2007 Chevy Silverado 2500HD LS

By Bill "BillaVista" Ansell
Photography: Bill Ansell
Copyright 2007 - Bill Ansell
(click any pic to enlarge)

The Story of My Truck

The decision to buy my truck was a new experience for me - an impulsive, last-minute rush that worked out extremely well. Here's how it happened: For the last several years in my family we've been running three vehicles - a well-heeled '97 Saturn for daily commuting, a '99 Chevy Venture for family duty and my trusty old '78 Ford F250 for towing and hauling duties. Then one night the minivan that had been slowly but steadily breaking down decided to give up the ghost. My wife was driving it home alone on a rural highway, late at night, in a cold rain. Recently nobody had really enjoyed driving the van - the power windows and locks were intermittent at best, the HVAC worked maybe 50% of the time, the rear wiper was broken, the power mirrors weren't, the tailgate latch had seized shut, and a host of other annoying problems plagued the beast. Then this fateful night it decided to buck and surge and die, leaving my wife stranded beside the highway.

Having forgotten her cell phone she had little choice but to limp the POS home, at 30 km/h on the highway in freezing rain, coughing and sputtering all the way. When she finally made it home she was, shall we say, not best pleased.

After she told me the tale, I figured I was facing either a few long days of diagnosis and repair, or a large bill for same from the dealership. How wrong I was. You see, my wonderful wife is nothing if not strong-willed and decisive - and she had had enough with this vehicle. It was a Thursday night. She said to me, "Your birthday is next week, pick out the truck you want, any truck and I'll buy it for you, I'm sick of that van. We'll trade in the van and you can sell the old Ford - we'll replace two vehicles with one." I was shocked, stunned! "I have just three conditions", she continued, "it must be brand new, it must have four doors, and it must have air, the rest is up to you."

As you can imagine - I darn near soiled myself. Perhaps a better man would have gotten her calmed down - reassessed the situation in the morning, perhaps arranged for an estimate for the van repairs. Did I? Hell no! I jumped like a scalded cat - straight to the internet and all the truck manufacturer's web sites I could find, along with a good number of forums and enthusiasts sites. I'm an addict for research and time was not on my side - we were going test driving on Saturday. The next two days were a blur of frenzied research and not much sleep.

When Saturday morning dawned I had narrowed the field to the "big- 3" of 3/4-ton trucks. We set off with an ambitious plan to test drive all the crew cab 3/4-ton offerings from Chevy, Dodge, and Ford. I tried to pretend I was calm and ambivalent, I remember saying, "Now we're just going to look honey, we don't want to rush into anything." Famous last words!

Our first stop was the local GM dealer, Laplante Chev Pontiac Buick Ltd.

It's no secret that I'm no fan of car dealerships. In fact, my previous experiences with them are a large part of the reason I started buying tools and doing my own work many years ago - and here I am somehow now the tech editor the largest offroad web site in the world! But right from the start this dealership was different. I know it sounds cliché, but they are a small town dealership - big enough to give full service but small enough to care. And they've been family owned and run for generations. To make a long story short - we were greeted right away by Philippe and he was great - professional, courteous, and well informed without being patronizing at all. We talked about what we were looking for and within minutes he was handing me the keys to test drive a brand new 2007 Chevy 2500HD 4x4. It had 11kms on the clock. When I got back it had 42kms and I had just one question: "Is the radio supposed to stay on when I take the key out?" Philippe chuckled good-naturedly and explained that it is - just one of the many new features I would find myself getting accustomed to (it's called "retained accessory power"). Trucks have sure come a long way since 1978. Minutes later I whispered discreetly to Laurie, "I really want this truck." So much for testing them all! Oh well, I'd done my research and had secretly had my heart set on a Chevy since we left the house anyway. We came to a deal with Phil and I was suddenly the owner of a brand new truck.

The next few days waiting for the licensing, dealer prep, and rust-proofing to be completed were pure hell. But then, on Wednesday January 17 2007, my 38th birthday, she was ready for me and all mine. When we pulled up I discovered Laurie had arranged to have it prepped and sitting outside with a big red bow on it! And that's how this journey began. I'm a lucky, lucky man in so many ways. Oh, and since I've been asked so many times, yes, Laurie does have a sister but she's already married - sorry guys!

