Vic's new truck - 2006 Chevrolet Silverado 3500 LBZ

[Vic Harder]

19 mpg on the last tank! picking up the PUMA today

 

[EM4]

Good luck with it all Vic......You must be looking forward to it.

 

[Vic Harder]

Back in Calgary with the camper. 4000 miles later. Good thing my wife and I enjoy travelling together!
Without the camper, the truck averaged 19.5 US mpg.
With the camper, we averaged 16.4 US mpg.
In both cases, we were driving at the posted speed limit, as verified by GPS. Which meant a goodly amount of time at 75 and 80 mph, and on the way home with the camper, we had some very strong head winds and a LOT of rain.

I am VERY happy with the improvement in mpg over my 2500HD, that had the 8.1L gasser and averaged 10.5 mpg and a range of only about 300 miles.

Only issues we've had so far is noise... the exhaust drone is super loud... about 86 db-c in the cab at 75 mph, 88 db-c at 1500 rpm. Interestingly, the noise level appears to have gone DOWN with the camper mounted, to about 84 db-c.

The other issue is that the alternator quit as we were pulling onto our driveway yesterday. Great timing!

 

[buckland]

Long road trip but a successful one. That mileage is terrific for such a large engine.
Can mufflers be added to quiet the beast? Mods rule ... make it your own. Enjoy.

 

[Vic Harder]

I had added a muffler before the trip, it helped, but the drone was still there. Swapping the muffler for a FTE Diesel 5"x 30" resonator tonight.

 

[klahanie]

Re: fuel consumption. So now you know what all those diesel guys (used) to be talking about, eh?

Maybe when it's on, the camper is absorbing some of the noise coming from the rear - or the added wind noise is cancelling it out .

Do you have a boost gauge of sorts? Be interesting to see if the resonator reduces required boost (prob not but one can hope).

Good deal so far. Alternator holding up was icing...

 

[Vic Harder]

The Auto-Vox X2 looks cool. I'd like to have one by the looks of it.
It will be interesting to hear your long term review.

Not exactly long-term yet, but ...
1) The mirror is fabulous in general
2) The wide angle view takes some getting used to... stuff looks far away in the mirror, side mirrors show it isn't
3) I find it too bright at night, especially headlights which cause massive glare

 

[Vic Harder]

I had added a muffler before the trip, it helped, but the drone was still there. Swapping the muffler for a FTE Diesel 5"x 30" resonator tonight.

The resonator is golden. The 1400 RPM drone is completely gone. Noise level at 1400 dropped from 88db down to 80 or so.

I've also started adding in noise suppression foams, Dynamat equivalents, etc. Just done the area behind the back seat so far, and that has been worth another 2-3 DB. I can hear the transmission/gear/tire whine now, and the stereo is down from "19" to 15 on the volume setting.

Oh, and the alternator was toast. New alternator, and all if good.

 

[Vic Harder]

17.6 Tall gears? I'm happy with 16.5

3.73 gears. 2100 RPM is 80 MPH on the GPS. Haven't been off road with it yet, but the torque feels really good... can't imagine a need for shorter gears.

 

[buckland]

Hey! Still waiting on a photo of the new set up!

 

[Vic Harder]

Here's one from our trip to Idaho - Sawtooth region over the last two weeks... we were on on our way home and drove through the Red Rocks Wildlife Refuge in MT.... this is Elk Lake. We we having a lunch break and a cattle drive went right around our "secluded" spot!

Goofy 6.5' Hawk on an 8' bed truck.... but the storage space between them is golden!

 

[Bill D]

I'd look at the cattle drive as a bonus. Cool

 

[Foy]

Here's one from our trip to Idaho - Sawtooth region over the last two weeks... we were on on our way home and drove through the Red Rocks Wildlife Refuge in MT.... this is Elk Lake. We we having a lunch break and a cattle drive went right around our "secluded" spot!


Goofy 6.5' Hawk on an 8' bed truck.... but the storage space between them is golden!

Love the truck/camper combo, and love the lunch spot even more! Last September, on our 40th anniversary, we spent two nights at Elk Lake Lodge just out of sight about halfway up the lake from your lunch spot! Did you drive all the way over from I-15 at Monida?

Foy

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

Quick question: what size tire are you running? Stock seems to be 245/75-16, at least it was on mine. I replaced with 265/75 but have accompanying issues, i.e. slightly reduced mpg, Speedo error, a bit slower on acceleration with 6.0 gasser. If running stock size do you have ground clearance issues? Thanks in advance for your responses. Digging your new ride.

 

[Vic Harder]

Love the truck/camper combo, and love the lunch spot even more! Last September, on our 40th anniversary, we spent two nights at Elk Lake Lodge just out of sight about halfway up the lake from your lunch spot! Did you drive all the way over from I-15 at Monida?

Foy

Foy, I'm pretty sure it was reading your experiences in driving this area that got me interested in doing the same. Yes, we came in from Monida, and went further north on MT100. I was hoping to drive the Gravelly Range road, but it was still closed. ;-(

I suspect you camped near this spot? There was an RV parked there (within site of the lodge, I believe):

We hit one BIG pothole on MT100 that really freaked out my navigator (aka wife and best friend!). Should have stopped to check out the puddle before driving into it at 15 mph. When we got to our next camping spot, we discovered that the shock of that bump opened our TF130L fridge door, and two other cabinet doors ... that have NEVER opened before. Stuff everywhere on the camper floor!

