I would like to personally thank all of you that sent me text messages, PMs, or plainly had someone else call me to make sure that I was fine after the events mid afternoon yesterday (I say this as yet another severe thunderstorm warning comes over the NOAA Weather Radio).

Although the storms and F5 tornado was 5 miles south of me, the impact was more than I had ever felt. 51 people, including many children, lost their lives. The tornado ran through many metropolises in Oklahoma, to include Moore, which took a similar direct hit on May 3rd of 1999. There were few deaths on that day because of the timing of the storm. Yesterday's tornado reared its ugly head at around 3:05 p.m., right as school was getting out. The only two schools that I have heard about thus far were elementary schools, very young and confused children due to the weather events. On a wonderful, yet still sad note, many teachers risked their lives for the lives of children. Selfless acts of kindness; these people deserve awards that they will never see.

I sat at my desk at work yesterday, crying for two reasons...one was for the lives that were lost and the impact that that will have on the families of the people; the second was because even though I have met but only one of our members in this community (minus friends and family that have joined), many of you sent me messages to make sure that I was fine. People that I don't know personally wanted to make sure that I was "ok". Thank you all, I am very touched.

Thank you,

Chantel - SomethinBoutaTruck
Dave - #32
Jeff - Voodoo
Jon - Starspangled-6.0
Nate - Trumpster1
Brian - Buckeye76
Cody - Obsession11
Kyle - Machster
Paul - Honeybadger

As I have made myself quite clear on this matter already, as many of you know...I am getting more serious as August approaches. The redesign of the new, what I will now call the N3BSSCC is very disappointing to those of us who have owned them for years. I am on my fourth ext. cab truck and have embraced all of Chevy's redesigns with open arms (and an open wallet), but this new design has really got my goat. I have already made one post about my disappointment, as well as now...2 letters to GM about their design. Not to mention my PM to GM Customer Service connected to this web site and the local GM dealership.

The day I bought my current Chevy, I taught the salesman things he had no clue about as far as trucks go. Albeit, it was his first truck sale, but after my purchase he went and studied EVERYTHING he could about Chevy trucks because I told him that if he wanted to be a great sales person at a Chevy dealership, he had to know about their trucks. Now four years later he is still their best overall salesperson on the lot selling more trucks than any of the other salespersons.

Three weeks ago while I was in the dealership to have the oil changed, I went out to the sales floor to visit Donald and catch up a bit. I wasn't even thinking about the new truck design (personally, I had blocked it from my mind at that point) when all of a sudden he asked, "Bro, have you seen the new ext. cab?". Wow, he had to ask? Well, you can only imagine how this conversation went south really quick, and unfortunately, he was standing in a semi-circle with another long time salesperson and 3 trainees. Once I got finished with my rant, while probably dropping 10 or more f-bombs and other colorful derogatory remarks, and as the trainees were lifting their jaws from the floor...Donald said, "So, you're upset?" He turned to the trainees and said something to the effect of how Chevy owners don't like change and I had to stop him and reiterate that I do enjoy change, change for the good of the working man for which this particular model was intended.

At this point, let's get to the letter:

This is my second and last letter to you on this subject. The new redesign of the extended cab truck is taking away from the people for which that particular style was intended. The extended cab truck was designed for the working man for convenience of getting in and getting out with the ability to put precious cargo not intended for the bed during inclement weather. With fold back doors, you have a straight shot into the rear seat for large bulky items without having to fight a center pillar and/or door angle. Not to mention just jumping out of the truck, swing around, pop the rear door open, grab your boots, jacket, camera equipment, etc. This truck was not designed to stuff full-sized adults into and drive across the country. While I understand that the crew cab may be a little more expensive than the extended cab, this is no reason to push out the people that made this truck popular.

I buy a new truck with each redesign and now I will have to reconsider my choice for a new truck. Normally, this is a no-brainer for me...go to the dealership, pick my color and options, let them find it, and then purchase it. This will not be the case this upcoming year. I am very disappointed with your redesign.

Guess there won't be a new 'Bowtie' in my garage anymore.

I know there are those of you out there that think I am being petty and that this is not a justified letter...fine...to each his own; well, let me have mine. For any of you that know me, and the time that I have put in on this site, I enjoy my Chevy truck and it's conveniences to their fullest. Truth be known, I am not a man that 'works' out of my truck; never have been. On the flip side though, I have thoroughly enjoyed what the working man's requests to GM have given to me; a convenient, workable vehicle that suits my needs as a person that has a whole bunch of necessary extras crammed into the back seat for those times when those things are needed. It is very convenient to be able to swing around after I get out of the front seat, pop open the door and grab my things when it is raining outside instead of having to close my door, then walk a couple steps back and open a second door and possibly fight with the new pillar that has now created a 24" window where there used to be a 36" window (guessimation of where the back of the front seat is and no pillar). I am sure that I am far more alone on my fight than I would have been 10 years ago because the men that would be standing next to me, fighting for this accommodation have moved up to the CC for the accessibility of getting more people into a vehicle to go to lunch (why take two vehicles and waste that much gas at these prices than you have to, right?).

All this being said, I am not completely opposed to their new design only because there are...

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Let me make this short and sweet.

Last night I was drinking (which is no excuse) and I said some things in Shop Talk that offended at least one member. I am sorry.

Abstract
The price of different tires seems to be due to graphic location, popularity, and manufacturer pride. Lets face it, the bigger the wheel, the less amount of rubber used with the same amount of effort by the manufacturer.

