When we bought our diesel Chevy Silverado 2500HD in 2004, it was a necessity for work. By 2012, the work I was doing no longer required a heavy-duty truck. However, it was paid for, and I’d gotten very used to having a pickup truck, so I did not want to get rid of it for something more “sensible”. Justification for keeping the truck was cemented by the purchase of our 2016 Sunset Trail 33′ bunkhouse travel trailer, which has an approximately 7000 lb. dry weight.
If I could go back 16 years and give myself a bit of advice when I purchased the truck new, I would have told myself to get the spray-in bedliner right at the beginning. The extra cost that it would have added to our already high monthly payments would have been a small price to pay to avoid the deterioration that has occurred. I would also have the underbody sprayed annually as a rust inhibitor.
Over the past few years, I’ve had several major mechanical issues addressed, including new fuel lines, brake lines, power steering lines, and transmission lines. We had an issue with the EGR sensor that actually took two years to get bed enough to diagnose. In 2018, we went ahead with the EGR delete for just under $200 more than the repair would have cost.
As an aside… though there were many advantages to the delete in our case – including increased fuel economy, more power, cleaner engine – there was one downside that our mechanic neglected to point out. Our truck is much louder now!
I am confident that “Trusty Rusty” is mechanically sound to get us where we need to go, but we need to take some measures to ensure that it doesn’t completely rust out from under us.
Last week, I ordered some parts that I will be installing over the next few weeks (take advantage of the shelter-in-place order, maybe teach some voc-tech classwork as part of schooling at home), including:
- Chrome rear bumper
- Tailgate
- Aftermarket headlight and front turn signal housings
- Aftermarket upgraded tow mirrors
- Headlight / instrument cluster dimmer switch
- Fog / cargo light switch
- Aftermarket DVD stereo head unit
Some of these things were very straightforward as far as installation goes. Some of these things I could find very little information on. I will document the installation processes on these items as I go, and post that information here for the reference of anyone who may be considering similar upgrades.
These updates are a start, but we still have some major work to do, which is beyond the scope of my experience. The rocker panels and cab corners on both sides need to be cut out and replaced, and the seams on all four doors need to be cleaned up and sealed before the rust there becomes more than simply surface rust. The entire bed will need to be replaced (we are confident that when we remove the current bed to access the cab corners, it won’t be going back on), and with the new bed I’d like to get a full truck cap to keep our supplies dry and secure.