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RE: Looking at used 2023 Chevy HD 2500, Duramax
You'd be surprised on what I have found on line about vehicles that are for sale.
You just have to put in the time. Most people don't.
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Turtle n Peeps
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10/22/23 07:36pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Looking at used 2023 Chevy HD 2500, Duramax
Turtle ,the back story is that it was traded for a crew cab. Do I believe it, probably not.
Huntingdog is correct the backstory is always questionable.
GVWR is 11,200 lbs my Ford is 9600 so a lot more capacity.
I am not familiar with the Duramax Maintenance schedule so I thought to make the dealer perform a full service as part of the deal.
I guess oil and filter as well as fuel filters are in order.
When I say get the back story, that means do your research on what the history of the vehicle is. NOT ask the sales man. After all, I did say. "And don't take the dealers salesman's word for it."
There are many, many, many online resources I, and others can use to find out the story of the vehicle you are interested in.
Most are free. Some have a small fee to look up if that vehicle is legit, or if it's a builder or a flood vehicle or a lemon return.
Good luck.
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Turtle n Peeps
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10/22/23 11:49am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Looking at used 2023 Chevy HD 2500, Duramax
Always, always, always get the back story. Why is a 2023 with less than 30K for sale? Sometimes it's innocent. Someone old that had unexpected health problems, bla, bla, bla.....
Or it could be a problem child that had nothing but problems and they want to dump it.
The back story and history is alway super important. And don't take the dealers salesman's word for it.
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Turtle n Peeps
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10/20/23 06:27pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Looking for LED headlight upgrade options
Buyer beware.
I was lead mechanic on a 65 vehicle fleet recently. The former mechanic replaced all of the truck (only about 7 or 8 trucks) headlights with LED's. The other mechanic I worked with said he had nothing but problems with them.
Then I came onboard, guess what? Yep, I had nothing but problems with them. I replaced about 2 or 3 bulbs in a short period of time.
What make? I have no idea? Probably some China make off of Amazon?
My point? There is a LOT of junk on the market. If you do decide to go this route I suggest you get a good name brand like Cree or the likes or you will more than likely have nothing but problems like I did. BTW, the Chevy trucks I worked on were a real beotch to replace those bulbs.
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Turtle n Peeps
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10/14/23 01:07pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: 2024 Chevy HD DRW and SRW Fuel Economy Test
I am always asked what MPGs does my dually get.
I tell them I don't really know. I did not buy it for economy. I bought it to do a job. Tow my Momentum. whatever it takes in fuel to do it is what it takes.
The follow up qustion is usually:"Well what does it get not towing?
I tell them, I don't know, as that doesn't happen often enough to track it.
My truck is my daily driver so fuel economy is a bit high on my priority list. Having said that back in in '12 it was clear that I wanted a truck that was equipped with DEF because I new it would yield better fuel economy. With 270k miles on my truck, those fuel savings adds up which means more money stayed in my pocket.
Curious on how much diesel is in your area Fish. It's $6.25+ and going to the moon where I live. Electricity is not any better. .38 cents/ KWH at the lowest and going up too. My wifes car takes all night to charge so I have to charge a lot at super high 3rd tier rates. It's now a wash or even cheaper to put gas in it.
I live in Kalifornia. Please send money.
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Turtle n Peeps
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09/09/23 11:07am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Towing
Ok, I'll be odd man out.
I would NOT put the SBS as far forward as you can. Especially if you are towing with a 1/2 ton. That's crazy.
Toy haulers are notoriously tongue heavy and you are being told to make it even more tongue heavy. Sorry, but this is the wrong thing to do.
The best thing to do is put it on a scale and load the SBS where your TH has 15% tongue weight and call it good.
I've yet to see a rear loading toy hauler (there used to be some with a front loading bay) where the toys sit in front of the axles. So the toy isn't going to increase the tongue weight.
The reason empty toy haulers are tongue heavy is to compensate for the fact the heavy toy will be behind the axles and reduce tongue weight once loaded. The OP is putting a very heavy toy (relative to the payload capacity), so he very likely needs to get the center of gravity of the toy as far forward as possible or he risks being too light on tongue weight.
Of course, we see a toy hauler that is likely maxed out or over weight once loaded (he only as 700lb left after loading the toy), good chance he has an under spec'd truck...so far he has not came back and shared any info on the actual truck or trailer. There is a good chance the tongue weight will push the truck over it's payload.
I do agree with you that actually getting scaled weights makes a lot of sense and 15% would be a good target though it may overload his truck. I wouldn't go under 12% though...starts to become a bit of a game when running everything at max.
Ya, I understand that. My point was, my 30' travel trailer crushed my 3/4 ton diesel pickup. It is SUPER tongue heavy and it's not even a Th'er. Just a regular old TT. I never have taken a tongue weight so I don't know what it is other than it's super heavy. And it's only 9K loaded. I did weigh that.
