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2500HD observations

JimWilson

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JimWilson Enthusiast

JimWilson

Posted
Posted

Alright, I've had my truck for 2 days now. That means I need to post another huge message!  :thumbs:  This one is my observations thus far, and as usual it's reeeeal long...

 

 

* Man, this breakin period stinks! Trying to keep it at 55 or below is a lot more difficult then I thought it would be. It seems like I'm going in slow motion. And being passed by semi's -- while they're going up hill no less -- gets old fast.

 

* The larger wheel base, and bigger turning circle, have caused me an embarrassing moment or two. One of my neighbors saw me pulling into the driveway last night, so he came over to look at my new truck. Trouble is, I misjudged the turn (while he was watching, of course!) and the rear tire went over the curb. How humiliating -- here I've been drive trucks for 10 years and I do something silly like that. Geez...

 

* This thing rides smoother then I thought it would. You can only really tell so much from a simple test drive, seeing as you're trying to look at so many new things simultaneously. But now that I have over 200 miles on it I can say that I'm a bit more familiar with how it rides. Actually, it almost seems too smooth, given the capacities. I still have the original fartstones on, with 45lbs in the front and 40 in the rear. What air pressure are you guys running?

 

* This is one quite truck! I can't believe how little noise you hear; wind, road, engine, etc. I'm impressed.

 

* I'm also impressed with the build quality and engineering. I'm going to be honest here; I haven't owned an American vehicle in almost 2 decades, primarily because all the ones I had suffered from dreadful engineering and/or construction. They were all crap, plain and simple. AAMOF, I almost didn't buy this truck for that very reason -- once bitten, twice shy is my motto -- screw me once and it's over. Period. Well, I might have to eat those words now. I spent almost 2 hours last night just checking this thing out ("will you get in the house and leave that truck alone already, your dinners getting cold!"). I looked underneath, at the interior and in the engine compartment. I scrutinized everything, and considering I'm like that neatnic 70's sitcom character Felix Unger, that's saying more then you realize. I found 7 things that weren't done properly, 5 of which I would consider minor (misaligned trim piece, plastic tab not pushed all the way in, loose screws, etc). I have to admit I was impressed. It seems as though this thing was engineered and put together the right way. Of course, you'll never actually know that until a few years down the road -- after it's been used in the real world for awhile -- but thus far I like what I see.

 

* Of course, poking around like I did lead me to more fully realize one aspect I don't like; there's no ground clearance. My current 1/2 ton has so much ground clearance that I can slide underneath and turn on my side without hitting the frame (I'm 6' 1", and not narrow of frame). And that's the factory stock 4x4. I slide under this truck and I only had a few measly inches before my chest hit the frame, on my back -- I could never roll onto my side under this truck. That's not so good.

 

* And while I was underneath I looked to see if I had the 1 piece drive shaft. Thankfully, I do -- no TSB for me! And man, is that thing ever huge. It's almost as thick as my leg. There's an awful lot of balancing weights on it though, which makes you wonder about how carefully it was manufactured.

 

* Say, where's all the grab handles? On my current EC SB I have 5; one each for the outboard rear passengers, one each on the A pillars for both front seat passengers, and one over the right shoulder of the passenger. Wonder why GM was so cheap with the handles.

 

* Boy, do I ever have that Silverado slope -- it's bad! The drivers side of my truck is almost 1 3/4" lower then the passengers side, measured at the rear bumper. That's embarrassing; it looks like the darn thing is going to tip over. This morning I saw 3 other 2500HD's, 1 CC SB and 2 EC SB's, and only one of them had any slope at all, and it was so slight that you had to look hard to see it. Does this get better when things loosen up a bit? Is anyone elses this bad? Is there an effective way to level my truck out? I don't see how cranking the tbars will help this problem, but I did check them while I was under there (the drivers side is one thread further out then the passengers side, so they're pretty much even anyway).

 

* Does anyone have option PCM, which has the self-dimming rearview mirror with the compass and temperature guage? Does your mirror get hot behind the compass area? I went to adjust the mirror yesterday and was surprised to find that it was hot, and the weather was even cool. That seems like it won't last very long being that warm.

 

* On the center console there are buttons for fresh and recirculated air. I push the recirculate button and the indicator light comes on, but when I push the button for fresh the light doesn't come on. I get outside air, but no light. Does yours do that?

 

* What a nice exhaust sound, considering it's factory and the small engine (6 liter). I gave it a little throttle coming away from a light once this morning, just to see how it felt, and the exhaust note was pretty cool. I kinda like it -- not bad for a stock rig. The pipes are certainly big enough. Wonder how big they are on the dmax!

 

Imagine what I'll have to say after this truck is broken in and I can actually drive it like a normal person...  :thumbs:

Shaners Senior Enthusiast

Shaners

Posted
Posted

I really enjoy my '01 HD crewcab with the 6.0L everytime I get behind the wheel.  It's quiet, and has good throttle response, roomy and mostly trouble free... (with the exception of the transfer case).  After 11 months and 5K miles, there is still no rattles and the only vibration I have is from the dreaded 2-piece drive-shaft under mine.

