Grumpy Bears 2015 Silverado 2WD

Grumpy Bear · December 13, 2016

Look at the time and date stamp on the post above. They came in the mail mid day Monday the 12th. Someone must live there. Man that's fast.

Grumpy Bear · December 16, 2016

I don’t expect many will consider CD’s and accessory or modification.

When I drive it is for hours. Given the classical genre is free of the three minute rules of popular music and devoid, for the most part of noise I prefer it as a rule instead of the exception. It’s also often a story in the telling so I get music and book together sans words.

I’ve added Sarah Chang’s rendition of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Always a winner. And Mozart’s Piano Concertos 20 through 25 featured by Vladimir Ashkenazy. I am especially fond of #20 in D minor having heard it some months ago on a late Friday night on WNIU 90.5 classical radio De Kalb, Illinois. As good as PBS can be it still must serve a wider interest than I hold and does in fact and deed have a limited if but extensive listening range. Nice overlap in most areas with Iowa Classical PBS stations.

Personally I find the basic sound system of the WT1 platform with single CD a pretty darn good system. I don’t set a very high bar I’ve been told.

Grumpy Bear · December 19, 2016

-15F and 9 mph winds at 5AM CST in at my address equals -33.5 F wind chill. Coldest of the week but the average hasn’t been much higher for better than a week.

Garage you ask? Yep. I have one. Neighbors cat lives in it. Wife keeps a heater going for her holding this largely uninsulated space at 50F but…’Gris’ also gets a heating pad and a well blanketed canvas chair. Better food that the indoor kitties. She got it pretty cushy.

I might move out there. She’s eating my pot roast. Why not?

(7386)

Edited December 19, 2016 by Grumpy Bear

Grumpy Bear · December 23, 2016

Finally got the Rail Caps installed. The instructions that come with them are quite different than the installation video on their site. I went with the simple press fit video install. The other is more permanent. RTV and sand paper involved.

I don’t suppose this sort of addition is a mind blower for anyone else but I really like the look and the functionality. The texture match is a dead ringer for the factory rail finish don’t you think?

Something that does what it says it will do and is a quality piece. That's the mind blower.

(7541)

Edited December 23, 2016 by Grumpy Bear

Grumpy Bear · December 27, 2016

December 2^nd. Last time I had Pepper started. Today after two days rain thawing a half foot of snow off her and the roads free of salt I thought, why not?

Programed two new X-Gauges. Current transmission gear and ambient humidity. Then took off for the day covering about 250 miles. Wife went with.

First half of the day was into a 20 mph head wind. 40 F at 40% RH and registering 14.2 BAR. With a flag I have a virtual weather station.

Today we just drove paying no special attention to fuel. Ran the speed limit except for a few miles on I-80/I-39 were I ran 65 against the 70 mph limit. 55 into the wind netted 18 mpg. 65 with the wind at our back 30 mpg. Days average just under 22 mpg. That would be 3 to 4 mpg off my caution mode.

I came to have a new appreciation for both the 4.3 and the six speed. After three weeks dormant fired first click and ran like a top all day. This gear box gets allot of grief from some. I think it’s the cat’s pajama’s. Always in the right gear at the right time. Grade logic and speed logic work flawlessly. Something I failed to note until I had eyes on the exact gear and could tell the difference between gear changes, converter lockup and V-4 engagement. Stayed in D all day.

One event made the day just short of perfect. As we entered Lanark on highway 64 two dozen high school athletes with about 6 coaches walking back to school decided Pepper was a good moving target for a volley of ice balls throw at about 10 paces. I have some sheet metal to straighten out and some paint correction to do. As I had just got off the gas to turn into a restaurant the thud I heard I counted to something sliding up in the box. Wife thought I hit some ice in the street seeing the spray in her mirror said nothing. Wasn’t until after lunch we saw the damage to her side of the box.

Mob mentality. An event I am positive would not have happened if that culprit would have been alone.

