2500hd gasser

[Lpfm1990]

6 hours ago, revrnd said:

 

I had to go to the town north of me early last summer & stopped in to get an air filter for my Monte Carlo SS. I couldn't find any Oshawa built HDs on their lot & they had a bunch. I didn't pay much to the trim levels.

 

My brother bought a '24 LTZ a week or 2 after my LT & it was an Oshawa Truck too. It was being driven by the dealership's parts guy, a 'company car' as we used to call it @ work.

 

You mention sledding @ Tug Hill,  so obviously you're in the Watertown & Syracuse area. What is the biggest 'centre' to your location?

 

Here in Canada the dealer network was set up as Chev/Olds & some added with Cadillac and Pontiac/Buick & GMC. Before Pontiac disappeared (after the announcement), I read that percentagewise Pontiac sales were bigger in Canada than the US. Having the GMCs in half the network may have played into more of a presence for GMC here as well.

I’m in the Buffalo/niagara region, I can look at Toronto most nights on my way home from work going down the Niagara escarpment, I’m pretty sure I recognize your username from Dootalk, lol (if you are a pew’er I’m skidoorevxp on there, but haven’t been really on Dootalk a ton as of late, busy and winters sucking the last few, and then my dads cancer stuff this year wiped out going anywhere)

 

we have at least double if not triple the amount of Chevy dealers over gmc, and the few gmc dealers we have with in reason I wouldn’t shop at, they are shady and love to play games with how they show their pricing and trade stuff, or just don’t deal period. 
 

Pontiac was decently popular around here, and still see them around. Some of my favorite cars were made by them. Was sad when gm put the final nail in their coffin 

[Lpfm1990]

7 hours ago, Chuck FB said:

I guess the way I interpreted the window sticker I thought it was the full heated window as I never caught anything about a sliding window ( I don't recall how they worded it on my window sticker either ). It must be a logistics thing to have the trucks come from Canada, however I had been lead to understand they do not build the long box HD in Oshawa and would have to come from the Flint plant. My sales guy made the comment that the trucks they receive mostly come from Flint and that only if Flint is way behind that they will come from Oshawa, no idea if that is true but seems odd.

 

I had to laugh at the plow package still riding better than a solid front axle setup, of course there are so many variables with tire size and spring rates on solid axles as well that dictate the end result. That reminds me I test drove a used Dodge 3/4 gas years ago and it was a standard cab. I swear it felt like the axles were directly bolted to the frame, like a horse drawn lumber wagon from the old west. That sure didn't sell me on wanting one, of course they are different now.

 

These tailgates are high off the ground and I figured it made sense to get it given ... well I am not getting any younger. I would suggest you set yours so it won't open the top portion if you accidentally touch the top button momentarily, certainly when you are towing or have a ball slid into the receiver.

 

Speaking of the cold, an example of this winter our coldest day was I think was around -43F and last year we hit -52F ( actual temperature, not that wind chill effect ).

Yeah. That’s cold. I’ve been in -45 before in Sudbury Ontario on a sled trip wayyyyy back in 2006, my dad had a Chevy avalanche 5.3 at the time, and it wasn’t happy starting when we went to leave for home at the end of the trip lol

 

and definitely want to figure out the settings for the tailgate, I’ll have a tonneau cover on it also. So even like my truck, I can hit the button but the cover doesn’t let it drop down on its own which is nice 

[Chuck FB]

7 hours ago, revrnd said:

My bad, it was Fremont not Sputh Gate that built C/K trucks to 1981. The plant then became the NUMMI joint venture with Toyota (the last models built being the Matrix & Vibe). The plant was closed & then sold to Tesla in 2010.

 

 

I looked it up on the map and looks like quite the maze of a facility in Fremont, and google has it named as Tesla. That got me wondering if my brothers 1980 Chev with the lovely 350 diesel was built there, gee it couldn't have been the end of that popular engine that closed the plant, could it !

