never drops his camper off as that is an ordeal and relies on his Jeep as his run around vehicle. In the fall here the sun starts to be low in the sky and if its overcast out, that would never work with a 12 volt fridge unless one has LOTS of solar that might barely be able to do something and during our winters that must be something else for those that try to survive in an RV off grid period and solar is completely SOL then. When he first bought his unit he had ideas of maybe using it to go skiing with as some of these mountain ski resorts such as in northern BC have nothing for accommodations near the hill and thought with his wonderful new camper that maybe it was feasible but soon figured out even before winter came that he couldn't see doing that at all as the amount of propane to even hope to heat it and then probably never keep the water system from freezing and not enough battery power to keep what 12 volt systems need power. Never mind that the salt would ruin the camper prematurely and destroy the truck that could last for many years if kept off of winter roads so scrapped that whole idea. Yes, I see some youtubers struggling to use their campers at ski resorts but that is further south and doesn't tend to get near as cold as up here. Aside from my throwing out examples of cold or hot weather struggles, are you tending to try to move with the weather and find that happy medium so its not too hot or not too cold so your able to make it all work and feel like your having fun vs feel your in a struggle to survive. And also as I said at the beginning, if you rely fairly heavily on staying at hookup campsites vs being off grid a lot with your camper ?

Good to know your brakes and the tires you have on it have some ability. That reminded me now of something as I came back and read your comment again, about my 95 chev and how I had a couple of scares in it with standing on the brake pedal and NOT getting the action at all that I should have gotten out of them, not even close. No anti lock brakes energizing and zero skidding and it was because the first time I had some brake work done on it I had taken it to a Midas shop to have it done as I was short of time at that moment and also assumed they would be able to turn my front rotors which I then found out what crap they turn into because of corrosion and the rotor falling apart. In any event my rear brakes had life left in them so they remained as is with the GM drum shoes but I had the front rotors and pads replaced and they of course recommended ceramic brake pads ( because its an upsell ). I thought they seemed to work ok at first but I had never actually had to make any sudden stop. The first time I found myself having to stop fast I couldn't, the pads were just not able to bite down hard enough onto the rotors due I suppose to lack of hydraulic pressure for such a hard pad. These days there very well may be various types of ceramic pad and systems that apply more pressure but I took them off and put what they called a hybrid pad on from Raybestos and that seemed a lot more like the original braking performance. Never a good feeling to need brakes and realize they are not up for the task even though they are cool and should perform good but instead feel like someone smeared grease on them due to such a glass hard pad that lasts a long time because its not aggressive enough for the application.

I don't know when my insurance company started offering this but I had inquired before I had even ordered the truck as to what the insurance was going to cost depending on the price of the truck and if a 1/2, 3/4, or 1 ton. Through that quoting she mentioned that there was a certain coverage they offer only for the purchase of a new vehicle ( could not be a demo vehicle ) and has to be done at the time of first insuring it as well and can't drop the coverage and then decide to put it back on. I don't have the exact wording in front of me but its a no depreciation clause and my insurer will allow a person to carry that insurance for 5 years from the time the vehicle was purchased. So if something were to happen to it, written off because of any reason like a crash, hitting an animal that wrote it off or fire, stolen etc, the purchase price of the vehicle would be paid out up to that 5 year mark when the coverage ends, rather than a depreciated value. Items added onto the vehicle outside of the purchase price would not be covered though. Its always a numbers game with insurance as they are in it for the money but it might be something worth asking about through ones insurance company to see if they offer it and if then buying a new vehicle in the future can decide if that is a coverage one wants.

That's what I assumed given the price and I noticed when I was on the website and partly went through the motions a little pop up came up and asked if I wanted to pay the extra 5.00 for the ability to access the manual if I lost it on my device and was curious if you had chosen that also or not. As to the year of the manual, that may just take some time for them to put a 2025 year manual on the site. There must be a pile of pages to factory manuals these days.