The Truck

My truck is officially known as:

2007 Chevrolet Silverado (Classic) 2500HD (K25743) LS Crew Cab Standard Box 4WD 1SK Package

That's quite a mouthful of a name! It breaks down like this:

2007 Chevrolet Silverado - Year, make, and model (obvious!)
(Classic) - Denotes the older body style of the two versions of Silverado that were produced as 2007 models.
2500HD - Chevy's notation for Heavy Duty 3/4 ton pickup truck
(K25743) - GM model number for Crew Cab Standard Bed 2500HD 4x4
LS - The trim level (LS is the mid-level, between Base and LT)
Crew Cab - Four full doors
Standard Box - The box is 6'6" ( a short-box is 5'8" and a long-box is 8' long)
4WD - Four Wheel Drive
1SK Package - sub-set of the trim level, denotes a standardized set of options.

Specs and Tech Data

Basic Specs

Engine

Vortec 6000 6.0LV-8 (LQ4), OHV, Sequential multi-point electronic fuel injection

Horsepower: 300 hp @ 4,400 rpm.
Torque: 360 lb.-ft. @ 4,000 rpm.

   
Transmission Heavy-duty Hydra-Matic 4L80-E four-speed automatic transmission
   
Transfer Case Electronic shift-on-the-fly 2-speed NP263HD Transfer Case
   
Front Axle AAM 925 - 9.25" Ring Gear Independent Front Axle, 4.10 PowerDense gears, Torque capacity 4647 ft lbs.
   
Rear Axle AAM 1050 - 10.5" Ring Gear 14-Bolt full-float rear axle, 4.10 PowerDense gears, Eaton mechanical locking differential (GM RPO Code G80 - Differential, locking, heavy-duty, rear), Torque capacity 6232 ft lbs.
   
Suspension

Long- and short-arm independent front torsion bar suspension

Semi-elliptic 2-stage multileaf spring rear suspension

   
Steering Integral power recirculating-ball steering
   
Brakes Hydroboost power 4-wheel disc brakes, 4-wheel ABS
   
Wheels 8-bolt 16.0" x 6.50" Aluminum Wheels
   
Tires LT245/75R16E Bridgestone V-steel Black Wall All Season Steel Belted Radials

 

Dimensions (inches) Weights (lbs)
Wheelbase 153 GVWR 9200
Overall Length 237.3 Curb Weight 5883
Overall Width 79.7 Payload 3317
Overall Height 77.4 GAWR - Front 4670
Track Width F/R 68.6 / 66.0 GAWR - Rear 6084
Ground Clearance F/R 8.9 / 7.4 Max Tow - Weight Carrying 7500
  Max Tow - Weight Distribution 9800
Max Tow - Fifth Wheel 9800
GCWR 16000

Features

Interior Exterior
Power Door Locks
Power Mirrors
Power Windows
Power Drivers Seat
Seats 6
Dual Zone Climate Control with AC
Auto-dim Rear View Mirror with Compass and Temperature
Cruise Control
In-dash AM/FM/CD
Steering Wheel Audio Controls
Full Gauges - speedometer, tachometer, voltmeter, coolant temperature, transmission temperature, oil pressure, fuel gauge, odometer, trip odometer and engine hour meter
Front, Custom cloth, 40/20/40 split-bench
Rear, 60/40 split fold-down seat

Fully Galvanized Steel Body
Four Doors
Tinted Glass
Fog Lights
Off-road Skid Plates
Tubular Step Bars
Fender Flares
Variable Wipers
Tow Hooks - Front
HD Trailer Towing Package - weight-distributing platform trailer hitch receiver, 8-lead wiring harness with a 7-pin sealed connector (includes trailer brake control harness), heavy-duty transmission oil cooler and high-capacity air cleaner
Keyless Entry System
Theft-deterrent System / Ignition Disable / Alarm
98 L Fuel Tank
Engine Block Heater
Engine Oil Cooler
105-amp Alternator

The most useful information I made into a little graphic card I printed, laminated, and keep in the glove box. It beats digging through the 600-page owners manual for information.

Front

Rear

Detailed Specs

For complete details on my truck, please see:

My Chevy Silverado 2500HD Standard and Optional Features in:

Adobe PDF format
Microsoft Word .doc format

My Chevy Silverado 2500HD Specifications in:

Adobe PDF format
Microsoft Word .doc format

Load label for the factory-installed trailer hitch. Notice also the 7-pin wiring diagram moulded into the cover - nice touch.
 

GVWR sticker applied to driver's door jamb.

Sticker gives GVWR, GAWR - front, and GAWR - rear information, along with tire size, rim size, and tire pressure information.

 
Inside the glove box is this decal that gives camper loading information, for use with slide-in campers.