I have no idea what the OP is towing his TH'er with, but that size it could be a 1/2 ton? If so, that's going to get ugly with tongue weight.
I would never advise anybody to load even more weight on the tongue (I guess I should say, take less weight off of the tongue) when I don't even know what he is towing with? But that's just me.
Steering control was pretty bad and I was owl hunting with my headlights until I bagged my truck and really hogged up on my WD. It took me many trips to get it just the way I wanted it. Now my truck is dead level with a tiny bit of down hill trailer angle.
That's why I said the best thing to do is weigh the rig and get the 15% tongue weight or whatever is within the trucks payload rating.
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Turtle n Peeps
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08/30/23 09:40pm |
Towing
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RE: Towing
Ok, I'll be odd man out.
I would NOT put the SBS as far forward as you can. Especially if you are towing with a 1/2 ton. That's crazy.
Toy haulers are notoriously tongue heavy and you are being told to make it even more tongue heavy. Sorry, but this is the wrong thing to do.
The best thing to do is put it on a scale and load the SBS where your TH has 15% tongue weight and call it good.
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Turtle n Peeps
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08/29/23 09:53pm |
Towing
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RE: Carbon ceramic pads question
I just don't understand this tricked out brake stuff. My truck has 145,000 on it and the brakes were inspected at 115,00 and the mechanic said the brakes looked like brand new. And this is with 40% towing.
You get 145,000 miles out of the OEM brakes? LOL. Good for you. I bet you also get 35 mpg out of a V8 pickup LOL.
Your in luck!! I had to do hubs on my truck this weekend. This is what I found with my stock GM brakes with 150K on them.
But you probable think that I photo shopped the pic's. :S LOL
https://i.imgur.com/yyO2xw5l.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/aa1VrbLl.jpg
Should be able to make 200K or close to it with almost a 1/2" of lining still.
Still waiting for what I said was BS.:R
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Turtle n Peeps
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07/30/23 10:06pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Carbon ceramic pads question
The ONLY reason, and I do mean ONLY reason for slotted and drilled rotors on race cars is weight reduction. That's it. Weight reduction.
BS to put it simply.
Tell me why it's BS? Lets hear it. I find it strange that you come on here asking a simple question about brakes that you don't know the answer too and then when I give you the answer and more, you act like you have all of this knowledge about brakes. :h
The lighter your rotors are the less heat load the metal can absorb. It's pretty simple really. I work on E450 busses and vans all day long and lets me tell you, I have yet to see a drilled and slotted rotor on any of them yet. The rotors on these busses are HUGE and heavy as hell. They are made that way to adsorb tons of heat without glowing red and boiling the fluid.
Rotors always absorb more heat than they can reject. The less mass you have the less heat load they can absorb. Drilled and slotted rotors have less mass and therefor can't absorb the same amount of heat that solid rotors absorb. Beyond that, slotted and drilled rotors have a bad tendency to crack. Not so bad on a race car because they are inspected after every race. But on a truck that tows an RV, that can be bad news and make for a bad day very quickly.
Oh BTW, no; my truck does not get 35 mpg. It gets 19 solo and 11 towing. :B
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Turtle n Peeps
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07/29/23 10:00am |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Carbon ceramic pads question
Like was said above, yes you can run them on stock rotors.
That being said, I just don't understand this tricked out brake stuff. My truck has 145,000 on it and the brakes were inspected at 115,00 and the mechanic said the brakes looked like brand new. And this is with 40% towing.
Lets be honest here, any stock brakes can override the tire traction many times over. IOW's the limiting factor is tires. Never brakes. Never ever, ever brakes. Not even close.
In fact, the last time I had brake fad was like 35 or 40 years ago and that was on a 69 Chevy pickup with 4 wheel drum brakes towing a trailer with no brakes with 4 brake panic stops in a row. And the truck more than likely had asbestos shoes.
And then you have people that want slotted and drilled rotors. WTH? Do you really want to reduce the thermal load your rotors can absorb?
The ONLY reason, and I do mean ONLY reason for slotted and drilled rotors on race cars is weight reduction. That's it. Weight reduction.
Why on earth do people towing a 7 to 15K trailers need weight reduction?
Anyway, my point is manufactures do millions of dollars of research on brakes and people change up their brakes to something else that they know little to nothing about.
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Turtle n Peeps
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07/28/23 07:49pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: New Forest River Wolf pup 2023 Catastrophic Failure :(
Wow, that's quite a story. Sorry for your experience.
This is the exact reason I like to buy used. A low mile used unit has most, if not all of it's bugs worked out. A new unit? Not so much.
I would not except that unit back under ANY circumstances. I would find a good lawyer ASAP and hand it over to him or her.
