2005 Z71 4x4.
bilsteins, leather, navigation, heated and power everything, locking rear diff, trailering package, moonroof, etc...
i knew i wanted to look at this one, i've been watching it on autotrader and had an "if i like it, it's xx,xxx out the door" deal with the dealer 2 weeks ago. i was unsure if i wanted a 5.3 or look for a regular truck with a 6.0. once i drove it and saw how the midgate worked, i said let's write it up. it was definitely someone's baby and i made sure to buy it down there versus a cleveland truck with crust underneath. the 5.3 has balls to spare with the 3.73 gears. i know from my impala that i love the engine, but wasn't sure how good it would do in a truck. time to put 3.73's in the car.
averaged 18.1mpg on the way home, up the mountains, lots of non highway roads to avoid a bunch of tolls. it's also a flex fuel engine so i'm going to see what kind of mpg drop E85 gives if i can find a station nearby that has it.
oh yeah, avalanches with cladding are still ugly
Does that weird stuff above the bed come off?
I approve. I have always like those..
Nice. I have a love/hate liking of the Avalanche. I like the newer ones with the same front end as the Tahoe.
Nice find though, congrats! 
scardeal wrote:
Does that weird stuff above the bed come off?
The bed cover does, but the side pockets and the like, no unless you have many hours to devote to it.
No body hardware? It is NOT a "real" Avalanche! 
Oh and I wish I got 18.1 mpg. Wife gets 15 (not surprisingly), but I can eek out 17. I lost 1 mpg from tire choice. If I could do eco-mods, I am certain I can net 20mpg while still being 4x4.
Forgot just how much I like the post-clad trucks. Good score!
i never really liked them until i started looking and saw non clad trucks online. there are very few around here. everyone has the plastic stuff or an 07+ which were out of my range unless it had 220K miles. not cool.
hooked up my 12' enclosed cargo trailer, can't even really feel it back there. doing 90 mile roundtrip today with trailer, with a full day of work in the middle.
it came down to a work van/4x4 suburban combo of 2 vehicles or a 4 door truck with a cargo trailer. the latter made more sense to me because i regularly have to carry one of my guys plus the car seat with my son to drop him off somewhere, and now we have another young guy apprentice so the need for 4 safe seats while going to a job became very important.
the new trailer weighs half what my old one did. i went from a 14'6" with 8" tall framerails and dual 8 lug 7,000 axles to a single axle 12'6" that is a foot shorter and a foot narrower. a couple years ago i got sick of pulling that beast with a big block dually getting 8mpg everywhere and parked them both.