(7646)

Edited December 27, 2016 by Grumpy Bear

Grumpy Bear · January 11, 2017

Stopped in at the Truck Gear store looking for a grill mask. Kind used to regulate engine temperature and heat up time. See them on school busses and big rigs. All sorts of them for the 2500 and larger series. Pickings are slim for the 1500’s.

One actually even worth slowing to give a look. Problem is the mounting. Some sort of epoxied on studs to the grill. Not going to happen. Even if so inclined, which I’m not, it has to be over 60 F and that way for 72 hours.

Not sure what I’m missing. Maybe this is going to take a custom solution.

I know from this past summer covering the top third of the grill is a plus for fuel usage.

I know summer bugs in the grill stink, are hard to clean out without damaging the radiator core or disassemble of the grill which is a PITB for this year.

I know I waste about 25% more fuel winter than summer to heat ups and if the day is cold enough with the heater on in slower traffic makes getting enough heat to satisfy the EMC’s fuel tables for low temp enrichment iffy.

I know all three of these have a solution that isn’t ugly as sin. Works. Won’t cost $2500.

Have I ever mentioned I LOVE my Scan Gauge?

(8025)

Grumpy Bear · January 23, 2017

Sam runs our local dinner and always has something to say about Pepper. He hadn’t seen her in a while so when he saw her today I get the usual. “How many times a week do you wash that thing?”

Truth is I haven’t washed her since sometime early December. Sometime before the snow storm shown in post #108 and I tell him so. I get the usual “BS”. Comment. Then considering he says, “Oh, you keep it in the garage”.

Nope sits outside no matter what. Garage is for Grumpy’s Buick. I mention that too. “How is that possible?”

Don’t drive it in the salt. Don’t drive it in the rain. Pretty easy actually. It’s called a second car. The daily workhorse. That would be the Civics’ job to plow around in the mud and the muck.

We’ve had pretty warm weather for January in upstate Illinois this year. Let the snow thaw naturally and the first rain storm washes the dust off. It needs a bath now after the last two days of piggy trucks testing the shoulders of the road. Still a good 20 footer.

K&N 2044 cabin filter search local is coming up empty. Local Farm and Fleet has everyone made but this one. Don’t even show it in their books. I’m getting allot of that lately.

GPGuy · January 24, 2017

Nice looking truck, with good write-ups.

Grumpy Bear · January 27, 2017

Nice looking truck, with good write-ups.

I appreciate that, thank you. It’s a bit difficult to keep the news fresh and read worthy but I enjoy writing and am enjoying the truck and this forum. Thank you for allowing me to spout.

Grumpy Bear · January 31, 2017

“Brrrr…it’s 14F today and he wants to go visiting. He does know we have a dusting of snow on the way…right?” Taking a few extra cranks to get in the mood and a few more to get a start. Pepper hasn’t been moved in a week and that just a jaunt to the café.

Instruments come to life and all fluids are 2 below air temperature. It’s a big mass and takes a while to get the flywheel in motion. Tire pressures are 2 psi under target but even and it will warm up at least ten degrees in the next hour. She has a half a tank on board and a thin frost on the windshield. Nothing a bit of deicer doesn’t handle. Windows are frozen shut. Interesting.

A bump into reverse is solid and smooth but the skin of ice on her protest echoing the sound of shattering Romanian Chrystal. I have to laugh. Silly girl.

The steam off my coffee and my breath are going haze the glass soon if we can’t get some heat or a window down. Less than two hundred yards from the highway and up to 45 mph. Water temperature is climbing gently as she shakes off the morning chill. It’s five miles to town. A few squeaks from the suspension rubbers over the judder at the crossroads.

It will be 10 miles before the water temp reaches 150 F and I turn the defroster on low and hot bumping the speed up to 50 mph. It will be 15 miles before it reaches 190 and another 5 to open the thermostat at which point the trans fluid temperature is 125F. Tire pressure up to target and we are toasty. At 160 we were up to 55 mph. We will be climbing out of the Mississippi River valley at a distance of 100 miles and two and a half hours later before the transmission peaks at 184F.