No major damage done other than the door of the fridge...it has a surface hole in it now ;-( from where the swinging fridge door and cabinet doors contacted each other. Pic to follow. Still keeps the beer cold tho! I've contacted Northern Fridge (where I bought it) to see if this can be repaired/replaced.

 

[Vic Harder]

Quick question: what size tire are you running? Stock seems to be 245/75-16, at least it was on mine. I replaced with 265/75 but have accompanying issues, i.e. slightly reduced mpg, Speedo error, a bit slower on acceleration with 6.0 gasser. If running stock size do you have ground clearance issues? Thanks in advance for your responses. Digging your new ride.

265/75-16. Speedo error is on the conservative side, as verified by my GPS, about 10%. As in, 76 mph indicated is 70 mph actual. No ground clearance issues noted yet, and that's without any lift.

I DO have airbags, installed by the previous owner. I thought I would never use these, but we encountered some "porpoising" on interstate road surfaces, and found that 15-20 lbs of air got rid of that.

 

[Foy]

Foy, I'm pretty sure it was reading your experiences in driving this area that got me interested in doing the same. Yes, we came in from Monida, and went further north on MT100. I was hoping to drive the Gravelly Range road, but it was still closed. ;-(


I suspect you camped near this spot? There was an RV parked there (within site of the lodge, I believe):


We hit one BIG pothole on MT100 that really freaked out my navigator (aka wife and best friend!). Should have stopped to check out the puddle before driving into it at 15 mph. When we got to our next camping spot, we discovered that the shock of that bump opened our TF130L fridge door, and two other cabinet doors ... that have NEVER opened before. Stuff everywhere on the camper floor!

No major damage done other than the door of the fridge...it has a surface hole in it now ;-( from where the swinging fridge door and cabinet doors contacted each other. Pic to follow. Still keeps the beer cold tho! I've contacted Northern Fridge (where I bought it) to see if this can be repaired/replaced.

So as not to completely hijack this thread about hour cool "new" truck, good to know the suspension survived an unanticipated shock. I normally tiptoe through puddles for exactly that reason.

I don't recognize MT 100 but it can only be the "North Road" from the Red Rock River crossing easterly past the Gravelly Range Road turn-off, through the sand dunes, past the Elk Lake Lodge turn-off, back to MT 509 near the foot of the grade up to Red Rock Pass. For future reference, the South Shore Road (MT 509) is very good for the most part.

There's either a NF or BLM campground on the Benchmark right where you lunched and in our two trips to/through there (2015 with the truck and camper and 2018 on a fly-n-drive in a rental Jeep Compass) we overnighted at the Elk Lake Lodge (ELL). Both times there were rigs camped at the mapped campsite.

If you pass through again, consider a stopover at ELL to get the dust off and to enjoy a unique experience. Very comfortable cabins, lots of hot water, terrific food prepared in huge portions and served with a smile by the proprietress, and a cool small bar in the lodge with drinks and stories served up by the proprietor. The bar closes promptly at 9:00 pm since Jake arises at 0400 daily to get the diesel genny going and power up the lodge and kitchen! ELL is off the grid so their power is produced by the diesel genny and an impressive solar array. Jake and Laurel stay over all winter without vehicle access from late November/early December until late March/early April. During that interval, Jake takes the snow machine and a towed sled over Red Rock Pass every 2-3 weeks to Henry's Lake, ID, digs his truck out, and drives to Bozeman for supplies since they open the restaurant and bar on weekends for snowmobile touring groups. Tough cookies, those two!

Foy

 

[Vic Harder]

Thanks Foy! Back onto the truck topic... a box arrived today!

These are the custom headlights from Lightwerkz that I had made for my truck. I have made these before (for a e46 BMW M3, a 2002 Tundra and a 2002 GMC Sierra)... but the chevy was too much of a challenge for me, because its headlights are very shallow, and the HID projectors I bought for all the other conversions didn't fit, even with much grinding!

Caesar is brilliant at what he does. The HID projectors in here are even bigger than what I was trying to get to fit, with supposedly an even nicer beam pattern. BUT, getting them to fit into the truck was another (small) challenge today.

The picture above shows the knurled fastener for the Bi-xenon bulb touching the headlight support plastic. Without some grinding/cutting, it isn't going to fit. So, break out the grinder and exacto knife! The pic below shows the results (rough looking here, this pic was a for a trial fit... I cleaned it up before the final install). Luckily there was nothing behind the plastic but space, and some soft aluminum.

Lights installed, and on! Aiming to follow (do you know how late you have to stay up in Calgary in early July to get it dark enough to even use/see your headlights!... that said... it makes for great camping!)

A "before" picture for comparison.

 

[Bill D]

Those new headlights look good. I've seen new headlights put into older trucks that look mismatched, but yours look great. Nice work!

 

[Mighty Dodge Ram]

Thanks Vic!