2014 Trucks?

[Max Owner]

I just a got a heavier trailer and have been paying quite a bit of attention to it while towing in the mountains.

The new trucks, I have driven for work and found trans temp by accident. I prefer the distance to empty feature due to being out in the middle of no where, then take a right. To have it up on the DIC.

[dmax3500]

Originally Posted by DURAtotheMAX

what is the big problem with the trans temp in the DIC?

And, in the real world, when is trans temp ever going to be a concern when towing at max rated capacity anyways, honestly. Its not like allisons have overheating problems or are damaged easily by being run hot.

And plus, the DIC trans temp gauge is nice, I think, because it gives you an exact read out to the degree. With 1.5" diameter analog gauge thats only clearly marked at "100, 150, 200, 250, 300" there a certain degree of ambiguity there.

JMO though. Ill agree with you somewhat on the gauge thing, It took some getting used to the first time I drove an LMM on a long trip...not having the actual gauge there. But you get used to having to look at the DIC pretty quickly

sometimes less info is better

[DURAtotheMAX]

Originally Posted by dmax3500

GM is missing the boat by not taping into the DIY market/aftermarket add-on market,the things im doing arn't hard,any gear-head or small repair shop could also do this,yes im sure there are legal things i dont see,but there must be a way to do things

duh. looks like you just answered your own question.

Because GM doesnt want to be responsible if you screw something up. They dont want their name tied to anything that depends on an outside installer to potentially mess something up. Because when that installer is an idiot (not all mechanics are smart) and f's something up, they are gonna go straight to GM. GM already has enough on their plate making cars and designing cars and managing their finances. They dont need one more thing that could drain resources/effort/tech support people.

See....again......you're missing the whole big picture of whats actually involved.

To make a rear window kit, they would have to write up idiot-proof instructions (that takes more effort and time than you would think), they would have to warranty the kit, they would have to depend on the installing-mechanic to not F up the install, then they would have to support the "kit" after the sale....all for what?

If you're smart enough, just go buy the parts from the dealer and figure out the retrofit yourself.

[dmax3500]

if the people ive seen on the assembly lines can build these trucks,gm can make installation instructions for a normal mechanic,GM could build 1-2 harnesses for these trucks and really make things ''plug and play'',the work could also be done at GM dealers,

[elvenhome21]

Originally Posted by DURAtotheMAX

again, the whole "given budget" and "cost vs benefit analysis" thing is blowing right over your head.....

If you wanna pay a couple grand for a wheel bearing, im sure some engineer could design a badass wheel bearing that would last forever.

But until now we're just gonna have to suck it up and deal with having to put a "****ty" $120 wheel bearing in every 100k miles. It could be worse.

Does the phrase "there is no free lunch" mean anything to you?

Ben

i dont see why you feel the need to be such a dick to everybody. I do understand the BIG picture. How freaking hard is it to slightly modify a part to either have better grease or some way how to make it better so it doesnt have numerous other problems tied to it. like stiff steering or power steering pumps needing a different pressure valve to compensate for the binding. these engineers have no problem do a complete ground up redesign of a engine every 1.5 years which cost millions, i dont see how a couple thousand on doing a part update that will eliminate a lot of warranty work at a dealer.

[97chevor]

I would really want to see 3 things different. 2 I think are major and they are make it easy to remove fuel filter from above. Those AC lines in the way of the filter is just stupid. 2 make the head light easier to change, longer wire more room. 3 put the cargo lamp back on its own switch why do the cab lights have to be one.

[DURAtotheMAX]

Originally Posted by elvenhome21

I do understand the BIG picture.

no you dont

Originally Posted by elvenhome21

How freaking hard is it to slightly modify a part to either have better grease or some way how to make it better so it doesnt have numerous other problems tied to it.

ahh yes it all seems so simple doesnt it. Well its NOT!

Originally Posted by elvenhome21

these engineers have no problem do a complete ground up redesign of a engine every 1.5 years which cost millions

WTF are you talking about?

Originally Posted by elvenhome21

i dont see how a couple thousand on doing a part update that will eliminate a lot of warranty work at a dealer.

HA HA a couple thousand to have engineers redesign a wheel bearing? Dream the F on!

[LETHAL WEAPON]

Originally Posted by DURAtotheMAX

I can think of many things and clever little tricks that they incorporated into the current trucks/SUV's that I guarantee none of you guys would have ever thought of.

Like for example the 07+ SUV's with the "auto rain sense wipers". They are programmed so that when the transmission is in Neutral, the automatic wiper feature is temporarily disabled. Why? So when you go through a car wash (as we all know, the two things you do when you go through a car wash is, trans in neutral, hands off wheel), the auto wipers dont activate by themselves and get damaged by the carwash...

See they arent all dumb.

