"The Raven" build thread

[Dersch]

Been pretty active on here since I bought my truck figures it's time to make an official build thread. 

I bought my truck on new years eve and 2018. It is a 2015 Silverado 1500 LT 4x4 with the 4.3L V6 in black. I bought it with around 36k miles on it. 

The truck has come a long way and still has a few more things I'd like to do. 

 

*The day I picked her up and my Cherokee I traded in.

 

1-8-19- windshield 35%, 15% tint all around. 

Sometimes I wish i went work 10% but then other days I realize it's hard af to see at night. 

2-22-19- 5" Rough Country lift, 305/65/18 falken wild peak AT3W, 18x10 -24

I have Carl's 4x4 in Illinois install everything and honestly it turned out even better than I envisioned. 

 

4-19-19- Ceramic nano wax coating and debadged.

The debadging makes the truck look so much cleaner. The ceramic coat is actually really nice but I will say it doesnt stay shiny for very long. It does shine up fairly well after a quick car wash tho. I had the lifetime high end one done. 

4-26-19- Tow mirrors, fender flares

I attempted to have tow mirrors installed with my lift kit. The ones I has bought originally had the lights and what not. Figured the shop could hard wire that part. Turned out that the mirrors I bought had a bad wiring harness and kept frying the power adjust mirror switch. Ended up returning those and getting very basic tow mirrors with no signals. They do have power glass tho. They have worked great. No issue at all. Truly plug and play. Really gives the truck a beefier look. 

The fender flares I didnt really want to do. But I got sick of how dirty my truck got. These are some TYGER ones off Ebay. They actually attach by self tapping screws. Wasnt super stoked about that at first cause well drilling holes sucks but they are very secure and I think it is an to do method. This along with the mirrors completely changed the look of the truck. 

6-10-19 smoked LED Tail lights, smoked LED 3rd brake light, driver side A pillar.

I want to go for a blacked out look on my truck. Picked up the led taillights for cheap off Ebay. They are really nice and came with new harness that replaces the halogen ones. 

The 3rd brake light was easy to replace. Literally plug and play. Very bright too. 

The a pillar grab handle also took like 5 min to replace. I like it cause before I was pulling on the steering wheel to get into the truck which I figured would be bad long term. 

*need a day time shot still

6-14-19 Hypertech max energy 2.0

I just picked this up today. I got tired of dealing with the larger tires causing the truck to run in higher RPMs and to floor it on the smallest of hills. Plus I was getting anywhere from 14-18 mpg on the highway dependent on my speed and wind. Generally at 65 mph I was hitting 18 mpg. I focused on economy with my tune I dont care about the horse power or torque. So far at 75 mph I'm getting 21 mpg. I'm only about an hour into my 7 hour trip so we will see how it does long term. But it's already a huge improvement. The truck drives smoother now with the recal of tire size. Here are my settings that I can remember. 

Regular tune

Tire size- recorrected to 33.5s

Rpm/ shift points- N/A

Top speed/ rev limiter- N/A

AFM- stock 

Torque converter- economy 

Shift firmness/ tranny firmness- sport

Throttle response- sport 

I had done performance for throttle and it literally threw me against the seat. Didnt expect that at all. But I also noticed a decrease in mpg. Went back to sport and no issues. 

 

6-16-19

Black OEM style DTMOTO projector headlights. The actual install itself was simple as could be. I need to get some day shots but love the look. I didnt make any adjustments but once i get some LED lights I will. 

* need day time pic

 

6-19-19 

Black raptor style grille with 3 amber lights. Grille is installed. Fit perfect. Need to figure out where to tap into for the amber lights.  Thinking the headlights marker light harness.

*need pic still

 

To do list-

Install LED headlights, fogs, marker, reverse and license plate lights

Install LED tail gate light bar 

Install LED pod bumper reverse lights 

Install custom "plug and play" harness for tailgate light bar and pods 

Edited June 17, 2019 by Dersch

[Dersch]

Well this weekend didnt quite go as planned. 

I got the grille installed no issue. Except when taking off the factory grille it was missing the 4 lower boots and the plastic upper bumper was only held in by 2 bolts not 4.

I bought the raptor grille with the 3 amber lights. Came with a harness but need to figure out where to tap into. Maybe the headlight wiring harness?

 

Headlights fit perfect and really change the look of the truck. I really love the projector look and black housing. Only issue I had was the harness doesnt seem to want to fit tight. I had both come unplugged when I installed grille. I put some electrical tape on drivers side. Couldn't get my hand on the passenger side to do it but I will when I pull them back out to put my LED lights in.

 

I was going to do the rigid double led cube fog llights but Chevy decided to design the fogs to not be removable unless the whole front bumper comes off. I didn't have time nor energy for it. Plus with the new head lights I dont think itll look right. So I'm going to go with LED bulbs 

Edited June 17, 2019 by Dersch