I wonder if there are any changes in the manual from 2024 to a 2025 model. Also wondered if it covers every aspect of the vehicle including a complete break down and specs of both the gas and diesel engines and transmission ? These manuals are not actually from GM though are they, same manual but someone else supplying them as buying this doesn't give any incentive to go through alldata assuming they are the same manual and coverage of the trucks components.

Country music anyone ? LOL

Sorry I misunderstood which side was worn down more, so its the inside pads that were the most worn and like you mentioned that is the side the sensor is on. I never had looked that up or thought to actually look at my truck and realize there is only one sensor per axle then I assume, but makes sense now that I think about it "front/rear" on the dash and definitely its only a slight guide for what actually is going on at all four corners of the vehicle brake issue wise. Over the years in working on brakes on vehicles ( all much older than what your working on ), more often then not one pad would wear more than the other and some pads are made to have less sweeping area of pad on one side of the caliper vs the other although it doesn't appear those are designed that way. So then its the back side of the rotor that I assume its hammer hits on to knock it loose where the more worn pads were riding on and it has a more ground in worn surface without what I called that pad ghosting, another words more metal worn away vs the outside rotor surface. This also demonstrates that issue around rotors on axles back from the steering axle that get all the crap flying at them from the front tires, they have a rough life unless its dry clean pavement the vehicle is always on. I've had it happen a few times with the same truck that on the front axle as it has rear brake drums, that the outer diameter face area of the "inside face" of the rotors would rust in so deeply into the material that chunks of the rotor were falling off of that side. The pad was not reaching right to the very outside edge diameter as brake pads rarely do and the salt and calcium would eat into that area of the rotor and then almost rust jack pieces of rotor fall off and once that happened a portion of the pad would be riding in the air as there was no rotor surface under it. Its all because of the crap spread on the roads, any farm trucks that never get used on the winter road have no issues like that at all and years ago before any salt was used ( before my time as an adult ), people had their rotors turned. Not any more as they are junk due to lack of extra material and the corrosion factor. But on that vehicle and with reman calipers etc a few times over it never failed that the inside pads always wore down sooner that the outside, for one thing more road crap was able to attack that inside face of the rotor. I wish I could get parts that made sense dollar wise from Rock Auto but that is a dead end as shipping and duty make it cost three times what it originally costs on the site.

Its a bit hard to tell from the photos but does look like the rotor pad surfaces were rusting but then the pads grinding that off but the rust is deep enough that the pitting is left behind and I can see the imprint of the pad on the outer side of the rotor and that always shows up when there is rust happening each time the vehicle gets parked and see that ghosting of the imprint. But like you say the vehicle isn't set up differently then your prior truck and used similarly. Even though you drive it only when the road surface is dry, there is a very good chance that the salt dust is being kicked up and enough of it getting on the components. I wonder if the caliper system is slightly different and even though it seemed free floating, that it reacts a little different then the calipers on the prior truck on the side that was worn. Oh and the other thing, are you using adaptive cruise on this truck where perhaps you never had that on your other truck ?. I was curious where you sourced your new parts, was it from GM or a less pricey aftermarket supplier. Also since I have not had reason to work on my brakes yet, did you go through some procedure to "retract for service" and not sure if one needs a two day diag tool for the parking brake or were you able to pull it apart without going through any procedure like that.

That is a horrible mess and I don't like the sounds of that because of being an HD owner and that same part brake setup. I am speculating that whenever that salt water from a winter road did get onto the parking brake, being in a heated garage I presume and what few times you did use it during the winter, the water getting behind the pad bonding rust jacked the friction material right off of the backing shoe assemblies. And the worn pads, what do the inside pads of both sides look like as are they much much thicker ?. By any chance was this truck driven from one dealership to another during the winter as a new dealer trade or a demo truck, something that took place before you even bought the truck. What puzzles me is that you had a prior truck and it had much better brake life. Is it something different they are spreading on the roads now or your wheel offset different ( non factory wheels ) or for example no running boards that hang down at all times or say extended front mud flaps you may have had on the other truck. Where I am there is salt used everywhere and calcium chloride used in some locations and vehicles rust out but haven't seen that sort of a mess so soon but I know that typically rear disc brakes do not last as long as the older style drum brakes that were a lot more protected from the crap flying back there. Speaking of brake life I had asked a retired guy from Canada that has his own little youtube channel and drives a 2022 Chev gas 1 ton dually with a full size camper and for the last while an enclosed trailer with a fancy side by side in it and he has close to 60000 miles on the truck and his brake life front and rear is showing 85%. He tries not to drive it on winter roads but its probably been on a bit of wintery roads. The difference is he is driving it consistently as lets say a vehicle that sits for months and had some salt on a rotor, it will rust up the rotor surface and that will cause the rotor to eat at the pad material until the rotor gets down to bare metal again.