RPO Codes

GM uses a 3-digit code, called an RPO (an acronym for Regular Production Option), to identify the options with which a specific vehicle is built. They are listed on a label or sticker called the Service Parts Identification (SPID) label. On late-model GM trucks this label is found inside the glove box. Some of the most famous RPO's are Z28 (performance package found on Camaro's) and LS1 (specific type of V8 engine).

By recording your RPO's and looking them up in a reference table you can identify the options with which your vehicle was built.

Most RPO's can be found in the following:

GM Regular Production Option (RPO) Master List (pdf file)

The Service Parts Identification (SPID) label found in my truck. This label includes other information along with the list of RPO's, including the V.I.N., wheelbase, paint codes, and vehicle model number.

Below is a file I made listing all my trucks RPO's and their de-codes, available in:

Microsoft Excel (xls) spreadsheet format, or
Adobe PDF format

More Info

GM Canada's Official 2007 Silverado Brochure (pdf file)
 

2007 Chevy Silverado Standard And Optional Features (pdf file)

(Microsoft Word .doc format)

 

2007 Chevy Silverado 2500HD Key Features (pdf file)

(Microsoft Word .doc format)

 
GM 2007 Performance Parts Catalogue (pdf file)
 
Chevy 2007 Trailer Towing Booklet (pdf file)
 
Summary of my truck as "built" on the GM Canada web site (pdf file)
 
Excerpts from the 2007 Chevy Silverado 2500HD Owner's Manual (pdf file) - all the most important stuff- fuses & locations, replacement bulbs, fluid specifications & capacities, maintenance schedules, etc. Apologies for the poor quality scan.

Detailed Information

Detailed Information on the Vortec 6000 6.0L V-8 (LQ4)
 
Detailed Information on the Hydra-Matic 4L80-E

Review and Owner's Log

First Impressions

Plain and simple - this is by far the nicest vehicle I have ever even been in, let alone driven. It's a long way to step up from an old '78 to a 2007 and things have changed! This thing feels nothing like a truck - it's smooth and whisper quiet, the steering is responsive, the brakes are excellent (gotta love hydroboost), and the interior is a work of art. Everything is where it should be and all the controls are easy to operate - with or without gloves on. I'm blown away - it's simply a gorgeous vehicle. The other thing I didn't plan on, but I'm lucky it worked out the way it did, is that I bought a 2007 Classic. That means the truck is a 2007 model year but in the "classic" body style - the same as the 2006. The "new" 2007 is a completely different truck and, though it's a great truck and is getting rave reviews, I much, much prefer the look of the "classic". I particularly love the headlights and front end on the "classic" - I've admired them since they came out. And, in my opinion, this is important. Don't kid yourself - no matter how great a truck's specs, or how popular or trendy it is - it has to look good to YOU. It's a very personal thing, taste, but I strongly believe that to be able to live with a truck and be happy for a long time, you have to be able to walk out to it every day and look at it and think - man, I love my truck. I'll admit, I didn't even consider the new Toyota Tundra full-size, even though I know it has impressive specs, simply because, to me, it is just butt ugly. You gotta love your truck.

Already I find myself looking for any reason to drive the truck. Not only that, but when I'm driving, I find myself actually setting the cruise at or below the speed limit (I know!) because I don't want to get there too fast, I don't want the drive to be over - I'm not kidding - that's how much I'm loving driving this truck.

Fuel Mileage

One of the things most often asked about when you own a big truck is "what kind of mileage do you get?" I've seen all kinds of different numbers posted on the Internet - from mild to wild (and some wildly unbelievable)! Here I shall document my actual fuel mileage in both tabular and graphical form, and I'll update it frequently.

In the table you see four columns, which are as follows:

MPG - the actual MPG as calculated between fill-ups. My method for calculating is to fill the truck up (deliver fuel until the pump auto shuts off, then one more squeeze to be sure), drive, then fill-up again (using the same station and same pump as much as possible) and record the distance traveled between the two fill-ups. With that data I use a spreadsheet to calculate the MPG achieved between fills.

DIC MPG - this is the MPG as calculated by the vehicles computer and displayed in continuous real-time via the Drivers Information Centre (DIC), which is a digital readout on the instrument panel. It is calculated by using the odometer and the computer's calculation of fuel delivered to the engine. The system can be manually reset and calculates the value between resets - i.e. their is no averaging between resets or historical data used in the calculation. In other words, this value should be the same as the MPG value that I calculate manually.

