Oh My Goodness, I Did It, Now What Should I Do???

[Linda]

Hi All,

I had made up my mind at 5 p.m. today that my '93 didn't really need to be replaced. It was paid for and so what if I couldn't pull a 7 degree hill to WY with it. I wasn't going to buy a new one. Three hours later the 03 Duramax/Allison 1T CC 4WD Pewter/Gray is sitting in my garage. Talk about self control, I don't have any.

Any way, what should I do now to make sure this truck will last a long time. Change the air filter to a K&N? Any special fuel additives?

Also, my gooseneck only clears the rail of the truck by 3 1/2 inches. The dealer said he would pay to have a drop shackle put on the truck to lower it 2" so the clearance would be safe. My preference is to raise the horse trailer axles 2" but if I can't turn the axles or block them up, do you know anything about a drop shackle and whether or not it truly inhibits the performance or ride (dealer says it does not). Is a 3 1/2" clearance safe?

Also, the steering in the truck seems a bit disjointed from the tires--almost squirrelly. I guess this is called play. Driving my 93 was so easy, like a big Lincoln. Will this change or is it something I need to get used to? The dealer said it was responsive but I don't think so.

I know I should have done a better job of checking out these two items first but I didn't want to miss the zero percent.

The truck listed at $47765, paid $41,600 with zero percent financing and the dealer will pay the $170 for the drop shackle. I kept my new brake controller, cb and stainless mud flaps. MPG coming home was 13.2.

Thanks for your advice.

KCFilley aka Linda

[FisHn2DMax]

Linda,

Nice RIDE!

I wanted to give you a heads up on your brake controller! If the dealer didn't already warn you, the 03's trailer controllers plug is wired differently than previous GM truck model years. You'll need to swap two wires, or when you turn on your headlights, the Electric trailer brakes will lock up! Seriously it's happened to more than a few new 03 owners!

I can't recall the exact wires that need to swapped on your brake controller cable, but I'm sure you could search here and find the details or just ask your dealer.

Congratulations, You pricing was excellent, especially if you didn't get the rebates and went with the 0% financing! You'll do great on those trips to Wyoming now!

GoodLuck! smile.gif

[4x4man]

Congrats on the new ride!!

On the brake controller....if you use the harness from a 99-02 truck, then you will need to switch the wires that go in spots A and D on the plug, otherwise the trailer brakes will be activated when your lights come on as previously stated. Luckily I read about this before my first tow with the 03.

I have been told that you want a minimum 6" of bed rail clearance to avoid contact with a 5er, not sure if the same holds true for a gooseneck so hopefully someone else will chime in.... Sorry I couldn't be more help to you there.

Enjoy the new ride!!!

Bob

[ 05-01-2003: Message edited by: 4x4man ]</p>

[HD-Nate]

Hey Linda, congrats on the new truck!!!

Good self control by the way :D

Who did you buy it from??

Is that 3 1/2 inches hooked and loaded?

What part of KC do you live in? I live in Independence but work up at the airport.

Nathan

[Linda]

Thanks guys.

I had the brake controller hooked up to a 93. I suspect it will work on the 03 but I will do a search to find out what the deal is on the wiring.

Should I do anything other than the K&N air filter?

Do I need to do something more on the filter for the fuel? I usually only buy diesel from a busy truck stop. When I had my 93 for about 7 years, I only purchased from Standard/Amoco. I'd drive 20 miles out of my way to buy their fuel (both for my car and truck). Finally figured that was a bit extreme. Now I just go to busy truck stops. I won't buy when they are fueling.

What about fuel additives?

Nathan, I'm south of Grain Valley and east of Lee's Summit--Blue Gray Park.

I'll need to add steps for my dobes and me. It's a high climb up thar!

See you soon--gone truckin in this too :cool: ride.

KCFilley aka Linda

[a64pilot]

Linda,
You didn't say if your 93 was a diesel or not. so you may already know some of these things, also they are my opinion. I would change my oil very soon the first couple of times to flush any dirt out from assembly etc. Alot of these eng. parts are sand cast I believe, besides oil is cheap insurance. I wouldn't go to synthetic oil until after break in only because of it's cost. Frequent oil changes and syn oil don't make economic sense to me. I would use a good diesel fuel additive from day one both winter and summer. The K&N air filter probably dosen't filter any better than the stock one, some say it dosen't filter as well. The Amsoil probably filters better though. The stock paper filter probably filters well enough as long as you keep a clean one in there. Diesels pull more air through the engine than a gas one and the filter dosen't last as long. Fuel filters should not be ignored in a Diesel, Diesel fuel inj. systems are very expensive to repair.
Break it in, don't pull the guts out of it from day one. Change the rear Diff. lube after 500 miles of towing. Warm it up slowly and cool it off after working it hard before shutdown. Also change the allison spin on filter after 500 miles of towing also, Just don't forget the magnet that sits on top of the filter though.
In short don't adopt the practice of running it until it breaks and then fixing it. Diesels IMHO really reward a person that practices preventative maintenance. I assume you already know this as you have already had a truck for the past ten years.