Mule deer are the number one animal around here also that cause vehicle damage, then I would almost have to say moose, elk yes in some key places and rarely a black bear. Moose is what by far kills people ( or an elk ). I've hit one smallish deer with a pickup and while there was certainly damage I lucked out that it was the bumper and bumper braces and took out the headlight plastic mount assembly and the grill. I've also hit two of them over the years with highway tractors but both trucks had moose bumpers on them but it managed to damage the one bumper as it hit on the corner and sneaked it back and may have caused a portion of the bumper bracket on the front of one frame rail to bust off a couple of mount holes and being a Pete it was very expensive to replace some of those parts and the aftermarket bumper was a 6 grand touch itself so had the work done at a body shop and in all it was 12 grand but through insurance and the 1000.00 deductible for animal collision. Then one finds out from the insurance company that if that happens again to that or any other vehicle under the policy within 3 years down the road, no coverage !. Insurance, they are in it to make money, not loose money !. And as to hitting a deer with a loaded 105000 lb truck/trailer, its just a little thump and watch the deer launch into the ditch like it came out of a cannon and not a scratch on that truck or bumper. 35000 lb empty truck/trailer, same thing as its instant death at 60 mph but it was the one that damaged the bumper etc. Then watch the coyotes and ravens go to town and there is hardly anything left of the animal by the end of the day. Both times was during the winter and dark in the morning and there is no veering with a highway tractor on slippery roads, hit the brakes without loosing control if one even sees it in time and that's about it.

Hang on there for a sec, so your not going to admit that the dealerships you go to just happens to have extremely attractive young women that know just how to smile and batt their fake eye lashes at the older gentlemen and that the the young lady servicing .... your vehicle that is, is wearing the latest in women's cover next to nothing alls

While I have not had that done to me because I have never brought a vehicle to a dealership to have gone through that whole maintenance game, I can sure see how any shop that is wanting to upsell can easily do so. Having said that, its very true that most vehicles are not serviced often enough so a good chance the diff oil did need changing ... oh like a hundred thousand miles sooner, there would be that scenario where they pull the same stunt on someone who knows what was just done and its all bull crap. And even go so far as to have a special bottle of old gear oil to sample from to put onto the white paper, I could see some of the scummiest shops out there pull that stunt. Because I put fluid film under my truck, a shop could claim various seals on the driveline are leaking or that my shocks are shot because there is dirty splooge on the body of them. As per the rear diff, I even had that conversation before I had my truck in my hands with the service manager and he even admitted they had a couple of trucks have their diffs/wheel bearings fail because they were low on oil and claimed they now check the level during the PID, well apparently not my truck as they never touched anything. So that right off the bat did not instill confidence in me, was it the service manager that knew they really would never touch the truck during a PDI or did someone in the shop claim they did something that they didn't do, the end result was that I was lied to. So starting off on a foot like that, how does that instill trust and confidence in that particular shop.

