Early Review of the 2011 GMC

timswi · Dec 30, 2010

Diamondpilot said:
My college roomates uncle lives in Brown County Indiana and has a gravel drive like that. We tried to make it up in a Lumina back in the 90's and slid all the way back down till we hit a tree. Nothing but 4x4 trucks and SUV's can make it up even in the summer. Just too steep. When they built the house he had to rent a large farm tractor and had a 1000' piece of 1/2" cable to pull up all the supply trucks, concrete trucks, ect.

Chris

If this driveway wasn't concrete, no 2wd's would get up there. It's literally on top of a mountain.

Diamondpilot · Dec 30, 2010

timswi said:
If this driveway wasn't concrete, no 2wd's would get up there. It's literally on top of a mountain.

Just like his. Not sure if its been paved or concreted yet, last time I was there was in 1994 when we went camping down there. Keeps salesmen and mother-n-laws out.:laughing:

Chris

Baucom · Dec 30, 2010

Dad's 07 Silverado 1500 has the 5.3 with AFM, 4A, and 3.73 gears. His truck gets great mileage for a full size. His lifetime average is 17.3 mpg and about 40% of his miles are towing a 6000+ lb equipment trailer. Running empty on the highway he gets >20 mpg. His best tank was 26.7 on a trip to Maggie Valley right after he bought the truck. It definately gets better mileage than his 99 & 03's did with a 5.3--the best either of those ever did was 22.9 mpg when he took the 99 on a trip to Florida.

timswi said:
I don't have the engine management system....All 8 all the time. My brother has it and feels that it does nothing for fuel economy..He's getting the same as he got on his 2000 GMC 5.3

Diamondpilot · Dec 30, 2010

Baucom said:
Dad's 07 Silverado 1500 has the 5.3 with AFM, 4A, and 3.73 gears. His truck gets great mileage for a full size. His lifetime average is 17.3 mpg and about 40% of his miles are towing a 6000+ lb equipment trailer. Running empty on the highway he gets >20 mpg. His best tank was 26.7 on a trip to Maggie Valley right after he bought the truck. It definately gets better mileage than his 99 & 03's did with a 5.3--the best either of those ever did was 22.9 mpg when he took the 99 on a trip to Florida.

Seems to good to be true. I could see it if you only drove at 45 mph. Has he ever hand calculated it?

Chris

timswi · Dec 30, 2010

Diamondpilot said:
Seems to good to be true. I could see it if you only drove at 45 mph. Has he ever hand calculated it?

Chris

You can definitly do way better than 20MPG with a Chevy if you stay in the 55-65mpg range...I've done it...Just don't have the patience to do it all the time. 75-85 every day.

17 towing 40% of the time wouldn't happen here...In the flatlands maybe..But not here.

Baucom · Dec 31, 2010

Always hand calculated, 55-65 mph most of the time--not a lot of 70 mph zones in NC. He keeps a written record & resets the trip meter at every fill-up. His records and the onboard computer are within .2 mpg.