[Chuck FB]

1 hour ago, Lpfm1990 said:

Yeah. That’s cold. I’ve been in -45 before in Sudbury Ontario on a sled trip wayyyyy back in 2006, my dad had a Chevy avalanche 5.3 at the time, and it wasn’t happy starting when we went to leave for home at the end of the trip lol

 

and definitely want to figure out the settings for the tailgate, I’ll have a tonneau cover on it also. So even like my truck, I can hit the button but the cover doesn’t let it drop down on its own which is nice 

I personally wouldn't be going on any sled trip in -45, I don't know how you even got your machines started. And as to the Chevy starting, if an engine is left for a couple of days in consistent cold like that to really cold soak the oil and lets say its 10W-30 conventional oil, its not going to produce any oil pressure for wayyyy too long of a time. Probably by that time frame it could have been 5W-30 though as back in the 1970's 10W-30 or 10W-40 was the new go to oil over single grades. I think it was around the early 1980's that Esso came out with its 0W-30 for the Canadian market to the public but the average person wasn't jumping at it as it was new and different and of course cost more but I started using it for good reason and am to this day.

[Lpfm1990]

48 minutes ago, Chuck FB said:

I personally wouldn't be going on any sled trip in -45, I don't know how you even got your machines started. And as to the Chevy starting, if an engine is left for a couple of days in consistent cold like that to really cold soak the oil and lets say its 10W-30 conventional oil, its not going to produce any oil pressure for wayyyy too long of a time. Probably by that time frame it could have been 5W-30 though as back in the 1970's 10W-30 or 10W-40 was the new go to oil over single grades. I think it was around the early 1980's that Esso came out with its 0W-30 for the Canadian market to the public but the average person wasn't jumping at it as it was new and different and of course cost more but I started using it for good reason and am to this day.

Yeah it was a cold trip, but my dad couldn’t move his vacation, and I was in high school at the time and working around presidents week which I had off like 2 of the 5 days we were there for school. We had Yamaha 4 stroke sleds that were carbed and i didn’t think they would start, but they did, it shocked all the two stroke guys lol, but also back then. Forecasting wasn’t showing it as cold and I didn’t have much for internet and no smartphone apps to find multiple forecasts for areas. I was going off the weather network and all. 
 

no idea on the oil pressure on the truck. I just know it took like an hour of it running to get any temperature in the truck lol

[Chuck FB]

22 minutes ago, Lpfm1990 said:

Yeah it was a cold trip, but my dad couldn’t move his vacation, and I was in high school at the time and working around presidents week which I had off like 2 of the 5 days we were there for school. We had Yamaha 4 stroke sleds that were carbed and i didn’t think they would start, but they did, it shocked all the two stroke guys lol, but also back then. Forecasting wasn’t showing it as cold and I didn’t have much for internet and no smartphone apps to find multiple forecasts for areas. I was going off the weather network and all. 
 

no idea on the oil pressure on the truck. I just know it took like an hour of it running to get any temperature in the truck lol

I imagine those Yamaha 4 strokes used a full synthetic oil of some sort that had a fighting chance of lubing the engine vs blowing up in the cold. Also probably had electric start as I know some have said some of the big two strokes years back that had no electric start, nearly impossible to turn the engine over with the rope and yet that was all they had to work with. I think guys that were doing the cold weather mountain sledding were using some form of heat, not sure if that was piping exhaust from their truck into the engine compartment or some such thing so they could get their sled running.

 

That's the ****** when a person is locked into a certain time frame for doing anything away from a work schedule that ties one down and don't have numerous days off in a row like some types of days on/days off employment.

 

Don't imagine your dad had a winter front on the truck or cardboard etc as that sure helps in the stupid cold temps. Speaking of that, I suspect your new truck will not come with grill shutters as I think its a theme that if the snow plow prep is added then they don't put the shutters on. I had no idea if mine would come with shutters or not until the truck arrived and it does have them as I ordered it with the stock torsion bars. I haven't had it in any considered cold weather, doubt its been cold enough to even run the block heater as they set them up so they supposedly don't come on until its near zero F. Never the less if its something below the freezing point, I am amazed at how the temp climbs up just sitting there idling and yes the shutters are closed when its doing that and actually even once up to a stabilized engine temp the shutters are still closed. Its all good until the time the shutters crap out and stay closed when its pulling or hot out !

 

That friends 2023 1/2 ton with the 6.2, not sure if its because of the engine or that it has the max tow package but it does not have shutters. Yet his 2017 1/2 ton with the 5.3 did have shutters. Ironically his older truck was not good at warming up quick in the winter when heading to or from work but his new one is noticeably better, no idea why that is.

