Dice Roll
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TLDR- So far this is the best vehicle I’ve ever had. It is just so capable. I’ve definitely had things that were better at certain things, but all around this wins hands down. Mine has the Special Edition package, so I have HD trailer tow, LEDs, and CCD on the 22s with wheels like in the Stealths. It’s a 2wd and it handles the Ohio valley winters of Cincinnati/NKY just fine. It pulls a huge 32 foot travel trailer with ease, I use a Blue Ox hitch for that. That’s the least you’d want to know if considering one. If you want the nitty gritty read on.
I’ve had 25+ different personal vehicles, plus countless I’ve been involved with growing up in a construction family. I’ve been into restoring and driving classics for almost thirty years. I also worked at an auto plant in shipping and post production. This vehicle flat out gets it all done and doesn’t cause me any grief. I haul three kids and associated gear around all the time.
Decided to post after ten days driving around in a rented 24 Tahoe 4x4 that had 900 miles on the clock on vacation. I had tried a 20 suburban when I bought this and wasn’t impressed. Four years later, I felt like it wasn’t much better. I instantly missed the Expedition, the refinements are just so much better on it. I felt like the ride on the Michelins the Chevy had wasn’t any better than the 20 expedition max 4x4 I test drove with a standard suspension. I know a lot of guys complain about the ride, I don’t find standard or ccd to be a problem, but I will tell you the Chevy isn’t going to do better, at least not without their magna ride thingy that I’m sure the LT I drove didn’t have. In the plus side, they have the trans running much cooler, like 150 versus 205.
The Chevy makes plenty of clatter, guys that are worried about the Ecoboost being loud at idle won’t find relief there. Also the Chevy had a loud, droning exhaust that even my 9 year old noticed right away and commented on. I didn’t think it felt like it had more power than the Ford, maybe a bit less even.
I’m running a dry media filter from I believe AER. It’s not done anything special, other than I can hear the turbos better. My only other mod has been a JLT catch can. I think that made a difference since it went on at 10k miles. It’s caught quite a bit of oil.
I use the dealer for factory fill syn blend oil. I run 93 octane most all year, save for a few tanks of 87 in the coldest of winter. I typically run Costco or Shell, but do use some Kroger crap when it gets me a dollar off on like 26 gallons. Sometimes I’ll top off with just a few gallons off with 87 for long trips. It gets 17-17.5 in combined driving, 20 or better on just highway, and 9 pulling the Rv.
On the reliability front, I’ve had one build issue and one warranty repair. It was a 8/16/19 build that I bought in feb of 20. I “mail ordered” this one and it arrived with the rear passenger door not closing the last 1/8”. I’d noted several on the lots I visited that had some wonky doors alignments so this wasn’t a total shock. Dealer managed to fix this on first try without fan fare. The rest of the build quality was superb, as good as any of the many thousands of Toyotas I inspected for quality at the factory shipping line for seven years.
The warranty repair was for a running board. It was a simple issue the dealer made a pain, idiots didn’t bother with it the first try, saying I wasn’t driving enough. BS. Took three trips to get it all taken care of, a rock supposedly got up in the channel and fubared something. Got a new drivers side running board.
The Auto Unlock got persnickety for a good stretch, it wouldn’t unlock the passenger side sometimes, sometimes it would. Now it works again just fine. I’ve seen some blame their battery for this, I dunno, mine is still original and I still drive the same exact patterns as before. It worked just fine after sitting the ten days I was gone.
One thing I hate are the tires. I cannot wait to ditch the hankrooks, I manage to get around in the snow, but they don’t inspire any confidence, even though the tread appears barely worn. They will age out soon enough and on will go the Michelin LTXs that get high marks on here.
Only other issue I can think of is the trans shifts funny when cold. The 3-4 and 5-6 hit hard the first time when it’s under 35 out. Fine after that or if temps are above that range. I plan to have the trans fluid level checked next visit. I’m also going to have the coolant changed and the new updated stat installed.
I like the lift glass since it makes life easier when the bike rack is on the back and in general when I need something one the fly, I missed that on the rental Chevy. The dial shifter is way simpler to live with than anything else I’ve seen, the getting out by just turning the truck off is pretty cool, but weird to wrap my head around doing, so I usually don’t.
I drove a 19 Max without trailer package when I had a hard time finding others to test drive, skip those. It was sluggish taking off from a stop, it needed the boost to build to get moving. Power was fine going down the road. The 3.73 is the perfect gear for these things, don’t settle for less.