At bit over half way to the Monticello Nursing Home, the target of today’s travel, the snow starts as a very light flurry and the Jones County road crew is attacking it like they are bracing for a nine foot fall. Chains on road graters and salting an inch thick where no snow is or will be and I’m not driving on that so I turn her head northeast along Iowa 61 and head for Belleview. We will visit later.

American Bald Eagles everywhere, deer and coyote scramble along the bluffs. Pretty and we are pretty empty. Time for some fuel.

The Car Wash at 800 State Street has six octane grades of alky free. My selection costing but twenty cents more than the E-10 87 which is Peppers default diet. I think I hear her purr. I tape off the top half of the grill and the locals inside notice. I make my explanations and heads smile and nod. The Old Timers love that stuff. Attendant asks if it’s new noting how clean it is. “Nope, a 15”, I respond. It would not remain that clean much longer.

Heading north along US 52 we re-enter the snow falling ever so light and two degrees above freezing on roads salted like winter pork. A truck route and Pepper takes on the look of white frosting. Had I seen this coming we would have never left the house.

At Dubuque we head southwest down US 151 toward our first destination. Can’t hurt it much more now. The side trip took about 40 minutes. Long enough to hear Rossini’s Overture from the Barber of Seville. Iowa Public Radio Classical has the state in a blanket of repeater stations.

My Aunts, a cousin and a close friend of Marcella, the younger Aunt in the home and self, have a nice visit while Pepper dodges the insults of construction workers doing their best to lay her harm. I bounce out long enough for a rescue pointing out to young moron he is in reserved parking for outpatients and Pepper is not his personal dumpster. He moves to the off side without event.

In for a penny, in for a pound I head south on Iowa 1 to US 30 and finally my father’s home 35 miles further along the way. We visit. Kick back a 50/50 Apricot brandy/bourbon mix Gramps called a “hooker”. It’s a tradition.

It’s getting long in the day. I have another 200 plus miles to home and I have to wait for Dad to quit laughing at the ugly state Pepper is in. He has never seen such a mess owned by me. “Finally got ya”.

I-350 / I-80 / I-88 and Illinois 72 are the route home with a 20 mph tailwind and a setting sun. Sky cleared in the last half hour to a beautiful red sky rapidly in decent. I grab a bugger and a coffee and plug in a double helping of Mozart. Set the cruse to 60 and enjoy the meal. Once I hit the 88 I ramp it up to 70 ish for the final three movements of the second disc and an hour or so of Illinois classical PBS radio out of DeKalb.

Trip averaged 26 mpg over 400 plus miles. De-trashed the interior and made a note to give baby a bath tomorrow. Nice day all said and done.

Grumpy Bear · February 1, 2017

Fuel update.

Baby got her bath last night.

Grumpy Bear · February 6, 2017

38.91 MPH. That’s Peppers to date lifetime average speed.

I took note that both seat belt recalls have been done on this truck and without the butcher shop tactics most have experienced.

Grumpy Bear · February 13, 2017

Got my "Truck Fox Report" today.

Grumpy Bear · February 16, 2017

The difference between the fill and usage as recorded by the Scan Gauge. This is over 5500 miles and 12 fills with four in each state of calibraition. As you can see I've overshot the mark and on the last fill backed out 1/10 of a gallon of correction. I was hoping to find a mark that keep the Scan Gauge pesimistic but I don't have a fine enough adjustment to make that happen. We will settle then on over/under.

Edited February 16, 2017 by Grumpy Bear

Grumpy Bear · February 21, 2017

Yea, it’s only February. I know. So let’s call it some Pre-spring cleaning.

No carpet at the WT1 trim level and the rubber flooring isn’t as durable as one might hope for. Hard to clean and it pills when scrubbed hard enough to remove the ground in. Worse, it’s been a pretty dry winter here and I don’t drive it in inclement weather unless trapped during an outing as was a recent case. That said, before it wore threw I wished to add some protection.

Matts are ridiculously expensive and the liners don’t fit right without factory carpeting and the hold downs those employ.

Rectangular braided matts are cheap, Fit like a glove in this truck and cleaning is as easy as a new set.

Edited February 21, 2017 by Grumpy Bear