[Lpfm1990]

10 minutes ago, Chuck FB said:

I imagine those Yamaha 4 strokes used a full synthetic oil of some sort that had a fighting chance of lubing the engine vs blowing up in the cold. Also probably had electric start as I know some have said some of the big two strokes years back that had no electric start, nearly impossible to turn the engine over with the rope and yet that was all they had to work with. I think guys that were doing the cold weather mountain sledding were using some form of heat, not sure if that was piping exhaust from their truck into the engine compartment or some such thing so they could get their sled running.

 

That's the ****** when a person is locked into a certain time frame for doing anything away from a work schedule that ties one down and don't have numerous days off in a row like some types of days on/days off employment.

 

Don't imagine your dad had a winter front on the truck or cardboard etc as that sure helps in the stupid cold temps. Speaking of that, I suspect your new truck will not come with grill shutters as I think its a theme that if the snow plow prep is added then they don't put the shutters on. I had no idea if mine would come with shutters or not until the truck arrived and it does have them as I ordered it with the stock torsion bars. I haven't had it in any considered cold weather, doubt its been cold enough to even run the block heater as they set them up so they supposedly don't come on until its near zero F. Never the less if its something below the freezing point, I am amazed at how the temp climbs up just sitting there idling and yes the shutters are closed when its doing that and actually even once up to a stabilized engine temp the shutters are still closed. Its all good until the time the shutters crap out and stay closed when its pulling or hot out !

 

That friends 2023 1/2 ton with the 6.2, not sure if its because of the engine or that it has the max tow package but it does not have shutters. Yet his 2017 1/2 ton with the 5.3 did have shutters. Ironically his older truck was not good at warming up quick in the winter when heading to or from work but his new one is noticeably better, no idea why that is.

Yeah electric start with an agm battery and 0w-20 oil iirc

and no grill shutters on the new truck, my 6.2 has the grill shutters on it, and yeah, no winter front or cardboard on that avalanche back then, he thought about shoving some in there but it wasn’t an easy feat and being so cold he said f it and turned the heated seats up to high lol

 

i know this truck will take longer to heat up with having the cast iron block over the alum block, but I don’t daily my truck in the winter, so the heated seat will work enough till the engine temp gets up.

[Chuck FB]

3 minutes ago, Lpfm1990 said:

Yeah electric start with an agm battery and 0w-20 oil iirc

and no grill shutters on the new truck, my 6.2 has the grill shutters on it, and yeah, no winter front or cardboard on that avalanche back then, he thought about shoving some in there but it wasn’t an easy feat and being so cold he said f it and turned the heated seats up to high lol

 

i know this truck will take longer to heat up with having the cast iron block over the alum block, but I don’t daily my truck in the winter, so the heated seat will work enough till the engine temp gets up.

I am only guessing that maybe GM deletes the shutters with the max tow package, his is slightly newer though so who knows. But that is one thing you don't have to worry about failing in the closed position. Its a good question about which engine's coolant would warm up faster to give heat in the cab as after all the cast block would not absorb the heat of the coolant as fast on the exterior vs an aluminum block that would heat soak faster which would not assist in faster coolant warming for heat to the cab. You will find out next winter assuming you even will use the truck much during the winter. I am not used to such fancy things such as heated seats, heated steering wheel, or in this case cooled seats as well.

 

Fun fact, at the dealership I bought a second cord to plug the truck in that I can pack in the truck at all times and leave the one I use at home just laying there, the partsman said these cords are a hot item as they sell lots of them because ... idiots steal them where the vehicle is accessible to the public and plugged in. Come out to your vehicle and its not plugged in and your adapter cord is missing, apparently its sadly too common an occurrence. The cord is around 120.00 I believe, you won't have to worry about yours getting stolen LOL.