[Linda]

Thanks Pilot.

Which fuel additive do you use?

Linda

[a64pilot]

I use Diesel Power I think it is called, I get it at Walley world. Stanodyne or Racor's would probably be a better choice. I use what I use only because it is so available. Several of the Vendor's on this site would be a good source.

[oyazi]

Walmart in our area sells power service.

Email from them declared it alcohol free demulsifying type. FWIW.

[HD-Nate]

Linda,

Yes, I know the area well, I have relatives who live just off of RD Mize, one just West of Monkey Mountain the other off of Osage Drive, a few miles East of Monkey Mountain.

Another relative helps to run the sand drags.

On the K&N, it

[Rick T]

I had put longer shackles on my '01 prior to converting to full air ride. The shackles definitely work, but don't give you much clearance to the overloads when you have an intermediate load. I suspect your 37 footer is an aluminum LQ trailer and would probably have a coupler weight of 3000+ lbs (my 3H LQ Sooner is 3100 lbs when empty). The other long term issue with the longer shackles and a 3500 is that when your running the trailer you will be on the overloads. While this is normal, the use of a longer shackle causes one end of the overload to contact its snubber well before the other. I don't know if this will long term prove damaging to the spring pack.

I didn't have much clearance with my Sooner so wound up with both the longer shackles and raising the trailer 2".

You're really going to enjoy towing with this truck.

Rick T

[a64pilot]

Nathan,
Just to set the record straight, if you looked under the hood of my truck, you would find a K&N aircharger. The 93 Z28 just has the K&N filter and the 02 SS dosen't yet, but will soon. ;) I too believe there is a performance improvement in the K&N. I also fear that the performance improvement may come at the expensive of filtering efficiency though. To me I'll take that risk. The 93 BTW has 150,000 on it with three years of running the snot out of it on the German Autobahn and still burns no oil, so in my opinion it filters well enough. :D
The reason I said that the Amsoil probably filters better though is apparently at least one well respected vendor has run some comparisons and the Amsoil's filter passes less dirt. If this is true then the Amsoil's filter should be better for eng. longevity. Again opinions and everybody is entitled to their own. For me too it is the K&N for the better throttle response.

[Husker Fan]

Linda,

I have a gooseneck, and I think I have around 3" of clearance. It has never hit the bed, and I took it over every hill I knew around town testing it out. Get air bags from John Kennedy.

[Linda]

Thanks again folks,

Rick, my gooseneck before the living quarters were installed, with no horses, weighs 10,400. I've been told the lq weigh about 150 lbs per ft of long wall (23') so I guesstimate the empty weight of the trailer to be 13,850. With two fat horses (approx 1100-1200 ea), hay, shavings, etc., I'm probably at 17,000 lbs give or take. I'm even over the Duramax recommendations. Just more incentive for me to lose that extra 4 1/2 lbs I gained this winter.

I scheduled my truck for the brake controller, drop a way ball, matched running boards (over wheels), cb, Meriguard (sp?) spray on liner, mud flaps and bug shield today. The guy from Black Jack Truck recommended an AFE filter, a hypertech and Banks or Dynamax system. He tried to explain these but my truck runs so great I think I should wait and see how it pulls before adding these items.

I was going with the K&N but he said it only had a four ply filter and the AFE has a six ply. I'm going to research this more. So researchers what do you know about the AFE?

I thought I loved my 93 but I'm in love with this truck. Trying to think of a name for it now.

You know, I always tell people the purchase price of a horse is the cheap part. It's the after market stuff that eats you up. Could almost be the same with Max here.

Linda

[Modified]

Linda :

Back to what Rick said about shortening the shackles. There's been post in the past about people replacing the rear shackles on the 3500's with the Velvet Rides, which lowers the back end about two inches. Some have complained that lowering the rear two inches on the 3500's causes the overload springs two engage when unloaded, and this made the ride much worse.
This is only what I remember reading some time back. I wouldn't know for sure because I don't have the Velvets, and drive a 2500HD.

