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Any must-have fixes or mods for my new-to-me '10?

sean

Full Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2005
Messages
209
Location
Sherman Oaks, CA
Recently picked up a new-to-me Z71.  I use it for towing a race car and hauling dirt bikes and construction materials.  The truck goes off road fairly often...and I'm already finding those solid mudguards are scraping pretty often so those need to go.

Any other things I need to do to this?  Basic mods that are must-have?  Things that affect reliability or will get damaged offroad?

Requisite beauty shot from camping this weekend:

5dc45e41.jpg
 
I would suggest some sort of mild lift or leveling kit at least. The ground clearance sucks on these vehicles.  I had a 4" Rancho lift on my '07 and now I have a Rough Country 3.5" kit (no cross member cutting).  A leveling kit or something like from Ready Lift would be reasonably inexpensive and could put some bigger tires on.   For towing: trailer brake controller, upgraded brakes or pads?  Also for offroad I replaced the front bumper with an Iron Bull.  Has a winch mount and much better approach angle.
 
I'm in construction and now since it gets so dark so early I definitely suggest getting a set of bed lights that actually do something unlike the stock light!  I use my lights pretty much everyday and love them.  The ones i have are 8 led pods that mount to the sides of the bed and I have them wired to a switch by the tailgate. Heres the link if your interested:

http://www.ledunderbody.com/truck-bed-led-lighting-kit.aspx/
 
RTFD333 said:
I'm in construction and now since it gets so dark so early I definitely suggest getting a set of bed lights that actually do something unlike the stock light!  I use my lights pretty much everyday and love them.  The ones i have are 8 led pods that mount to the sides of the bed and I have them wired to a switch by the tailgate. Heres the link if your interested:

http://www.ledunderbody.com/truck-bed-led-lighting-kit.aspx/

These look really good. Any info on your installation, such as how you wired them, what kind of switch, etc? I just ordered a set, along with a Bedrug... I wish GM had kept the bed light on the passenger side, but this will be way better.
 
The solid mudflaps on my passenger side broke the first time i took it really offroading.... the second time it was mudding and the driver side broke... i would suggest the flexible type... thats just my opinion  (y)
 
The bed lights are real easy to install. All i did was run a hot wire from the battery down the frame in wire loom to the bed. Then I mounted the lights right under the bed gutters or whatever you call them.  They come with double stick tape that I used to temporarily hold them up to get the spacing right, then I used the provided stews to mount them to the plastic of the bed liner.  Be very careful when you mount them with the screws because I noticed that if you just barely over torque them the metal housing starts to separate from the leds, Id suggest taking the time in just putting the screws in by hand to be safe.  I ran the wires between the gutter and the bed liner to hide the wire for both sides. For the driver side lights i just brought the wire to the end of the bed with the power wire I ran. For the passenger side strand, I ran the wire in the molding on the edge of the bed to get the wire over to the driver side. Finally I cut a round hole for my switch that i bought at radioshack (some cheap low profile rocker switch) attached the wires, and mounted a ground screw to the metal of the bed behind the plastic bed liner. Overall I'd say the install took about 2 hours partly because I did it in the dark but very easy install.  Ill try to get some pictures up to show you exactly where I put the switch because it was hard to explain.
 
RTFD333 said:
The bed lights are real easy to install...

Perfect - and thank you much for the info and pics. Exactly what I needed. I am going to do pretty much the same, except I will tap power from the trailer wiring, and plan to add a tilt switch so that they come on when the tailgate opens. That way, the toggle will act as an override (in case I need to leave the tailgate down and want to turn off the lights).

I am also putting in a bedrug, so the switch location you used is perfect (The bedrug does not cover that area).

Do you think on of the light pods could be routed into the saddle bags?

Thanks again.
 
I agree the lighting is pitiful in the bed.  No idea why they stopped having the light on the passenegr side.  The indentation is there for it even.  Be great to have it for both saddlebags.

How is the install for this.  I have a 2012 and dont want to even pretend I know anything about going into the wiring
 
I had originally planned on putting in a tilt switch as well but that started to get too complicated. The only trouble that I would see with getting a led pod in the saddle bags is they come wired together in 2 separate strands so you would have to cut a big enough hole to either pull the other pods through or just big enough to get the pod and both leads back out to the other pods. 

spidey: the install is really simple, I'm pretty sure I have a brief write up on it a little earlier in the thread
 
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