BTW, I don't know where you get fiber glass delaminates with water. They used to make water tanks out of fiber glass and many boats are made out of fiber glass.
In any event, good luck with this.
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Turtle n Peeps
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07/22/23 02:54pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Schwintek slide out system failure - brand new TT
^^^ This. Rack and pinion it the only way to go, IMHO. Sorry for your loss.Schwintek is a rack and pinion slide.
Not really. Not what I'm talking about anyway. I'm talking "real" gears. Not some pressed out sheet metal garbage.
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Turtle n Peeps
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06/29/23 06:14pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Schwintek slide out system failure - brand new TT
Just watched a video from an RV repair shop last night that said NEVER EVER EVER EVER buy an RV with a Schwintek slide out system
^^^ This. Rack and pinion it the only way to go, IMHO. Sorry for your loss.
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Turtle n Peeps
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06/28/23 05:45pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Hairline Cracks in Graphics
A few ways the "fix" your graphics.
Not too bad.
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Turtle n Peeps
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06/28/23 05:40pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Roof repairs
Like others have said, it depends on what you want to do. I did a job much worse than this last year for my neighbor.
The roof was really, really bad. I told them what do you want to do because the trailer is totalled. They had an emotional attachment to the trailer because it was their parents trailer.
I told them look, I can stop the leaks but the roof is junk and so are most of the side walls. They said they just wanted me to stop the leaks so it does not get water inside. I gave them a bid and they said yes.
I first put eternabond on all the perimeter of the roof. Then I put this on the whole roof.
The trailer does not leak anymore, but the inside of the trailer is kind of a mess but they were very happy with the job I gave them.
If you do this, your trailer will not leak.
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Turtle n Peeps
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06/28/23 05:34pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Les Schwab Matrix STR
Not familiar with those particular tires but they look comparable to any low/mid grade typical trailer tire. Because they are.
I am very familiar with Les Schwab though, and unless they’re different down there, they have transformed into the biggest overcharging ripoff tire store chain around. (Unless Firestone service centers hasn’t given up that title yet….lol)
Yes whatever you buy from them at an extremely overinflated price will be covered by their tire warranty no problem, but that’s where the good part of that business ends. Only a fool would use Les Schwabs anymore.
And not only do they charge ridiculous amounts and have ridiculous rules about what/how they will repair or replace other components they work on, like brakes, but they basically only sell Chinesuim tires now, for more money than the brand name top quality tires.
Before the old guy was put in the ground his kids changed the whole company.......and not for the better. It's exactly like you stated down in Kalifornia.
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Turtle n Peeps
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06/19/23 06:31pm |
Travel Trailers
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RE: Engine tune ups
I had to take the throttle body off of this little jewel the other day. What fun it is working on a Ford van! I never thought I would wind up a a Ford mechanic.
https://i.imgur.com/F0i9yXpl.jpg
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Turtle n Peeps
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06/15/23 09:31pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Cam lock spins
I had the same thing going on with my old trailer. I sold the trailer before dealing with it.
If I did deal with, I would have sandwiched a piece of aluminum between the foam and fiberglass. I would use a good bonding epoxy like JB weld or something similar. Clamp it good while drying.
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Turtle n Peeps
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06/10/23 09:00pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Black Tank Treatments - Yay or Nay?
I travel in the summer when it's usually very hot. The bugs in the tanks get very active when the tanks get hot. And then things get very smelly because those tanks are vented to the atmosphere and they gas off.
That being the case use the blue bottle to kill off the bugs to make things less smelly.
Works for me so I keep using it. If I camp in the fall when it's cool I usually don't need it.
So do I use a tank treatment? Yes, most of the time.
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Turtle n Peeps
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06/09/23 06:18pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: F150 5.0 V8 or V6 Twin Turbo
High miles = stay away from high tech. Get a 5.0 slap new cam phasers in it and drive it like a rental….
Save the twin turbo rigs for someone with more money or less brains.
Grit pretty much nailed it on the money.
OP a little reading about the Ecoboost engine.
A little more reading about the valve problems.
If you love high maintenance and high maintenance cost a high mileage Ecoboot truck is a great way to make your love affair real.
The 2nd Gen Ecoboost engines have both direct and port injection so carbon build is minimized. Also the 2018 5.0 has both direct and port injection as well.
The only truck gas engines that are port injection only is the Hemi and the Ford 7.3 gas engine.
Ya I knew the EB has double injectors. Unfortunately Ford screwed the software and it only cuts down on the carbon buildup. They need to have more on time for the port injectors, and less for the DI, but for some reason they don't.
I haven't worked on any of the newer stuff so I didn't know the 5.0 was DI. Thanks for the update.
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Turtle n Peeps
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06/04/23 09:33am |
Tow Vehicles
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