Congrats on the new ride, and welcome to the forum!

 

Thanks!

 

Since I've only had the truck a week, I haven't done much in the way of "mods" so far. I did remove the Colorado lettering, LT lettering, and dealer sticker from the doors and tailgate:

For the bed, I'm planning to bed line it and get the aforementioned topper, but for now I have a bed mat to keep more delicate items from being scratched up in the bed, a 2x10 wood bed divider, and a Tyger Auto tri-fold soft tonneau on order:

The bed mat is from RealTruck.com's house brand, and seems to be made well. It ships rolled up, so I'm using the divider and some other scrap wood to flatten it out.

I'm prepared to drive the truck in the snow, but I've driven in enough snow to know it's not hard to get stuck, even when prepared. To that end, I'm planning on adding the front recovery points from the 4wd models. Last night I removed the front air dam to verify that the mounting points in the frame horns were included on the 2wd trucks, and that the undertray has opening for the hooks to be installed. Here's a little before and after with/without the air dam:

I don't know how much highway fuel economy is affected by removing the air dam, but I quite like the look so I believe I'll find out.

 

I did the exact same for a bed divider. Leaves about 2 ft near the rear for my work duffle and groceries.

 

I use build and mods in quotations because pretty much everything I have planned is simple, bolt-on stuff. I don't have much planned in the short-medium term, just the bedliner, a second set of wheels for the three-season tires, a topper, and the HO ecu calibration. I'm definitely going to consider lowering it, a cat-back exhaust, and further down the road look a custom tune/other power mods, and a set of 4.10 gears assuming someone develops them.

For towing, I'm a little concerned that the transmission cooler appears to just be a fluid-to-fluid heat exchanger with the radiator rather than a dedicated fluid-to-air cooler. Depending on how my first couple tows go, I'll look at changing out the t-stats for the engine and transmission to lower temp versions and possibly an auxiliary cooler. It's all under warranty for now though, so time will tell.

 

Nice looking ride - I like your simple approach to things and will be following along!

 

Love this man. With manufacturers goin away from Single Cabs et, this is gonna be the new “good ole boy” pick up here in a decade i bet. Congrats buddy. Hope to join you by purchasing one soon!

 

Thanks everybody!

My Tyger Auto soft tri-fold tonneau was delivered yesterday, part # TG-BC3C1201. For $225 plus tax it'll definitely do the job. The width does taper a little front to back, so even though it looks a little crooked in the photo it's the same on both sides:

 

Love what you got going on with your rig.

 

Considering I live in WV

Where about in WV?

 

The Charleston area, you?

 

I guess I have a thing for blue GM trucks. Luckily the Colorado doesn't have 35 years of redneckery hiding in the wiring and fasteners...

The factory accessory tow hooks are seriously beefy, I assumed they would be stout but to actually handle them, they feel like the truck could be hung from them. That said, I'm going to pick up a soft shackle to stash in the tailgate so I don't mar the finish if I ever put them to use.

Install was a piece of cake, it's a 10-15 minute job, part of which is getting the right tools out. The five plastic push pins at the flront of the undertray just use a push pin removal tool, the five bolts at the middle and rear of the undertray have 1/2" heads (seriously GM, who uses standard hardware anymore?) And the four nuts and bolts for the hooks themselves are 18mm. I think I read on here that the four bolts are torqued to 74 ft-lbs, so that's what I tightened them to.

 

Those 1/2" headed bolts are actually 13mm, they just happen to be "close enough" to use a 1/2", guarantee that the threads are metric.

Really like how your truck is looking, by the way!

 

Thanks! The bolt heads were a sloppy fit with my 13mm socket, but a great fit in my 1/2" socket. The bolts and nuts for the tow hooks were a comparable fit in my 18 mm wrench/socket as the undertray bolts were in the 1/2" socket. I may pull one and check it later for shiggles.

 

Not an exciting update, but the interior of the truck is better prepared for winter now. Weathertech released their front row floor mats for the Colorado on Tuesday, and mine were delivered a few minutes ago. The fit and construction quality are both good, I'm glad the front carpet won't get hammered during "mud season" this year.

 

Not an exciting update, but the interior of the truck is better prepared for winter now. Weathertech released their front row floor mats for the Colorado on Tuesday, and mine were delivered a few minutes ago. The fit and construction quality are both good, I'm glad the front carpet won't get hammered during "mud season" this year.
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View attachment 457819

Not an exciting update, but the interior of the truck is better prepared for winter now. Weathertech released their front row floor mats for the Colorado on Tuesday, and mine were delivered a few minutes ago. The fit and construction quality are both good, I'm glad the front carpet won't get hammered during "mud season" this year.
View attachment 457820

View attachment 457819

Looks great. Did they make some for the rear seats yet?