[Chuck FB]

4 hours ago, Lpfm1990 said:

Yeah. That’s cold. I’ve been in -45 before in Sudbury Ontario on a sled trip wayyyyy back in 2006, my dad had a Chevy avalanche 5.3 at the time, and it wasn’t happy starting when we went to leave for home at the end of the trip lol

 

and definitely want to figure out the settings for the tailgate, I’ll have a tonneau cover on it also. So even like my truck, I can hit the button but the cover doesn’t let it drop down on its own which is nice 

I forgot to ask about the tonneau cover it has or that you will get for the truck. I am surprised that it prevents the tailgate from falling down so must be designed differently than I picture at the rear of the cover. In saying that an older truck I have has a fibreglass cover and it cups over the tailgate effectively locking the tailgate if the cover is locked. My new truck however I chose a bakflip and its only the minimal friction from the cover seal and that isn't enough to hold the tailgate securely at all, however I have to pull slightly on the tailgate after I hit the button for it to come down but without a doubt the tailgate would drop if lets say someone was to press the button in the cab while driving down the road.

 

As to locking out the upper portion of the tailgate, I believe its about seven seconds that one has to hold the upper button and then the taillights flash and that button is disabled when pressed momentarily and you can test that after you do the disable. To undo it, its holding it again for that seven seconds and it reverts back to being functional. You have to have the key fob on you when doing that, if the engine is not running anyway. Its very easy to find videos of guys that are showing damage they caused to their tailgate because they were not thinking and pressed the upper button and the whole unit came unfolded onto their hitch ball or the hitch of the trailer they have hooked up. Its easy to avoid that if operated properly or lock it out so someone else is with you and don't understand which button not to press to avoid damage.

[Lpfm1990]

Just a cheapo tri-fold from “gator”. It had spring clips that hold it down to the bed rails and the rear rubber gasket is enough friction to stop the tailgate from dropping

 

https://realtruck.com/p/gator-sfx-tri-fold-tonneau-cover/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD2KksAOhHLgpAp6gmak3i352nh7M&gclid=CjwKCAjw47i_BhBTEiwAaJfPppvtp_yhtML38Fu8BwvOUDy6D7PMM6iWnRgnwQ-ft4NTU2raYA-0xhoCDuQQAvD_BwE

[revrnd]

Can you 2 slow down? I'll never catch up to you LOL

[Chuck FB]

18 minutes ago, revrnd said:

Can you 2 slow down? I'll never catch up to you LOL

[Chuck FB]

1 hour ago, Lpfm1990 said:

Just a cheapo tri-fold from “gator”. It had spring clips that hold it down to the bed rails and the rear rubber gasket is enough friction to stop the tailgate from dropping

 

https://realtruck.com/p/gator-sfx-tri-fold-tonneau-cover/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD2KksAOhHLgpAp6gmak3i352nh7M&gclid=CjwKCAjw47i_BhBTEiwAaJfPppvtp_yhtML38Fu8BwvOUDy6D7PMM6iWnRgnwQ-ft4NTU2raYA-0xhoCDuQQAvD_BwE

The price is sure right on a cover like that, sure wish the bakflip wasn't so expensive here in Canada as I paid over 1900.00 for it and its not like there is that much to it either. The GM supplied cover similar to it, I never looked close up at but saw too many negative reviews and decided I'd pay a bit more and get a bakflip through a local outfitter instead and got some fancy ( or at least the price seemed fancy to me ) kick back mud flaps by BulletProof at the same time put on before I hit our crappy roads and sand blast the truck before I even got it home .. and PPF. and front side window tint which is illegal in Alberta, bought the GM under seat storage box, front and rear weather proof matching floor mats since the truck came with the total joke of an upscale HC mats which were beyond pathetic, I don't even want to add up how much was spent on these simple accessories, it was a lot.

 

I also decided to put a rubber mat into the bed and then I did go with the GM accessory mat as it had the shallow molded top lines that go from front to back so it can be swept out vs all these weird criss crossing lines of some competitors that made no sense at all to easily sweep dirt etc off of. It has the many little rubber bumps under it to in theory help a bit of air flow under it to dry out if moisture gets under it. Yes it takes up a bit of height under the cover but I find spray in box liners to be insanely hard on the knees to crawl around in as this is way more comfortable but does leave that transition edge at the back of the box. Its also more grippy to keep some things from sliding around as bad and if I ever set something onto it that cuts into it for some reason, I won't feel so bad vs damaging the spray in liner. I am used to having a plywood box liner that is tough and table top flat vs the uneven shape of formed channels in steel boxes. To pack some tools and tow ropes, hitch balls etc etc I figured this time I would try fairly tall totes with lids as that way I can be sure the tools and supplies won't get wet and sit and rust even if the cover didn't hold out water 100% or dust for that matter as no doubt dust will get in.

