Picked up my ordered 3500 Bighorn short box Wednesday at Dennis Dillon. They were great to deal with. Billy Hennesey is PRO and I'd recommend him to anyone looking. About 8 weeks from order to arrival. I've been driving back across Utah and I'm quickly falling in love with this thing. I'm coming from my 04 Laramie 2500 HO/Nv5600 with 480,000 miles on it. The new truck is loaded up with auto leveling, trailer tech, safety group, Level 2 package, premium cloth bucket seats, 1000 lbs torque/Aisin tranny, nav radio, bed group, fifth wheel prep.
The power is very deceptive. It comes on in a smooth big wave. It's not like it plants you hard in the seat, but you get on it on an on-ramp and you look down and you are doing 90 plus when you hit the freeway! The Aisin is a new experience after rowing gears in the old truck for so long, but I'm really enjoying how nice it shifts. It's almost like a CVT in that I just don't notice it much. No lag/defueling between gears, but as you run your speed up, you're doing 80 miles an hour, the tach is sitting just below 2000 and you didn't notice it shifting. My buddy flew out with me to get it. He has a 15 2500 and he is more than impressed with the tranny difference.
First thing I noticed was how quiet it is. Normal conversation, and when talking on the phone it is so much easier. Virtually no wind noise and quieter than my wife's Acura MDX. Engine noise is non existent. I think the thing that most impresses me is the adaptive cruise control. I thought it would be kind of cool on the open road, but yesterday in heavy traffic north of Salt Lake we were up to 70 mph, down to 20. Back and forth. I could just forget about doing the on the throttle, on the brakes dance. The truck just kept constant established gap between me and the vehicle in front of me without worrying about lagging behind or running up on someone's rear. On the open road you just set your maximum desired speed, say 80 miles an hour. As you approach a slower moving vehicle, the truck will slow down to match the vehicle ahead, say 62. If the vehicle ahead is really going slow, the truck will slow and even brake aggressively. As soon as you pull into the passing lane, the truck will pull right back up to 80 and around him you go. The blind spot monitoring is really neat too. If someone is beside you and you look in the mirror, there is a red triangle that lights up. If you put your blinker on to move in that direction, you will get a beep and a warning on the dash, until the adjacent lane clears. As I am getting older (ahem, cough, cough) the safety features could become more and more significant and save my bacon. I'm getting used to the 8.4 Uconnect, and the carplay is going to be an often used feature. There are a lot of new gadgets and buttons to figure out. The EVIC is pretty neat too. I'll have to arrange the dash and radio apps when I get home. I really like the particulate filter gage that I can bring up and monitor. Boost, tranny and engine temp, oil pressure, are available and can be setup with the adjustable dash.
The ride quality is very good. Very firm but not harsh. I can tell I am in a truck with some load carrying capability but this thing rides much better than my 04 2500. She tracks straight and true with very little steering wheel input. When we left, all four tires were at about 80 psi. As we drove, I watched the TPIS run up to as hi as 94 (warm day in the morning and later hit rain and snow). I've been letting air out at almost every stop and it has softened things up a bit. I'm down to about 55 in the rear and 75 to 80 in the front. I might go a little lower but I'll wait and check them cold in the morning. I was very concerned about the bone jarring one ton trucks I have ridden in in the past and this thing has them beat by a mile. It is going to work as a daily driver in my job of running all over the Rocky Mountains. Mileage running through some curvy two lane mountains and doing 80 plus in areas is running about 16-17.5. I expect/suppose that will go up as things break in. I don't know if its a myth or not, but everyone seems to believe mileage improves a little at around 10 to 20,000 miles. She's gonna be a keeper. YMMV