Lifetime Avg MPG - the DIC also displays the total distance traveled and the total amount of fuel consumed over the lifetime of the truck. These figures cannot be reset. Lifetime Avg MPG is calculated from those numbers.

DIC Best - We all know driving-style/load/conditions can have a huge affect on mileage. Because the DIC displays the calculated mileage in real time as it's being calculated you can watch it change over time as driving conditions change. This figure is the best reading observed over a reasonable amount of time (driving for at least 30 mins). My best so far of 13.7 MPG was achieved while driving along the highway, completely unloaded (except me!), with the cruise set at 100km/h, for 40 minutes, having just filled up and reset the DIC MPG.

Date MPG DIC MPG Lifetime Avg MPG DIC Best
20-Jan-07 11.94 11.82 11.79 12.50
08-Feb-07 11.25 11.82 11.79 13.70
14-Feb-07 11.67 12.00 11.86 13.70
16-Feb-07 11.06 11.76 11.82 13.70
08-Mar-07 11.41 11.82 11.81 13.70

 

Things I love or enjoy most about my truck:

- The ride and drive - compared to anything else I've ever driven it is superb. I hope it remains that way for many, many thousands of miles.
- The quiet - for a big unaerodynamic truck bombing down the highway the quietness is nothing short of incredible. I love it and can't say I'm sorry to not have a diesel. I am really enjoying cruising in quiet comfort.
- The room inside. Crew cabs rock! There is a ton of room for a family of four plus large dog.
- DIC. The Drivers Information Centre took a little getting used to - but it does display and allow you to control all sorts of neat things - from dual trip-meters to mileage calculations to programming how long you want the lights to stay on after you shut off and get out. It's cool.
- OLM. This was news to me. Last time I bought a vehicle we were all still slavishly changing oil and filter every 5000km, whether it was needed or not. No more. GM uses a system of sensors and the computer to monitor the life of the oil, displaying the remaining life as a percentage, and also displaying an appropriate warning to change the oil when required. So far the system does really seem to work well and research has shown that intervals can range from 3000km to 10,000 or more, depending on the trucks use and under what conditions. In my fuel mileage spreadsheet I also record the remaining oil life at each fill up and extrapolate from there to come up with an estimated point at which the oil will need to be changed. So far I'm on track to change at 6800km.

DIC displaying current fuel mileage.
 
DIC displaying remaining engine oil life.
 
Grab handles. I love the big, beefy grab handles located for every outboard passenger - front and rear. There are even two for the front seat passenger. Not that I can see myself beating this truck off road - but they're still cool.
- Leather wrapped steering wheel. For me, this is unheard-of luxury!
- Steering wheel mounted audio controls. This is an option I never would have ordered, but you know how modern vehicles all come with pre-defined sets of options. Mine happened to come with audio controls on the steering wheel. In very short order I have grown to like them so much I will always look for this feature on future vehicles. The convenience and safety is very enjoyable.
Steering-wheel mounted audio controls. Note that the lower four buttons are for controlling the DIC. They come only with the steering wheel mounted audio controls option and it is my understanding that, without them, your use and control of the DIC is more limited than with them.

Things I've gotten used to.

Features or characteristics I wasn't sure I liked at first, but that I've grown to understand or like:

- Auto-dimming rear-view mirror with compass and temperature readout. What with the power button, power-on light, chromatic sensor in the glass, compass direction readout and outside temperature readout this is one busy mirror. When you glance up there's a lot to see / pay attention to. At first, unused to this, I found it disconcerting. Now I've gotten used to it and can glance up to view the traffic without being distracted. The auto-dimming is a great feature too - I'm really enjoying that.

- Integrated turn signals. The flashing red arrows integrated into the outside rear view mirrors as turn signals took a couple of days to get used to - especially at night. Every time I glanced out the side window while the turn signal was on I saw the flashing red and immediately thought the cops were after me. Not good for the heart! Perhaps just the sign of a misspent youth, I'm now comfortably used to them!

Things I'm getting used to.
This is a list of things I'm as yet undecided on. At first they concerned me but I'll allow that they might just take some getting used to. The jury's still out on:

- Washers on wipers. The truck has the design that places the washer spray nozzles on the wiper arms themselves, as opposed to on the hood facing the windshield. While this is good because it means snow and ice accumulated on the hood/ at the base of the windshield don't obscure the spray, it also means that each and every time you use the wash feature, the first wipe of the blades across the glass is dry as the fluid isn't projected ahead of the blade - not sure I like that.

