Post your tow vehicle pics here

Don't remember if I posted in this thread but here is my 07 LBZ - bought it last year after I sold my 2005 Avalanche

Very Nice!!!!

Picked this up this weekend....wife was out of town so I had to drive myself to the dealership, do the deal and "tow myself" home ;)

Threebigfords wrote:
Nice lookin truck DJ! ...just ignore the Ram fanatic that can't just say "nice truck" in a picture thread and move on...

Bet you're grinning ear to ear whenever you drive it!
Don't worry, the Ram fanatic swore I'd need airbags too. 2200 lbs in the bed, and close to 2000 lbs on the hitch (5 yards of gravel in the dump trailer) and she sits pretty level with no bags.

LOL.... BTW that truck looks like a jewel.

That's exactly why I didn't go with the FX4 package, bouncy suspension. Had that really bouncy suspension on my 2004 Nissan Titan Off Road truck. It was the last off road package I bought since I tow and rarely go off road where a softer suspension would be better. IMO, the off road packages are a feature everyone wants to say they have it, but never use it for it's intended function, but use it for functions where it performs poorly.

I know, I was in the 'off road package' crowd with the Titan but after hitting my head several times on the roof from the bouncing started from dips in country roads, I had enough of it.

The_real_wild1 wrote:
I have crappy ranchos on my z71. Well let me rephrase. They are great as a daily driver with no load. But with a big trailer they are too soft and like you say no rebound.

That sounds very similar to Ford's FX4 package. The fleet guy advised against the FX4 if actually using the truck for heavy use and stay with the stock shocks while ordering the skid plate package. I did put on Rancho RS9000XL's later which worked well, but these are in a different class than what Ford was offering in their package.

The_real_wild1 wrote:
I have crappy ranchos on my z71. Well let me rephrase. They are great as a daily driver with no load. But with a big trailer they are too soft and like you say no rebound.

I am convinced that the regular tenneco's and the Rancho's that are made by tenneco are almost the same design. If I remember right both are a twin tube design instead of the mono tube like more preferable shock are like my Bilstins. I know they are the lowest Rancho branded shock they make.

transferred wrote:

98silvz71 wrote:

transferred wrote:
Jealous looking at these beautiful new rigs. The red bowtie, the black bowtie and the new beige F350 -- three new diesels to be proud of. Congrats guys.

Quick question for the guys with the black Chevy 2500- what do you mean you "changed the 4x4 sticker"?

I don't like the little dinky 4x4 sticker and they had a nicer looking Z71 4x4 sticker that came on the "Z71 Appearance Package" trucks. It's the ones that have the body colored bumpers and grille. So I had them peel the sticker off and put the new Z71 sticker on. I'm different than most, I like my decals and emblems on my truck, where most guys I know are trying to take them all off. Here is a picture of the truck, sorry isn't very good, it's about the only picture I have of it, and it was when we were still building our house.

Thanks for the picture, no need to apologize quality is fine. I agree that the Z71 striker is nicer and I also keep my rigs badged up -I find they look bare without and prefer to keep them as the factory intended.

One tip, add the transfer case skid plate. It should only run you $100 or so to be fitted. I believe the mounts are there but not sure. It's useful and will also make your truck an actual Z71 4x4 as the skid plate, sticker and terrible shocks (Tenneco's with zero rebound on my 2009) are the only thing that differentiated the Z71 4x4 from the plain 4x4. I always like skid plates and I change out the stock shocks for Bilsteins but other than that my pickups roll around unmodified.

Sorry, I really didn't post what I have done to the truck properly. We have Bilstein 5100 series all the way around and a 5100 steering stabilizer because with the frame redesign in 2011, they stopped putting them on. However, the holes are still there to let you mount a stabilizer. I changed my shocks at like 19,000 miles because the stockers were already going bad. 2 of them had already stopped rebounding and the other 2 surprisingly rebounded like new. I had a set of 4600s on my 04 Duramax but it was having electrical gremlins keeping it from being reliable so I took them off (among other goodies my truck had) and gave them to my FIL on his 05 LLY. They have probably close to 60-70k miles on them and all I have had to do was replace the front lower bushing with a poly bushing. I don't have the skid plate yet, but yes you can just get the skid plate and screws and it will bolt right in, the frame has the hole ready to accept it. I've owned it 4 years today and I live in the boonies, drive in the woods for my firewood (we have an outdoor wood boiler), and through the fields for my hay, etc and have never had a problem, the 18" wheels really give you some extra ground clearance. Don't get me wrong one day when we can maybe afford some parts I will dig into that, but with the new house and new son, we are watching our budget pretty close.

I have crappy ranchos on my z71. Well let me rephrase. They are great as a daily driver with no load. But with a big trailer they are too soft and like you say no rebound.

98silvz71 wrote:

transferred wrote:
Jealous looking at these beautiful new rigs. The red bowtie, the black bowtie and the new beige F350 -- three new diesels to be proud of. Congrats guys.

Quick question for the guys with the black Chevy 2500- what do you mean you "changed the 4x4 sticker"?

I don't like the little dinky 4x4 sticker and they had a nicer looking Z71 4x4 sticker that came on the "Z71 Appearance Package" trucks. It's the ones that have the body colored bumpers and grille. So I had them peel the sticker off and put the new Z71 sticker on. I'm different than most, I like my decals and emblems on my truck, where most guys I know are trying to take them all off. Here is a picture of the truck, sorry isn't very good, it's about the only picture I have of it, and it was when we were still building our house.

Thanks for the picture, no need to apologize quality is fine. I agree that the Z71 striker is nicer and I also keep my rigs badged up -I find they look bare without and prefer to keep them as the factory intended.

One tip, add the transfer case skid plate. It should only run you $100 or so to be fitted. I believe the mounts are there but not sure. It's useful and will also make your truck an actual Z71 4x4 as the skid plate, sticker and terrible shocks (Tenneco's with zero rebound on my 2009) are the only thing that differentiated the Z71 4x4 from the plain 4x4. I always like skid plates and I change out the stock shocks for Bilsteins but other than that my pickups roll around unmodified.