Good evening. Tim from Georgia. First post. I signed up to share some things about my Colorado that I think may be useful to some, boring to others.
Loving my 2016 Colorado 2.8 duramax diesel. Had it since early December. Replaced my 2003 suburban z71 with this. Truck is used as a daily driver but also a weekend warrior as a tow rig for my 5600lb trailer (18" steel floor flatbed with a toyota rock crawler) I weighed my truck and trailer on the cat certified scales, for what it's worth the truck weighs about 4700 lb (estimating out the gear and people and tongue weight) the integrated trailer brakes are great, you set the gain for your load and they work based on how hard you push the brake pedal. The exhaust brake is nice on grades.
2700 or so miles so far, Lifetime mpg so far is sitting just over 23 mpg. breakdown of that 10% towing the aforementioned trailer, 60% city, 30% highway. I see 16 mpg towing on the highway, 30 normal highway, and about 23 around town. I Also remote start the truck and let it warm up before driving it, which has an effect on mpg.
Just did a lift on this truck and my searches found a lack of solid info. Found lots of people posting vague info like "I run 285s" without telling how they rub or what lift or wheels. I thought I would share my thoughts and experiences to help others who are searching for info.
My truck had 3/4" of rake from the factory. Z71 crew cab short bed diesel. I wanted to keep the rake because I haul and tow and also for my personal visual preference. Leveling just the front was not an option for me.
I did an autospring (autospringkits.com) add a leaf (advertised 1-1.5" lift) and an icon (iconvehicledynamics.com) 1" rear block and It settled to 2.25" in the rear. I did an auto spring 2" lift up front and gained a hair over 2" up front. This put me with a 1" rake and that is perfect for what I wanted.
The rear shocks need to be replaced because they top out on rebound over big bumps (too short now) so I replaced them with fox shox # 980-24-660 (ridefox.com) the truck aligned fine.
My wheels are fuel recoil 18x9 with 20 offset or 5.75" of backspacing (however you like to measure wheels). Factory wheels are 17x8 with a 33 offset or also about 5.75" backspacing. Same backspacing but a 1" wider wheel, so the inner lip is in the same place and the outer lip is 1" wider at the fender.
The tires are 265/65r18 duratracs and, on my setup, are absolutely the largest tire you can run without rubbing. Keep in mind I am running a wider wheel, which gets the tire closer to the fender when turning. It's very close but clears everything.
Going to try and upload pics of the lift and tires and offset. Some forums don't let first time posters add attachments.
thanks for the detailed post it's nice to see what others are doing and how it works out. I've lifted a few Jeeps, but never any of my trucks so I need to find out what works.
Good evening. Tim from Georgia. First post. I signed up to share some things about my Colorado that I think may be useful to some, boring to others.
Loving my 2016 Colorado 2.8 duramax diesel. Had it since early December. Replaced my 2003 suburban z71 with this. Truck is used as a daily driver but also a weekend warrior as a tow rig for my 5600lb trailer (18" steel floor flatbed with a toyota rock crawler) I weighed my truck and trailer on the cat certified scales, for what it's worth the truck weighs about 4700 lb (estimating out the gear and people and tongue weight) the integrated trailer brakes are great, you set the gain for your load and they work based on how hard you push the brake pedal. The exhaust brake is nice on grades.
2700 or so miles so far, Lifetime mpg so far is sitting just over 23 mpg. breakdown of that 10% towing the aforementioned trailer, 60% city, 30% highway. I see 16 mpg towing on the highway, 30 normal highway, and about 23 around town. I Also remote start the truck and let it warm up before driving it, which has an effect on mpg.
Just did a lift on this truck and my searches found a lack of solid info. Found lots of people posting vague info like "I run 285s" without telling how they rub or what lift or wheels. I thought I would share my thoughts and experiences to help others who are searching for info.
My truck had 3/4" of rake from the factory. Z71 crew cab short bed diesel. I wanted to keep the rake because I haul and tow and also for my personal visual preference. Leveling just the front was not an option for me.
I did an autospring add a leaf (advertised 1-1.5" lift) and an icon 1" rear block and It settled to 2.25" in the rear. I did an auto spring 2" lift up front and gained a hair over 2" up front. This put me with a 1" rake and that is perfect for what I wanted.
The rear shocks need to be replaced because they top out on rebound over big bumps (too short now). the truck aligned fine.
My wheels are 18x9 with 20 offset or 5.75" of backspacing (however you like to measure wheels). Factory wheels are 17x8 with a 33 offset or also about 5.75" backspacing. Same backspacing but a 1" wider wheel, so the inner lip is in the same place and the outer lip is 1" wider at the fender.
The tires are 265/65r18 duratracs and, on my setup, are absolutely the largest tire you can run without rubbing. Keep in mind I am running a wider wheel, which gets the tire closer to the fender when turning. It's very close but clears everything.