- HUGE towing mirrors. Awesome for rear-view and for reducing blind spots, the optional "deluxe wide-load, vertical glass with lower convex spotter glass, heated with integrated turn signals, manual extending and folding" outside rear view mirrors are so large that they can actually obscure your vision forward. I find that, especially at a 4-way intersection, a small car, if positioned just-so on the road to your right, can actually be completely obscured by the large mirrors. Caution!

- Cruise. It seems, just a little, that the cruise control may be a bit surgey. I'm not 100%convinced as it could well be the poor road conditions I have locally as much as anything. I need to report back after some more miles on various different roads.

Things I'm not so crazy about.

I guess nothing's perfect - stuff I really don't like:

- Tires too small. This is my tow rig and family hauler. I'm concerned with fuel mileage and ride quality. I may never really off-road with this truck. But, having said all that, 245/75R16 tires (30.5" tall) just look WAY too small on a truck this big and long. Even my wife commented on it and suggested I buy bigger tires when the time comes - and she's usually imploring me not to modify things!

- 4wd indicator. With the electronic-shift transfer case (which, I must admit I'm enjoying a lot, despite thinking of myself as a dyed-in-the-wool mechanical lever type guy) the only indication you have of being in 4WD is the tiny amber light next to the button. And the button's are partially obscured by the steering wheel to boot. It would be much better if we could have a nice red 4WD or 4X4 indicator light on the instrument panel itself.

This picture illustrates how the steering wheel blocks the drivers view of the 4WD engagement buttons, and thus also the tiny lights that indicate which gear the transfer case is in.

- Power windows passenger lockout feature. Hey, I have a 7 year-old and 4 year-old in the back, so the ability to lock-out their windows (so they can't be constantly playing with them) is great. Why, however, is the only option to have all windows powered, or ONLY the drivers? What about my poor wife in the passenger seat? With the kids in the back and the lockout feature engaged she has to ask me to let her operate her window - super not cool!

- Inadequate floor mats. The stock floor mats simply suck. Pathetic. This is a truck, it's going to get used in the winter and the dirt - why can't GM provide us with decent stock floor mats - something more along the lines of Husky or Weather-Tech rather than these postage stamps we get.

Stock drivers-side floor mat. Very poor coverage.
 

Drivers foot well after removal of stock matt. Shown after 1600km of Canadian winter driving. Look closely at the area up by the accelerator pedal.

Bad enough is the amount of salt and crud that gets on the carpet because of the poor coverage of the matt.

Worse still is the moisture that gets under the matt. This comes primarily from the area up by the accelerator where, of course, your boots always are. Any snow or ice or mud or salt on your boots falls on the carpet, melts, and runs under the matt.

The area under the parking brake pedal is also a serious flaw in my opinion.

- Owners manual. This has just gotten silly. The manual is over 600 pages long and every single paragraph starts with something like: "You may have a feature described below..." It's awful - not very readable and huge amounts of useless information. O.K., I understand why they do it - it saves a lot of money and time to print just one manual that covers a huge range of trucks, but the result sucks. Imagine how nice it would be to have a custom-tailored owners manual - one that is all about your truck and only your truck; one that covers all the options and features you have and none that you don't. And I don't think that's too much to ask when paying $40-50,000 for a vehicle. And with all the computerized assembly processes in place today I can't see that it would be that hard to do. It couldn't be that hard to tie something like this into the RPO code system. Imagine this - each part of the manual is contained in a separate chunks of code. As each truck is built a computer keeps track of the features and options, by V.I.N., and as each is added, the computer adds the appropriate chunk of code to a compilation file. When the truck is done the computer assembles a complete manual from the chunks of code and burns a disc. Each customer is provided with a complete, customized manual on CD or DVD. How cool would that be?!

Photo Gallery

Following is a gallery of some pics of my truck with various small upgrades:

Dash
Front Cup Holders
Stock Front Seats
Stock Rear Seats
Husky Floor Mats - Driver's Side
Husky Floor Mats - Driver's Side Detail
Husky Floor Mats - Rear Seats
Husky Floor Mats - Passenger's Side
Line-X Spray-in Bed Liner
Line-X Spray-in Bed Liner
Line-X Spray-in Bed Liner
Line-X Spray-in Bed Liner
Wet-Okole Seat Covers - Rear Seats
Wet-Okole Seat Covers - Front Seats
Wet-Okole Seat Covers - Rear Seats
Wet-Okole Seat Covers


Total:


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