I’ve read on here that the plugs go bad after 30k, couple weeks ago I changed mine to the NGK ruthenium. Gaps were all .028 on what came out. The low speed response does seem better with the new plugs, surprised me since the old ones seem to have no wear.
That’s all I can think of that I’ve seen people wanting to know or that I’ve thought was important. If you have any questions, fire away.
I’ve had 25+ different personal vehicles, plus countless I’ve been involved with growing up in a construction family. I’ve been into restoring and driving classics for almost thirty years. I also worked at an auto plant in shipping and post production. This vehicle flat out gets it all done and doesn’t cause me any grief. I haul three kids and associated gear around all the time.
Decided to post after ten days driving around in a rented 24 Tahoe 4x4 that had 900 miles on the clock on vacation. I had tried a 20 suburban when I bought this and wasn’t impressed. Four years later, I felt like it wasn’t much better. I instantly missed the Expedition, the refinements are just so much better on it. I felt like the ride on the Michelins the Chevy had wasn’t any better than the 20 expedition max 4x4 I test drove with a standard suspension. I know a lot of guys complain about the ride, I don’t find standard or ccd to be a problem, but I will tell you the Chevy isn’t going to do better, at least not without their magna ride thingy that I’m sure the LT I drove didn’t have. In the plus side, they have the trans running much cooler, like 150 versus 205.
The Chevy makes plenty of clatter, guys that are worried about the Ecoboost being loud at idle won’t find relief there. Also the Chevy had a loud, droning exhaust that even my 9 year old noticed right away and commented on. I didn’t think it felt like it had more power than the Ford, maybe a bit less even.
I’m running a dry media filter from I believe AER. It’s not done anything special, other than I can hear the turbos better. My only other mod has been a JLT catch can. I think that made a difference since it went on at 10k miles. It’s caught quite a bit of oil.
I use the dealer for factory fill syn blend oil. I run 93 octane most all year, save for a few tanks of 87 in the coldest of winter. I typically run Costco or Shell, but do use some Kroger crap when it gets me a dollar off on like 26 gallons. Sometimes I’ll top off with just a few gallons off with 87 for long trips. It gets 17-17.5 in combined driving, 20 or better on just highway, and 9 pulling the Rv.
On the reliability front, I’ve had one build issue and one warranty repair. It was a 8/16/19 build that I bought in feb of 20. I “mail ordered” this one and it arrived with the rear passenger door not closing the last 1/8”. I’d noted several on the lots I visited that had some wonky doors alignments so this wasn’t a total shock. Dealer managed to fix this on first try without fan fare. The rest of the build quality was superb, as good as any of the many thousands of Toyotas I inspected for quality at the factory shipping line for seven years.
The warranty repair was for a running board. It was a simple issue the dealer made a pain, idiots didn’t bother with it the first try, saying I wasn’t driving enough. BS. Took three trips to get it all taken care of, a rock supposedly got up in the channel and fubared something. Got a new drivers side running board.
The Auto Unlock got persnickety for a good stretch, it wouldn’t unlock the passenger side sometimes, sometimes it would. Now it works again just fine. I’ve seen some blame their battery for this, I dunno, mine is still original and I still drive the same exact patterns as before. It worked just fine after sitting the ten days I was gone.
One thing I hate are the tires. I cannot wait to ditch the hankrooks, I manage to get around in the snow, but they don’t inspire any confidence, even though the tread appears barely worn. They will age out soon enough and on will go the Michelin LTXs that get high marks on here.
Only other issue I can think of is the trans shifts funny when cold. The 3-4 and 5-6 hit hard the first time when it’s under 35 out. Fine after that or if temps are above that range. I plan to have the trans fluid level checked next visit. I’m also going to have the coolant changed and the new updated stat installed.
I like the lift glass since it makes life easier when the bike rack is on the back and in general when I need something one the fly, I missed that on the rental Chevy. The dial shifter is way simpler to live with than anything else I’ve seen, the getting out by just turning the truck off is pretty cool, but weird to wrap my head around doing, so I usually don’t.
I drove a 19 Max without trailer package when I had a hard time finding others to test drive, skip those. It was sluggish taking off from a stop, it needed the boost to build to get moving. Power was fine going down the road. The 3.73 is the perfect gear for these things, don’t settle for less.
I’ve read on here that the plugs go bad after 30k, couple weeks ago I changed mine to the NGK ruthenium. Gaps were all .028 on what came out. The low speed response does seem better with the new plugs, surprised me since the old ones seem to have no wear.
That’s all I can think of that I’ve seen people wanting to know or that I’ve thought was important. If you have any questions, fire away.
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