I get what your saying and if one has had good experiences with a dealership and how they do things and don't hire a bunch of screw ups, yes its less hassle for a well equipped shop and a low vehicle is a total pain in the rear to work on unless one had the proper setup at home to deal with it. My brother has had some not so great servicing experiences in the last couple of years with more than one of his vehicles, messes that made it look like his suv was leaking engine oil as they spilled engine oil in the engine compartment and it was oozing out of the plastic belly cover and some other rather unimpressive results on just simple oil changes. Also a Ford dealership that tallied up many thousands of dollars worth of repairs/parts swaps and he declined and brought it to a one man shop that I have also had some work done over the years and my brother showed him that list and he went over my brothers truck and he is a meticulous mechanic and he just shook his head. Rip a new one city all the way is what that was all about and that just puts a big black mark on a dealership once a person has seen crap like that trying to be pulled.

Here's an item I saw lately and I was shocked at the extremely high calcium level on the UOA but had not looked at the date of the sampling test until now as I dug up that video. The guy who's youtube channel it is, understanding some of what he says is a challenge or at least for me but anyway its Amsoil SS 0W-20 in what appears to be a Toyota 5.7 engine but the sample test was done at the beginning of 2018 so as I now realized and not a current UOA or therefore a current oil formulation. At the time I first saw the video I was blown away by the huge calcium number of 3800 ppm but I assume that the current formulation of SS would fall in line to under the limit for LSPI ? Why he is showing a UOA from 8 years ago and presenting it as current by not pointing out its presumably an older oil formulation, good question other than just flogging a youtube video for views with all his drivel before and after showing the UOA. The testing does have some of the added tests I see with acid number, base number, oxidation and nitration and I wouldn't mind if anyone with experience in dissecting the numbers could give their take on it. The gist of the video with the UOA starts at 5:00 and ends at 8:40 to skip the drivel. And like I say, assuming the oil is formulated differently now would mean the same test would end in a possible different result in some area's.

The inference of the service call and the explanation was to either call or come in and they would fully explain the so called maintenance package which would mean I would be there and more than likely with my vehicle and therefore more apt to have them do the service because I was there ( that was my vision of how it would go or that they would hope it would go ), they certainly weren't doing it for my health I am pretty sure LOL. Of course what they would not know is that I had just changed my oil fairly recently and have few miles on it, that I had also put on my set of winter tires/wheels at home and have zero need for anyone to be touching the lug nuts or the engines oil drain plug. I wonder if during that amazing 300.00 ( oh wait, it was "299.95" ) service if they for example would be checking the fluid level and condition of the front diff, the transfer case and the rear diff and that if I had not added oil to the rear diff right after I brought the truck home, would they have added oil to bring it up from the 1 inch down level that it came from the factory with. I have not used the two free oil changes from corporate GM that I believe that the offer ends two years after the purchase and I don't plan on using them as that just gets me into their maintenance loop theme and that doesn't interest me. I have a feeling that the sales guy you were dealing with had not been there for years as otherwise I would tend to think he would have had less worry but explained there was a glitch and assure you they would get right on that and sort that out, also demonstrating that he was able to snap his fingers and get action from the dealership to "make it right" for the customer. The weird thing is that I was told different times that I should expect to get a survey because of this or that but I never was presented with one. I have to wonder if they emailed it to my salesmans special junk email address, even the others in the dealership were clueless about the salesman's tactic as I don't get any stupid reports when I have set off my tpms sensors etc because it would all go to his junk email as corporate GM doesn't have my email address ( his special little service for guys like me that are so ass backwards and don't want to hear anything about some crap GM's eye in the sky is spying on me about ).