There is so much stuff that goes into designing a car. Think about it. The engineers literally have to pull this stuff out of thin air. They have nothing to "go on" or "base their design around". When they design various car parts they have to:

make it safe (ex: properly spec out a radio amplifier heat sink and get the thermal mapping/engineering right so the thing wont overheat and burn the car to the ground....I guarantee the amount of math/physics/calculations JUST involved in that seemingly menial ONE SINGLE stupid task alone would make your guys' heads spin)

make it easy to service for dealer techs down the road.

make it reliable

make it asthetically pleasing/ergonomic for the driver who may not be car/tech-savvy

have a finished design ready in X amount of weeks/months

make it easy to mass-produce the part (if you make it so complicated that it has to be hand assembled, thats going to be absurdly expensive)

make it fit into the budget, which is set by the bean counters, who ARE NOT engineers/DONT know what is involved in designing car parts (probably the hardest part of all, by far...given an unlimited budget its "easy" to make/design something perfect that will last forever and never fail. But when you have to do all that "to the best of your ability, for X dollars", thats where the real genius and smart minds have to work together. I can only imagine how much work/planning/designing goes into making something

For the most part, I think they get it right. Its impossible to please everyone in the general public with the design. Thats all your own opinion. What looks good to one person, looks like **** to another. The design team can only be so big. You cant have 10,000 people working on the visual design of the car, and design a car that "everyone thinks looks good". thats ridiculous. As long as 51% of the prospective buyers think "it" (whatever aspect of the vehicle that is) looks good, thats what matters.

Not everyone is going to like the looks. Not everyone is going to agree on ergonomics/cosmetic design. But what it all boils down to and what REALLY matters in the end, is that the vehicle is:

mechanically reliable
performs on par or better than the competition
lasts a long time
easy (fairly) to service once the warranty is up
is safe in the event of a crash

Hindsight is always 20/20. When the vehicle is out in the real world, and experiences hundreds of thousands of different people working on it, driving it, and using it in countless ways that the vehicles were not used in testing/development, its SO FREAKING EASY to say "OMG WHAT A BUNCH OF DUMBASSES, WHY DID THEY DO IT THAT WAY, I COULD HAVE DESIGNED "X" PART SOOO MUCH BETTER".

Its so easy to look at someone elses original/finished work and criticize the **** out of it.

The fact of the matter is, is that if any of you were given a clean sheet of paper, I guaranfreakingtee that you wouldnt have the slightest idea where to start, or how to design something. You'd probably sit there with a dumbass blank look on your face and say "uhh well...hmm".

You guys think the interior looks ugly? OK! So lets play a little game. All you guys present your own design of what YOU think the interior should look like. Pencil sketches, photoshop, whatever...lets see what you genius's have in mind for a "sweet looking interior for the next gen trucks". I bet half of you idiots couldnt even draw a Dr. Seuss character.

What it all boils down to, is that the engineers are the ones who went to school, they are the ones coming up with this **** from scratch....and they are the ones getting it done while meeting all of the required criteria.

So unless any of you are actual engineers (and I mean a real engineer who went to real school for 4+ years, NOT some 'field tech' or some idiot who calls themself an "engineer by trade" or some bull**** like that) and have real experience designing functional real-world parts from scratch, STFU.

I agree, there are a lot of things that frustrate me about these trucks. And ill admit I have "cursed out the engineers that designed this stupid part", but in the end, I always do stop myself and say "well....there must have been SOME good reason they did it like that...".

They (the engineers) might not always get it 100% right the first time, I would say they do a pretty damn good job most of the time given what they have to work with (as far as constraints). How can you honestly blame them if they dont get it 100% right the first time? Humans arent perfect, when new things that havent been done before are tried, there are invariably going to be some areas of something that could use revision/improvement down the road.

rant off. Im not an engineer, im not a genius. But I have many close friends who are real engineers, so I have seen first hand the kinds of projects they work on, the kinds of math/figuring/calculations they have to use, and the kinds of incredibly complicated problems they have to solve with a comparatively-small given budget....so I have a very high level of respect of them. And it frustrates me to see that most people give them ABSOLUTELY ZERO credit.

ben

What good reason why they would remove the god dam cabin air filter, footwell, glovebox, and hood light...but yet in still they the engineer a (chime)to let you know that your hood is open in the DIC or a (chime) to let you know that you left your turn signal on for more than 3/4 of a mile and if you want your inside light to come on the dam cargo light comes on too ......


I bet you could'nt w/o tracing

[LETHAL WEAPON]

Originally Posted by DURAtotheMAX

no you dont




ahh yes it all seems so simple doesnt it. Well its NOT!




WTF are you talking about?




HA HA a couple thousand to have engineers redesign a wheel bearing? Dream the F on!

what's the reason they went to sealed front wheel bearings instead of inner/outter tampered roller bearings that can be serviced that have worked for years???

[Max Owner]

This was sposed to be a simple thread. Not one that is to annoy the hell out of people.