[drthv8r]

Nice ride Linda congrats. 2 Dobes?...and great taste in dogs too. You might want to look at putting some "Juice" on your ride in the near future. Talk about putting a smile on your face.

[a64pilot]

Linda,
IMHO, break the thing in first. Don't do anything to the engine until it's well broken in and you are pretty sure there were no bug's in it from the factory.
It's been my experience that an engine that spent the first several hundred miles being babied will outlast and outwork one that ran hard from day one.
Don't forget the rear end, it may be set up tight and pulling hard or running it at high speed may cause it to overheat.
Don't forget the tranny either. I'm no expert on the Ally, but I don't see how letting the clutches bed in and the gears get a polish on them prior to pulling hard would hurt.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the truck is made to work hard from day one. What kind of truck would it be if it weren't. I just think that it would work longer if it were babied a little in the beginning

[Paintdude]

Nice truck and impulse buying, what fun.. smile.gif

I have elected to not juice mine so maybe it will last longer,,Just my opinion after seeing what my father in-law has done to this Dodge(mods to engine)and how it seems to have shortened the life of the engine,trans,etc..This is Just my opinion and many times it doesn`t mean much, just ask my wife.. :D

I went with 4 inch exhaust,aux tank, new shocks and stock air filter..I think the stock filter needs changed about every 12,000 miles..My last oil analysis showed all good except 1 point high on silicon content..so new air filter next week..

[IndigoDually]

Linda, Talk to the trailer manufacturer about increasing the ride height. My small(16' on the ground) Stock trailer is going to get a 2" lift from some heavy wall box channel spacing the axles from their original mounts. The mfg said "No Problem" and I could do it or they could. Just find a welder that works with aluminium and make sure to make marks on both axles on both sides to make sure the alignment remains true. My 24' and 37' had a higher neck on them and there is no interference problems. I would be careful until the problem is fixed.

John

[wushaw]

Try this site out and see if it would fit your needs.
http://www.keldermanmfg.com/airride.htm

[MNBowTie]

Linda,

At a price of over 41K; change the axles on the trailer, buy a new trailer, leave the suspension on the truck OEM. Baby, this beast until 500 miles, change the oil, tow if you need to, but go easy, until 1K then change the oil again. Then, drive it like you got fire to go put out. Perform one more oil change at 2-3k. Then start the recommended maintenance schedule. Also At, 5K change the transmission filter.

[Linda]

Thanks.

I checked out the site, Wushaw. Thanks for the info. I know nothing about adding "air ride." I apologize for my ignorance but does this lower the bed of the truck and give a better ride? I think the ride's pretty good.

I have 300 miles on the truck now and by next week I should have 500. I haven't hauled yet and kept the speed around 55 to 70 (hard to hold it down, too). I hope this wasn't too fast for the break-in.

I'm having the ball put in the bed of the truck, an AFE filter, bug shield, brake controller and the spray in bedliner Friday. The oil will be changed on Saturday. Depending on the mileage by next week, I plan to haul my trailer to a shop to see if they can raise the trailer 2". That will give me about 5 1/2 inches which isn't great but it's manageable.

I've decided not to add shackles unless I absolutely have to. After I've hauled a couple of times, I'll see if I need a chip for more power. In all honesty, I can't imagine needing more power unless a loaded trailer behind this truck makes a whale of a difference. This truck has so much power and is so quick, I'm honestly afraid of getting a ticket now.

It's fun and I'm having a ball driving it. Think I'll name it Bo Diddly. Did any of you guys actually name your truck? Go ahead tell us the name.

I need to find good boards that's a cross between the over the well painted boards and nerf boards.

Thanks again.

Linda

[a64pilot]

"At a price of over 41K; change the axles on the trailer, buy a new trailer, leave the suspension on the truck OEM."
IMHO MNBowTie Hit the nail on the head. Try leaving the truck as is, your instinct is telling you it has plenty of power, it does.
BTW we call ours the BAT it's an anycronym like SUV you can figure it out.

[zip]

Linda-
The weight thing seems a bit high for a 23 foot horse trailer plus 'guests'. Even if they are fat.
Think about stopping at a truck stop scale. Costs @ $7.50 or so. Weigh the whole rig-truck,trailer, and horses. then drop the guests off in the lot and go back and weigh only you and 'Bo'.
Then you know for sure.
zip - that's me not my unnamed truck :D

[Linda]

Hi,

Zip, the 23' is the only the long wall of the living space--then there's the horse quarters and goosneck. Total length from gooseneck to back is 36 1/2 or 37'. Stats on the metal plate of the trailer door, without living quarters (cabinets, tongue & groove cotton wood ceiling, floor covering, stove/oven, bathroom, refrig, leather sofa, furnace, water heater, tanks, dinette, food, tack, etc.) is 10,400 lbs. I added the 150 lbs per 23 ft of long wall living space = 10,400 + 3,450 + guesstimate of tack, food + horses to come up my total.