 

Not yet that I'm aware of, I'll definitely get some when/if they do.

 

Looking good so far!

 

I ordered a Leer 100XR topper on Monday, expected lead time of 3-4 weeks. I won't have a use for the Tyger tri-fold after that, if anyone is interested in it let me know. Shipping would be impractical, but I'll let it go cheap if someone picks it up.

 

I've been busy, so while I haven't had time to put the splash guards on, the topper was installed today. I ordered the topper with three options: a removable front window so I can clean it and the truck back glass with the topper in place, power keyless entry for the back glass, which works with the truck's lock/unlock buttons and fobs, and the roof rack rails. I may or may not add sort of roof rack or kayak mounts in the future, but ordering the top with the rails preserves the topper warranty.

The good: the paint match is good, and overall the top is well designed and feels sturdy. The keyless access works just as advertised, and the standard LED dome light is great:

The bad: the fit and finish aren't great, as in the gap between the tailgate and tailgate cap/window bottom is big enough that I've already been asked if I latched it correctly. The dealer adjusted the two catches for the back glass, but the right side still takes more effort than the left to latch, so closing it is a two-handed affair.

My main gripe is the front glass, either during shipping or install someone put a hell of a dental in the inside window frame, and it was handed over to me like this:

I had to get back to work today, but tomorrow I'm going to swing back by the dealer to see about getting that fixed.

Minor complaints aside, I've already hauled tires and a shelving unit in the back, and the pawpaw life is treating me well.

 

Looks great! How is the fit between the cap and the bed?

 

Nice truck and add ons!

You should go out front this weekend and start yelling at the clouds and get a head start!

 

I've got an appointment tomorrow morning to have the high output tune installed at the dealer, also going to have the dealer reprogram my tpms sensors, the truck hasn't wanted to keep them synced since I mounted the snow tires.

In the mean time, I got the rear splash guards/mud flaps installed yesterday. I didn't love that I needed to break out the drill for the rear mount on the guard, but it appears GM put a hole in the bed side so you're just drilling through the plastic trim if everything is lined up correctly. On the passenger side, once I had the other screws in place and everything lined up, I still wound up drilling the hole in the bed side panel as well as the plastic trim. My gripe with the drilling is that the splash guards are primarily there to protect the truck's paint/other coatings from debris thrown by the tires and the associated corrosion long-term from the paint damage, but I have to punch a hole through the paint drilling the hole in that same area. Hole aside, the splash guards are rock solid and have the factory engineered fit and finish you would expect. The fronts require drilling and rivets in the wheel wells, I'll put those on when I have time to get the truck in the garage and the front wheels off.

(Yes the truck is filthy, we're fully in "mud season" for the time being)

Side note, I've had some big moisture issues since installing the topper. I've put some things in the bed by the tailgate, closed the topper, and driven in the rain, and after the drive the stuff in the back of the bed is soaked. I didn't have this issue with the $250 tri-fold tonneau, but here I am dealing with it on a $3900 topper. My guess is it's one of two things: either the seals around the topper back glass aren't sealing, or the low pressure area created behind the tailgate and topper is pulling air/water in around the tailgate.

I understand shoving the big brick that is the bed and topper through the air creates the low pressure area behind the truck (the same thing happens behind SUVs with relatively vertical hatches/rear end) that pulls road spray up against the back of the vehicle. I'll look into sealing around the tailgate, I'm hoping that's the issue rather than the topper seals just working this poorly.

 

Man, I haven't posted in here innquite some time. Update time!

The high output tune is definitely worth the money, I can see why GM made it standard on the L3B for 2024. I don't know whether WOT pulls are any quicker, but in-gear acceleration, especially around 2,000 rpm, feels much stronger.

I made the trip to VIR back in March, and the truck did great. It was pulling the weight of ~3,100 lbs. of Civic Type R and ~2,000 lbs. of trailer, and directly in/over the bed were the topper, a second set of track wheels/tires, three tool boxes, a floor jack, a pop-up canopy, cooler, etc. Plenty of torque and plenty of brakes for the job, which was especially important since the trailer and the brake controller fought the entire trip. I'm pretty sure the issue is a ground on the trailer, not the battery voltage issue some have experienced with the factory trailer brake controller.

The weight did squat the rear of the truck a decent amount, and even without the trailer my normal load of the topper, a roadside repair kit, and a small toolbox are enough to keep it looking a little saggy. I think the ride/handling balance is pretty good as-is, so I'm probably going to start small with a set of 1" lift shackles, then look at helper springs or bags if the shackles aren't enough.

I wanted to economically run a second set of wheels/tires during the warmer months when I don't need the snow tires, so I ordered a second set of tpms, got a set of WT steelies from a local guy for next to nothing, and voila, the truck looks more aggressively old-man than ever. I think a set of Method 321s would look good, and I really like the way 265/70R17s look on these trucks, but I don't want the taller tires to hurt the gearing. Maybe someday we'll have aftermarket gears for these trucks.