There should not be any appreciable difference between the two sides and while the fender to hub center would not be any official measurement, its relatively close and far easier to measure and from vehicle to vehicle of the same brand and series. Obviously if the vehicle was in an accident and the fenders or fender mounts are messed up it would become a meaningless measurement. And like I eluded to, for anyone that might claim how I and many others have measured their trucks in this way and that doesn't equate to the jounce bumper clearance and therefore angles of the lower A arms, the visual alone I did of that jounce bumper clearance before I touched the keys was extremely evident that the truck was quite cockeyed. While the key adjuster bolts will never be exactly the same side to side due to manufacturing tolerances of all the components, my adjuster bolts were so different in exposed length from side to side that matched up with the wonky tilt of the truck and once I adjusted them and I lifted the truck up to do the adjusting and then set back down and backed the truck up and then forward to the same spot in the shop to settle the tires/suspension and once satisfied I drove the truck some few hundred miles and then remeasured to make double sure that nothing had changed and it was still spot on. I even remeasured on another cement floor in a shed ( and always made sure to have the tire pressures set equal from side to side ) and it all was the same as my setting I had set out to accomplish. Could I have turned a blind eye to it and left it the way it came from the factory, sure it certainly wasn't ideal but would have worked that way but I knew I could take the time and improve it many times over vs the few seconds allowed at the factory to adjust it and send it on down the line. I should add that the rear was being affected as well from the front being off, once the front was brought into line the rear was now almost spot on as well. I could see where a vehicle being off like that could affect ice braking performance/handling by it causing uneven weighting of the tires, it certainly wouldn't help it any.

I hear you on that and all I can say is that my low side was not quite touching and my high side had a certain amount of clearance ( I don't mean a lot and never measured it and would guess a 1/4" ). Also my high side as per the lopsided job they did at the factory, it was at 24 3/4" to the fender from hub center so I only effectively raised that side an additional 1/4". The irony was that I had to turn the key adjuster on the high side OUT a 1/2 a turn from where they had it as adjusting the other side which was low up the 3/4 of an inch lifted the opposite side along with it over a 1/4 inch. Like I said, what a piss poor job they did at the factory and that would vary from truck to truck as I expect some trucks rolled out with a better side to side adjustment, just the luck of the draw I got someone rushing on the tools and it was "good enough". Being that my truck was new when I did this adjustment, no doubt it will settle in a bit lower as some use accumulates and have heard others mention that over time they have found the front end to be sagging down some from what it had been new and that is the nature of springs.

I know what you mean and it used to be that components were not nearly as expensive, now looking at prices of a reman 10L1000 in US dollars is crazy and I would hate to think what wiping out a Duramax and having to put in a new engine would cost. Then there is the computer on wheels aspect, unless a person has had a background in diagnosing and taking these jigsaw interiors apart to replace failed parts, most people are at the whim of either a dealership ( and hope to hell someone has been trained and knows what they are doing and don't cause collateral damage ) or an independent shop and again I can see so many things going sideways touching anything these days. That's part of the reason I want to do general maintenance myself if I am able to so that some bottom of the totem pole person just hired on for that position isn't jacking around ruining things that don't need touching and that I know 100% as to what oil actually went into it engine or driveline wise. And of course the theme these days or so I have been lead to believe that often the vehicles that have a front end that requires greasing just doesn't get done. That reminds me, someone from the Chev dealership had called and left a message the other day and said they had not seen me for 8 months ( in service anyway I am guessing as I was in there buying filters a few weeks ago ) as I had them do a realignment because the steering wheel orientation was off from the factory and the only time my truck has been in their shop so far. What they were flogging on the message was a "premium maintenance package" for the mere sum of 300.00 and she said that included an oil change and battery health check and a tire rotation and probably some other so many point "check". I have never brought my truck there for any maintenance so a Carfax would show zero maintenance. My only wonder about my truck is if it has some goofy updates that GM claims needs doing and that its already past due and that could allow them to void a warranty. I don't understand the update system, if its able to work with a weak signal off of a cell tower or what and I have never had a device ( phone ) connected to the truck and don't have an onstar subscription. I have hit the button on the infotainment screen for it to find updates and did that the other day in the yard and it said there were no updates so I don't know if its connecting or not. I also have it set so that it will only install the updates when I say yes and nothing has ever come up on the screen to say anything about a downloaded update ready to install. Maybe 2025 trucks are perfect out of the factory I wonder if that is some typical maintenance package that anyone on here has been quoted for in the states as I am curious what the price difference would be down there vs here ?