I plan to weigh everything within the next couple of weeks. Probably won't do any good because I already bought the truck and will have to count on it pulling my rig. I drive it around town so I didn't want to go to a larger truck.

Do you guys like the heavy duty chrome covered ss boards or the over the wheel flare boards better?

Thanks. I look forward to reading your replies to my posts. They help a lot.

[Rick T]

Linda,
At your trailer weight I would definitely leave the rear suspension alone initially and see how far down the trailer makes the truck squat. I can confirm, however, that the 4" shackles do not result in overload spring contact when empty, at least with a regular cab truck.

Regarding truck bed/trailer clearance: my Sooner has large wings which support the gooseneck. Even with &gt;6" of clearance I've got to be careful when I'm making a sharp turn on uneven ground as these wings want to contact the bed rails.

Two other areas of interest:

Downhill - At my trailer's max of about 13,500 lbs the grade braking absolutely minimizes my use of brakes on reasonably steep grades, but I've not been on anything over 6 or 7 percent. At your trailer's weight and additional truck weight you may find yourself considering an exhaust brake. I have not looked into this personally, but I believe some units are set up to work with the Duramax/Allison setup. On the other hand the LQ weight at 150 lbs/ft. of length is considerably less than what horses would weigh and a large trailer such as yours probably has large brakes. Better trailer brake setups are available, but the cost of conversion would, I believe, greatly exceed that of an exhaust brake. It seems virtually all RV'ers with very large rigs are using exhaust brakes with very good results.

Uphill - Some are determined to climb (and possibly descend) every hill at their flat land cruising speed. I don't think too many of these folks are towing horses. At max weight on a steep section I can hold something between 50 and 55 mph in 3rd gear. The truck has the hp to pull the hill faster, but not the correct gearing to do so. 4th is too high, 3rd too low to hold 60-65. This is fine with me.

Mods - one very inexpensive mod you might consider is conversion to the larger Allison transmission pan. Total parts cost is about $100 plus an hour of labor. You could have this done at the same time as converting to synthetic transmission fluid. The transmission is rated for 26,000 lbs GCW, but in all other applications of this transmission the larger pan is used. This and the use of synthetic are very cheap insurance. There are many past threads on the Allison part numbers, etc., but if you need this info just post a request and you'll get an immediate response.

Rick T

[Rebel_Horseman]

Linda,

Let me throw something in that might help. Have you tried to lenghten your coupler on your trailer. All of the gooseneck trailers I have can do this. There is either 1 or 2 large nuts on the neck of the coupler. You can loosen these and pull the neck farther out to give you more clearance (be careful to hold on to the coupler part or it will fall out). This may be all that you need to give you clearance. The only downside to this is that the trailer will sit at more of an angle because the front is higher. I'd shy away form the shackles myself. One thing to consider with raising the trailer 2" is the horses themselves. Consider the horses are somewhat used to how far they have to step down when backing out of the trailer. Adding 2" may cause a problem with a picky horse. I have a 24' Featherlite alum. livestock trailer that is adjusted to be pulled by a light duty F250 (the ones that are as big as an F150) and I haven't had any problems with it. Also, my girlfriend's trailer (steel Sundowner 4-horse) is adjusted to be pulled bytheir '96 F250 PSD and I haven't had any problems pulling it either, especially when we cross the railroad tracks by the house. I think on that one I have about 4" of clearance.

Reb [&gt;&lt;]

[zip]

I read somewhere that the chrome on running boards tends to take on a yellowish cast after a few years. Anybody else hear this?
Anyway, it caused me to get the polished stainless steel DeeZee running boards. They have a black rubber top tread and took almost three days to install- kinda confusing instructions on bracket placement and drilling.
But they're strong to stand on- I'm only 5'7 so I gotta get on them to clean the rear window and reach in the bed- there's some pretty lousy pics on the 'webshots' link with my signature. At the front and rear of the boards there's a triangular bracket that screws into the wheel well over top of the plastic flare. All bolts and screws are stainless too. the only complaint I have - they don't stick out far enough. They're kinda under the side of the truck too far. But overall, I still like them .
zip