 

I decided to add some helper bags to the truck, but things haven't gone to plan. I ordered Airlift Co.'s kit #59533, which they list as fitting 3rd gen Colorados and Canyons. I looked at the instructions online, and the pictures did look like our leaf packs, bumpstops, etc.

My kit was delivered yesterday, so last night I got to work. All of the parts were there, everything seemed made and packaged well:

I assembled both sides, got the rear wheels off and the axle supported with jack stands to simulate normal ride height and is part of the instructions. I installed the passenger side bag between the frame and leaf spring, and this is when things went sideways.

Accounting for the internal structure of the ends of the bag as best I could, that airbag is about 3/4" from bottoming out. The bumpstop has at least 2.5" of travel before it starts to touch the frame. I removed the bag, put the wheels back on the truck, and called the technical support line this morning. According to the rep I spoke with, my rear suspension is significantly different from what they expect, and their kit is based around having 5.5-7.5" of clearance between the installed upper and lower brackets. I only have 6" from the leaf spring to the frame, which the brackets probably eat up another 2+ inches of. Airlift suspected my leaf packs were sagging and worn out, but the truck has 10K miles on it and the truck still has about 3/8" of rake (rear higher) at ride height, even with the topper installed. It doesn't look like it in this picture, but the rear wheelwell opening is higher.

I'm shipping the kit back to Summit Racing tomorrow, and I sent Airlift the measurements I took today. I would order the Chevy accessory rear air shocks, but that wouldn't let me add Bilstein or Eibach rear shocks down the line.

 

The air shocks you wanted to install would make your ride more "floaty" on the road and/or absorb more of the off road bumps at mid level speeds?

I ask because my next truck will be a Colorado Trail Boss and my first 4x4 and i will start to do some light then mid level off roading. I plan to get an Icon or similar 2" lift and put 285/75/17 (33.8") after i change the stock rim to 17s. I would be going mostly mid level speeds off roading with occasional slow crawling. So i was wondering if the air shocks would help with off roading without making it too floaty on the road

 

The damndest thing happened last night. I modified the truck, and it turned out...better than I expected?

I ordered a set of CCE 1" rear lift shackles, which were delivered yesterday:

I measured the rear wheelwell opening heights before I started, 35-5/8" on the passenger side, 35-3/4" on the driver side. Install is pretty easy, although you do need to unbolt the shocks at one end because they will bottom out before you can get the relaxed spring low enough to install the shackle. 21mm bolts ans nuts for both ends of the shackle and the lower shock bolts, and multiple places online listed the torque specs for all of the above at 118 ft-lbs. You should also assemble everything without tightening the shackle nuts or the shock bolts, but the truck back on the ground as normal, bounce the suspension a bit, then tighten and torque everything with the truck at ride height. This will ensure the bushings are in their neutral position and aren't bound up at normal ride height.

I drove the truck up and down my driveway (which has a few tall tree root-based speed bumps) and parked it in the same spot to re-measure. The passenger side measured 36-5/8", and the driver side measured 36-7/16". Not only did they pretty much nail the advertised 1" lift, but the side-to-side lean actually reduced from 1/8" to 1/16".

I figured I was imagining things, but it seemed like the rear suspension was a little smoother over the bumps in the driveway. I took the truck for a quick test drive last night and drove it to work this morning, and it does seem to ride slightly better. It's not a big difference, and it may just be the placebo effect, but I can think of two reasons to back it up.

The first is the bushing "stiction." The leaf spring eye and frame side bushings use bonded rubber, so they twist and stretch with suspension travel instead of rotating. With a longer shackle, the same amount of spring expansion under compression equates to fewer degrees of rotation for the shackle, so the bushings aren't twisted as far and don't resist the spring movement as much. The second is the direction of movement of the leaf spring eye. I didn't measure before or after, but it certainly looks like the lift shackle is closer to vertical than factory. As the spring length expands/contracts thriugh the spring travel, the longer more vertical shackle results in less vertical motion than the shorter angled shackle.

Here's a side shot of the truck from this morning after 6-7 miles of driving. Overall I'm very pleased with the results, especially for the money. Hopefully I'll be back to level instead of squatted when I add my sandbags for the winter next month. Since the shock bottoms out before the spring get to full droop, I may look into the relocated lower shock mounts GM sells as part of their factory lift kit.

 

Well I'm just over a year into ownership, and the truck looks...not much different.