How did it change the handling? I'm guessing you went with the add a leaf for towing, so for someone who doesn't tow would a body lift be just as efficient? This will be the first vehicle I've ever lifted so I'm just trying to make it right.
Handling is exactly the same as stock in the front since nothing was changed but the height. In the rear it is a little stiffer because I added more spring. If I only did the rear block there would be no difference in handing in the rear either.
Basically spacers just add height no difference in handling. Preload spacers, add a leafs, coilovers or anything else that changes the spring would change the ride.
5600 miles update. Love the truck, get compliments and questions about it just about everytime I fill it up.
Since my first post I have added a tuner from duramaxtuner and I finished my lift off with fox shocks. For an automatic trans truck, she sure is a lot of fun.
Good evening. Tim from Georgia. First post. I signed up to share some things about my Colorado that I think may be useful to some, boring to others.
Loving my 2016 Colorado 2.8 duramax diesel. Had it since early December. Replaced my 2003 suburban z71 with this. Truck is used as a daily driver but also a weekend warrior as a tow rig for my 5600lb trailer (18" steel floor flatbed with a toyota rock crawler) I weighed my truck and trailer on the cat certified scales, for what it's worth the truck weighs about 4700 lb (estimating out the gear and people and tongue weight) the integrated trailer brakes are great, you set the gain for your load and they work based on how hard you push the brake pedal. The exhaust brake is nice on grades.
2700 or so miles so far, Lifetime mpg so far is sitting just over 23 mpg. breakdown of that 10% towing the aforementioned trailer, 60% city, 30% highway. I see 16 mpg towing on the highway, 30 normal highway, and about 23 around town. I Also remote start the truck and let it warm up before driving it, which has an effect on mpg.
Just did a lift on this truck and my searches found a lack of solid info. Found lots of people posting vague info like "I run 285s" without telling how they rub or what lift or wheels. I thought I would share my thoughts and experiences to help others who are searching for info.
My truck had 3/4" of rake from the factory. Z71 crew cab short bed diesel. I wanted to keep the rake because I haul and tow and also for my personal visual preference. Leveling just the front was not an option for me.
I did an autospring add a leaf (advertised 1-1.5" lift) and an icon 1" rear block and It settled to 2.25" in the rear. I did an auto spring 2" lift up front and gained a hair over 2" up front. This put me with a 1" rake and that is perfect for what I wanted.
The rear shocks need to be replaced because they top out on rebound over big bumps (too short now). the truck aligned fine.
My wheels are 18x9 with 20 offset or 5.75" of backspacing (however you like to measure wheels). Factory wheels are 17x8 with a 33 offset or also about 5.75" backspacing. Same backspacing but a 1" wider wheel, so the inner lip is in the same place and the outer lip is 1" wider at the fender.
The tires are 265/65r18 duratracs and, on my setup, are absolutely the largest tire you can run without rubbing. Keep in mind I am running a wider wheel, which gets the tire closer to the fender when turning. It's very close but clears everything.
I have to say that is one sexy looking truck. I really like what you did with the lift. That is pretty much as high as I want to lift my truck as well(maybe in the near future). Thank you for the info.
Cool, I am slowly looking into doing 2” worth of lift. I want to run 275/55r20 on my truck. Plan on staying with my oem Denali wheels 20x8.5.
What I am leaning toward is 2” rough country front leveling kit.
Still looking for 2” lift shackles the rear. But if I can’t find shackles, i’ll Settle for lift blocks. I have 2 shocks from my suburban that I am going to use as fitting guide.
Cool, I am slowly looking into doing 2” worth of lift. I want to run 275/55r20 on my truck. Plan on staying with my oem Denali wheels 20x8.5.
What I am leaning toward is 2” rough country front leveling kit.
Still looking for 2” lift shackles the rear. But if I can’t find shackles, i’ll Settle for lift blocks. I have 2 shocks from my suburban that I am going to use as fitting guide.
Just purchased last week! Love it so far. Already started to do those little upgrades, will get to bigger ones later. This is my 1st diesel. Gonna love it here in the Colorado weather and look forward to some trails!
Howdy all! For the last 8 years I recreated with a 1 ton 6.6L Express box van, used it as camper, boat tow rig, and dirtbike hauler in CO and UT mostly. I retired in Thailand last year, and currently run a Toyota Hiace 2WD van with a 2.5L D4D. As of late I want to launch a Waverunner from...
Hey there! Just picked up a lightly used 2018 ZR2 Diesel. I've had an LLY and an LMM in 6.6 Duramax and loved 'em. about 150 miles over the past two days in the 2.8 and like it a lot... especially the mileage.
I've worked on Diesels of all sizes from Huge Colt Pielstick Twin Turbo V16s and...
Hello,
I am new to this forum and also new to Colorado/Canyon ownership.
Came over from Tacoma and tundra ownership. Love my Tundra, but no longer need something so big, was going to get another Taco, but Baby Duramax got me. Bought it for the diesel. Also a first time diesel owner.
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