 

My mpg's around town have been 10-12 mpg's and about 14.5 over the road.  I've never run a full tank on the highway yet (did'ya notice the low miles?), so I don't know what they would be...  However a friend of mine at work drove mine, and went out and purchased the exact same truck, and he drives it!!!  He's had it a month and has almost 3K miles on his.  He took it to Anderson SC last weekend and got 14-15 mpg's over the road running at the speed limit plus 10-15 mph.  Not bad considering he was traveling through the mtns of West VA and VA coming from PA...

 

Enjoy your new truck!!!  Everytime you get behind the wheel I know you'll like it better!!!  :thumbs:

CMNTMXR81 Senior Enthusiast

CMNTMXR81

Posted
Posted

It's commonly said by automotive critics throughout that GM trucks are one of the best executed product lines within GM.  Them and the Corvette anyway, which says quite a bit.

 

It's the little things that they've been doing for years that other manufacturer's never did but had more costly items like slow power folding seats, etc, etc.  Stuff like the dome override switch.  You know some GM brass got stranded out in the boonies with a dead battery and wen't back and raised ####.  :thumbs:

 

You had wayyy soo much to respond to, that I am only noting three things that struck me.  A) the slope B) the ground clearance and C) the rear view mirror with compass.

 

 

A) the slope.  Adjusting the torsion bars will fix this

 

B) Clearance.  I don't have any problems even before I turned up the bars.  I'm not much smaller than you and I could park a Mack truck underneath this thing.  Can't say the same for my 1/2 ton Tahoe 4x4.

 

C) the hot rear view mirror.  I never noticed mine being hot, but I would'nt worry about it's longevity.  Feel the face of your stereo and display at night.  It's hotter than heck and it doesn't affect it's longevity.  So a low wattage LED style display isn't going to die anytime soon.  Oh and that same 97 Tahoe which also has the same mirror (although sans temp reading) is now going on 6 years old and is fine.

AKDmax Enthusiast

AKDmax

Posted
Posted

I'll help you out on the recirc air light. Take it to the dealer because the light should come on. Maybe yours is the beginning of a new TSB :thumbs:. Now you get to spend money on the goodies. The Dmax exhaust sounds cool too! the pipe is 3.5". Enjoy!!!!  :thumbs:

lauriet1 Enthusiast

lauriet1

Posted
Posted

Jim - Does your Recirc Button Blink a few times and then go off or does the light not come on at all?  I remember reading somewhere on the boards that it will only stay on when the inside (?) air reaches a certain temperature.  My recirc button works best when the AC is on or when I'm running cool air through the vents with the fan temp set on the "blue side".  It doesn't work at all if I'm running the heater, just blinks three or four times and goes out.  My Fresh Button Light comes on and stays on though.  I think there's something in the Manual about this, but maybe someone here can clarify better for you and I,  :thumbs:...

HD Doug Enthusiast

HD Doug

Posted
Posted
* Man, this breakin period stinks! Trying to keep it at 55 or below is a lot more difficult then I thought it would be. It seems like I'm going in slow motion. And being passed by semi's -- while they're going up hill no less -- gets old fast.

 

 

* Of course, poking around like I did lead me to more fully realize one aspect I don't like; there's no ground clearance. My current 1/2 ton has so much ground clearance that I can slide underneath and turn on my side without hitting the frame (I'm 6' 1", and not narrow of frame). And that's the factory stock 4x4. I slide under this truck and I only had a few measly inches before my chest hit the frame, on my back -- I could never roll onto my side under this truck. That's not so good.

Jim,

I hear that ride height/ground clearance issue.  I turned up the T-bars and had leafs added.  With the addition of 33" 255/85/r16's, it now looks like a real truck and sits as high as most Ram and Ford 1/2 tons (man that's still embarrassing!)  If you have power seats, you can also adjust them up so you sit higher above the dash and have a better view of the road.  I highly recommend this, as I hate feeling like granny peeking over the steering wheel.  Then again, I'm only 5'9 1/2" and you're not, so use your own feel for this issue.

 

Also, for the break-in peroid, I thought that various throttle and vehicle (within reason) speeds were best to get all conditions some "exercise."  I could be wrong, so tell me what you know!

 

Oh, don't forget, now you MUST get an intake/exhaust/header combo to really wake that bad boy up!  Enjoy!

 

HD Doug

CMNTMXR81 Senior Enthusiast

CMNTMXR81

Posted
Posted
I checked my recirc button today. Comes on with A/C or Defrost settings.

Actually even if you don't have it in A/C or Defrost modes, when you push the recirc button it turns on the A/C anyway.  Since when you push the Recirc button, you are effectively closing off the outside vents, therefore it turns the A/C on to compensate otherwise you'd have stale, musty air circulating.

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