On Saturday I picked up a set of Silverado Trail Boss wheels/tires w/tpms, so far I'm happy with the look, at least. The front tires do rub at full lock, I'll look into trimming the fender liners and/or spacers to deal with that. The Duratracs and used, and while they still have decent tread left the inner blocks are cupped and the noise/vibration is obnoxious. In the next month or so I'll put the stock wheels w/ snow tires back on, and over the winter I'll sell the WT steelies and stock tires and the Duratracs, and pick up a new set of tires for the TB wheels. I may go 265/65 instead of the current 275/65 to help with the rubbing and see if I can get the dealership to update the speedo since the 265/65R18 is an optional size on these trucks.

I'm up to around 13,500 miles on the truck to date, and since I started a new job a month ago I'm on pace to crack 20K a year going forward. Considering before I moved houses over the summer and changed jobs last month my commute was a little under 3 miles round trip, so it has been an adjustment.

For year 2, I'm hoping to upgrade the shocks all around, or at least add silverado TB bilsteins in the rear like @GrizzlyRent , possibly pick up a Magnaflow cat-back, and maybe even add a rear locker. Not sure if I've complained about that on here yet, but I eventually discovered that my truck did not come with the G80 rear end like I thought it did. It has the trailering package, but not the advanced trailering package, so the G80 wasn't automatically optioned in, and of the three 2wd Colorados that were on the lot at the time, mine was the only one not optioned with one, looking back at the photos. Probably conflated the window sticker for a basically identical truck with this one at the time.

 

There are a bunch of G80 axles listed on car-part.com. Interesting enough there are 4 options: ZR2 (should be electronic locking), G80 with 2" lift, G80 w/o lift, Open diff. I'd think it's a pretty straight forward swap if you get the assembly.

Support vehicle by frame/body allow for full droop of shocks
Pull calipers and support them/wiring to pad sensors.
Pull wiring/vent hose/brake lines loose from axle
Lower rear driveshaft from axle
Unbolt shocks from axle
Undo Ubolts and remove axle

Nice improvement to have if you need it.

 

I've considered that route, but based on my most recent search I'd be going 100+ miles each way to get a parts car axle for $1750-2000. I'm pretty sure I could source the carrier and axle shafts, bearings, etc. from GM online for under a grand, so it would depend on how much the local driveline wizard would charge for that swap.

 

For the first time in...longer than I'd care to admit, I washed/dried and shined up the truck myself.

The more I look at it, the happier I am with the new wheels and size of the tires. I can see why GM put basically this size on the TB and Z71 as standard.

 

For the first time in...longer than I'd care to admit, I washed/dried and shined up the truck myself.

View attachment 476350

The more I look at it, the happier I am with the new wheels and size of the tires. I can see why GM put basically this size on the TB and Z71 as standard.

Man that blue with the new wheels looks 👌🏼

 

Since the aftermarket either doesn't intend to support lowering these trucks at all or are at least taking their time, I decided to take the DIY route:

I started digging and realized that in most ways, the front shocks for a 2014-2018 Silverado (and maybe 2007-2013) are almost a perfect lowering shock for these trucks. The shock body is the same O.D. but with a shorter overall length and spring perch mounting height, the width of the tie bar at the bottom of the shock is the same for the mounting holes, and the spring perches are removable, so the lower perches can be swapped from the Colorado shocks to the Silverado shocks. Everything works out perfectly, except for the bottom mount/tie bar bushing:

The Colorado shock is on the left, and the Silverado shock is on the right. The bottom of the Silverado shocks is significantly larger, and doesn't fit the pocket in the Colorado lower control arm. Time for the angle grinder...

After shaving a little material off both sides (the bottom mount still has a lot more material than the Colorado shock, I don't think this trimming compromised the shock) and the Silverado shock can drop into place.

In the rear, I was already running a set of CCE 1" lift shackles to compensate for the weight of my topper. I put the stock shackles back on the truck, and in the after picture I have some extra weight in the bed for traction in the snow we've been getting.

I have a slight clunk on the driver's side to chase down, but otherwise the truck drives like normal. I'll get it aligned later this week, but the front alignment doesn't seem to be too badly affected. Overall, very pleased with the result for a $75 pair of GM shocks off Rock Auto.

 

I pulled the whole driver's side suspension back apart, shaved the bottom of the strut a little more, and the clunk is gone. After the alignment it drives straight as an arrow, for the most part I can't tell the difference from behind the wheel. Surprisingly the Silverado shocks may have a little less rebound damping than the stock Colorado shocks, so I feel like there are some extra secondary/tertiary motions over bigger bumps, but that's something a more performance minded shock or coilover could straighten out. For an $80 pair of guinea pig shocks they're just fine.

I picked up a set of 20" Silverado/Tahoe wheels and some 285/45R20 tires to match the o.d. of the stock 255/65R17 tires. I'm itching to see them on the truck, but with the recent freezing temps the already poor pavement quality around here is really falling apart, so the new shoes may wait a while for a test drive.