How many miles did you have on your truck before you turned the bars up a bit ?. As I have commented before when I first bought my truck earlier this year I discovered off the bat that the adjustment was not level from side to side and was lower on the passenger side ( I made sure to have the fuel tank full before measuring and adjusting ) so I adjusted until I had it both level side to side as well as raised it slightly, 25 inches from hub center to he underside of my chev fender was my goal which would be a slightly different measurement for the GM equivalent. The passenger side had been at about 24 1/4" before I touched it and was very very close to touching the jounce bumper but this is on a brand new truck vs one that would settle with some use and most likely be riding rather hard onto the jounce bumpers at that point. I did just enough to create some leeway with suspension movement but not enough to throw off the cv angles or the tie rod angles and also this has been a number that has been tossed around quite a bit. It allows for nearly that 3 inches of droop travel which is also the other side of the coin as cranking it way up causes all sorts of wear issues plus loosing on the other end as per the amount of droop and then that causes a crappy suspension reaction and ride as well. I've heard the same thing as your comment from other sources and someone that has the plow prep bars said that he too gained ride quality by turning up the bars just a bit to gain some jounce bumper clearance but not going crazy with the adjustment.

While its not like I have any personal data to draw on other than what I come across online, I too have wondered with my L8T, what is the most logical approach to the engines health AND at the same time maintaining my wonderful GM warranty. While it may fly in the states to use oils that are said to meet a certain spec ( Dexos 1 Gen 3, or its the DexosD in your case ) , if it doesn't carry the actual license it becomes an issue here in Canada from how the dealer is telling me. So my view point based off of the picture I am faced with here, is that if I had a 3.0 I would more than likely initially stick with the DexosD licensed 0W-20 and change it plenty often and certainly during the break in stages as it sure can't hurt anything. Because of the soot factor and the potential for the fuel dilution the 3.0 seems to have issues with, that also helps reinforce the concept of no matter what oil is used, get that soot and diesel diluted oil out of there by changing it a lot more often then the oil change minder would call for. Unfortunately no matter how much one would spend on a high end oil of the same viscosity as GM calls for, it can't help but get contaminated with soot and raw diesel fuel. If the unit was deleted, yes that would take care of a lot of the soot contamination issues and the diesel dilution ... and wave bye bye to your warranty. They got us all by the balls no matter what brand of vehicle one buys !.

Filming and trying to work on something at the same time, I see that theme with various mechanics that are doing all the shots themselves. As to the lack of content for some aspects of an engine in real time, I know what your saying and I have gotten the impression and of no real surprise that he is not allowed to be pissing around with that at work. So I can understand your question mark based on lack of more complete content. So as to the oil analysis, its one persons sampling and lab results and so definitely others doing the same theme on the same vehicle/engine type would help give a better statistic theme to draw from for sure. One interesting item that I gather tends to be somewhat of a theme with the 3.0 and that is fuel dilution because of regens and I recall that DemonWorks truck was doing an insane amount of regens or so it seemed and he was doing various software updates that was hopefully going to improve that and it may have. Its how that engine injects its fuel into the DPF by way of using the engines fuel injectors firing into the cylinder at non firing times that I understand is the culprit to part of the fuel dilution issue. Emissions period and done in an idiotic way, like that is going to help the engine and yes who knows how much that has in itself contributed to the engine wear metals.

That is a good question, at the time of purchasing my truck I had talked to the service manager who used to be a mechanic, to see if they were willing to lower my factory placard set tpms pressures and he said while we are capable of physically doing it, no they were not allowed to as a GM dealer as they would get their hands slapped by corporate GM ( that was his way of putting it ) but did not happen to mention anything about warranty one way or the other so I have no idea about that part. He said my best bet would be to go to a tire shop or independent mechanics shop and have them do it. I ended up buying an Autel tpms tool and did it myself and not saying that is the ideal tool as its geared towards Autel sensors more than other sensor brands, it did the trick in lowering the pressures before the system triggers the dash to say I am under pressure. So I don't really have the answer to your question, GM seems pretty finicky up here in Canada with warranty because they know they can screw over the customer if they can see an out due to our lack of consumer laws like the USA has.