As that time rolls around again for tires, I am plagued with the daunting task of research, headaches, and booze (not necessarily in that order). I shall stick a couple of relaxing CDs on the turntable (I'm thinking some Crystal Method, Chemical Brothers, Air, and Dubble-D), then get to typing. To make it easier on me, I think I shall state my thoughts, then hope for plenty of input from you, the community.

Story to tell a story:(you should really start your drinking here)
At current, I have installed the 2" RC leveling kit on the truck which will allow me to step my size up a tad bit both up and out, even on the factory rims. The overall plan is to grab the widest tire I can put on these rims, temporarily, while gaining some height. I would rather go wide over tall, but if I could get both, that would be awesome. Also, we shall keep in mind that the RC leveling kit is sort of a band aid since I HAVE to buy tires before I go on vacation and I want to be as right as possible the first time so that in a month or two following vacation, I can switch over to the 3.5" leveling kit then add in the new, wider wheels. I am hoping for 18 x 10s, but may have to settle with -x 9s. This is all dependent upon what I find appealing to my senses at the time of purchase. Nothing against you guys that put really bling type wheels on your 4x4s, but I like the simple cleaning method and it has been in my experience that the busier a wheel is with lines, crevices, and fake bead-locks; case in point:

the harder they will be to clean. I will be going with something simpler. Ultimately, if I really liked a Baja wheel, that would make things really easy, but I'm not this simple:

(next drink)

Back on topic:
Tires obviously vary in sizes, styles, and looks. I could buy just about anything made by anybody (if money wasn't always an issue), but even 'looks' come into consideration when we go out and purchase new meats for our GMC/Chevy trucks, and looks are most important, right? Well no, some will tell you that you don't need that particular type of tire for that kind of vehicle for the type of driving you normally do. I'd like to debunk this first misconception by saying, "You never know when your gonna need that extra grip or mud slinging ability!" I'd rather be safe than sorry (and temporarily poor).

AT vs MT (and other various points in between):
An A/T tire is probably the most popular tire in the community. They have really good traction, not so much hum, and if constructed well will constantly clean the channels with good wheel spin if you find yourself mudding at the lake right after a good rainfall. M/Ts are great for all your off-road needs especially mud and wet or packed snow. Either tire will do well on ice as long as you don't do something stupid. Just let out a little air pressure during the winter months and you will be just fine. All this being said, let's look at the prices of the most popular, must have tire, but most can't afford unless they give up their first born child (I've met some people's kids, and this may not be a bad idea....I say give up the kid, get the tires, bring the ol' lady down to the lake and start fresh). Our hero tire for comparison shopping with be the ever-so-popular B F Goodrich All-Terrain T/A KO.

This tire in different variations has been around since I started driving back in the early '80s. Of course, it didn't have so many characters in the name, but it is pretty much the same tire nonetheless.

On TireRack.com this tire at 33 x 12.5r15 goes for a mere $175.00, yet for the closest metric size tire at 285/65r18 (32.5/11.2r18, which for all practical purposes is a smaller tire both inside and out) runs for $278.00. Now I'm no rocket scientist, but if you are selling a tire that has a 2" less wheel size, even for the same size tire (let's imagine that BF Goodrich actually put out a 33x12.5r18) then you would be using less material, the same concept (mechanically) for tire building, but charging 62% more for a lesser amount of tire...I guess that's good business if you can get someone to pay that much money for a tire, eh? (I think you should sneak in a shot of whiskey or tequila here while the wife's head is turned) And although $278...

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I figure since we have a Chevy vs. F***, it couldn’t hurt to have a Chevy vs. Dadge also. Besides it give me a chance to tell a story, and man, do I like telling a good story.

This past winter we had quite a bit of snow in Oklahoma, the amount of snow that causes people to drive like a**holes and try things they may normally not get to try. In front of the Wally World/Shoe Carnival/Best Buy Metro-Shopping-Plex we have a long winding road that lead from one main road to the next main road; it is about a mile long. About halfway through there is a bus stop (why, I don’t know…OKC has one of the worst Mass Transit Systems I have ever had the pleasure of not riding on), and on the day after the 11” of snow fell in the Greater Oklahoma City area, it was business as usual. The sun was shining and the buses were running.

The bus stopped at its location (in the snow-packed slush) and got stuck, as well as the guy that tried to pull him out with a 20 ft delivery truck. A guy in a brand spanking new Dadge (dealer tag in the window), in an attempt to go around (since these two idiots were blocking two lanes of traffic) hooked a right into the Best Buy parking lot, then a left back out on the street, just ahead of the bus, but accidentally went over the curb and landed in deeper slush/snow than the bus was stuck in. The Dadge driver was frantically trying to rock back and forth out of this mess obviously not paying attention to the fact that there was about ½” of ice under all that snow. Mind you, I had already jumped the curb and was setting in the field across from all this as it unfolded.

Seeing the opportunity, I snapped into action. I pulled out of the field of snow, drove down a ways then back-tracked to the Best Buy parking lot. I backed up to the guy in the new truck, grabbed my tow rope, and proceeded to knock on this window. I asked him if you wanted some help, but he said, “No, I’ve just about got it” to which I replied, “Yeah, I can see that.” I then walked back to my truck, attached the tow rope to my hitch…turned and attached the other end to his hitch…lol, then went to his window for a second time. “Hey buddy, if you’ll just put it in reverse, I have you out of here in a sec…I’m already hooked to both vehicles…” He agreed, I walked back to the truck, left it in 4 Hi and YANKED him out. Back over the curb he went, as I laughed while looking in the rear-view-mirror.

As I unhooked from his hitch, he asked if I owed him anything. I thought to myself, “No, you’ve obviously wasted enough money this year”, but said, “Nah, just doing my part.”