Edited April 6, 2025 by Chuck FB

[Lpfm1990]

That cover is the cheapest option that’s all self contained, and takes about 2 minutes to install or remove, which makes it nice when you need the full bed to load stuff like a sled. My dad use to buy the “undercover” tops and they were like $800 back in the late 00’s up to around 2012? I had it on one truck and it was nearly impossible to take it on and off alone without destroying the side of the truck or having a hernia by the time you were done. 
 

this truck should have the same rubber weather tech style floor mats, and all I’m buying otherwise is the Chevy molded mud flaps and rear wheelhouse liner. It has the under seat storage already like mine which is where I toss a basic drop, hitch pin and some straps. And typically I can slide a small socket set under the driver seat and have mostly what I need with me. The spray in liner is good enough for me also and usually stops stuff from completely flying to the front of the bed when I stop, I have had bed mats in previous trucks that weren’t spray linered which was ok, but also let a bunch of dust and crap accumulate over time. This I’ll just take a hose every now and again and blast the bed out and leave the tailgate down in the driveway and let it dry out

[Chuck FB]

I can see where it would be light and quick to remove, because I bought the cover through the outfit in town I just had them put it on ( for a price of course ) as I know in the past the warranty would be somewhat dependent on them installing it which is a gimmick but whatever. The undercover unit that your dad bought as I see that company still exists, they make what looks similar to a bakflip but also what looks to be a fibreglass cover. Was your dads the one piece fibreglass cover as yes those are not something that one person should be trying to remove as it just spells disaster. On my old truck I have that theme of a cover and was made by cougarcover in Edmonton and it uses two gas shocks to hold it up. It has its good points but opening up the box is a no go and would have to be removed to put items into the box that sit above the bedrails. Its even enough of a struggle for two people actually. 

 

My brother used to have a roll top on his Ford but the assembly took up room below the bed line in the front but it was a total pain if it got iced up or wet from washing the truck in the winter and then sitting outside with no heated garage. Also it had major issues with dust and water getting into it and it was wrecking items he had in the box and they were not cheap compared to other covers at the time on the market. So he sold that cheap and bought a bakflip and has really liked it so that is what steered me that way. I also wanted something that could withstand some snow load on it and not sure how a soft cover fairs for that type of situation. A shell would have its good points for hauling taller items but unless I really need to do that I passed on it for now as that eliminates looking out a rear view mirror and isn't nice to be in traffic or parking lots with that more limited view.

 

They really went backwards with the High Country with its standard floor mats, in fact it was impossible to order the truck with the weathertec mats unless it was the package of mats, the full size under seat storage box which I bought in the end and the console mounted safe. While the safe would have been ok to have had, that really limited the amount of space in the console so I passed on that option. I am not sure if the factory mats would have been the same as the ones I bought over the counter, the front ones could have been but the rear ones I got the idea would be something a bit different and so at parts they said the matching rear mats are not offered by Chev, only GMC so they stocked the rear mats from GM so customers could match their front mats ... what a confusing mess that is and no idea why Chev is doing something different then GM. Long and short is I got what I was after and passed on getting the Z71 front mats as they have the deep groves and collect a bunch of crap and are harder to clean if one wants to do a wipe down off the mats as they sit in the vehicle.

 

Its good your getting mud flaps, anything is better than not having something to keep the crap from hitting the truck. I think I know what flaps you are getting, they are relatively thin and light and are shaped to fit the factory wheel well extender if you will. What I have does protect more in the sense that they are lower which may or may not be so good at some point but seem quite popular around here as the gravel roads are far greater than the few main paved roads we have. Oh yes and the LT does not come with rear wheel well liners unless its specifically optioned, the HC thankfully comes with them ... and the price tag !

 

I think I had made a comment somewhere else on this forum about another item other than finding some fluid levels low, I had checked the wheel lug nut torque when I got the truck home and was surprised that they were certainly not up to the 140 foot pounds but more around 100 it seemed. So something to check out when you get it in your hands as its no different then going home from a tire shop and checking the torque and finding they settled in and loosened up some or also as per tire shops all sorts of human error of missing to tighten lug nuts ( I doubt the factory has that issue with the automated power head they use to tighten all the lugs at once ).