So, the 2004 Tahoe, daily driver pictured on the left above, gets little attention. It pulls the majority of the weight. Hauls the kids around. Brings the groceries home. Carries the wife on a 72 miles round trip to work. So... I guess it is about time the Chevy gets some ink, huh?

Welp. I have to be honest. When the ole lady woke me up outta bed and dragged me off to the Chevy dealer to buy this rig, I wasn't the happiest camper in the world. I had just sent off the final payment on the ZJ, and had not even received the title, yet. Anyways... she wanted it, and we all know the "If Moma ain't happy" thing.... (whipped). In an effort to make the Tahoe more "liveable"... I took care of a few things. First off, I got a simple "bug deflector" to keep the chips off the hood. I got some stainless steel mesh grill inserts.

I Found a K&N FIPK and had a Flowmaster installed. Why? One: I love the sound of the Flowmaster on a strong V8. No megaphones, no "tips", no coffee cans. I had the muffler guy cut out the stock muffler and fit in a Flowmaster. I had asked for a 2 chamber or a 3 chamber.... but got a single chamber 40 series. It resonates, and fills the cabin with rumble at 2,000 RPM... which ironically is the "sweet spot" for accellerating down the road.

So, here is a pic of the Flowmaster after about 12,000 miles.

Here is a pic of the K&N in need of a cleaning:

Here is the other side.... not much to see, I guess...

So, time goes by. Gas mileage improved with the K&N and the Flowmaster. So, the only mods to date had been the addition of a Delphi Roady2 for the wife on her long drives. Back a couple months ago, the wife was at her family's neck of the woods. Which it is. They live out in one of the farming communities of our fine county. To make it short. She parked the Tahoe in an area near a large barn while they played some softball. It rained. Hard. It was soupy, and it wasn't lookin good for the heavy 2wd open diff Tahoe. But... with a couple of helping hands to push, and a wife that ain't scared of getting on the skinny pedal, they got it out. She understands the need to have clean tread for traction. What concerned me was that they were just about to run a strap under the front to tug it out of the soup.

So, what is a guy with a 2wd Tahoe to do? You get something to hook to. I didn't want to spend money on a bulky brushguard. They don't always take to tugging anyway. The wife wouldn't have accepted it either. I found a Silverado 4WD that had the tow hooks on it at a friend's house. I climbed under and took a look at what there was to see. What I was thrilled to find is that it's more than just the grills, fenders and interior that are shared. The frame is the same. With a look a General Motors web site, I found what I needed.

This part# for $40:

This what you get:

Two of these. One for the right, One for the left. They come with hardware and instructions. Take a hint. Toss the instructions in the trash. Real men don't need instructions, right? No. They make you do needless work. The instructions tell you to remove the grill and the whole front bumper. The hooks are for the '99 Silverado... but they fit all of them with the same front end including the current (thru'05 at least) Tahoe. I took a precautionary look. I was glad I did. All I had to do was insert the hook by twisting them around and giving a little persuasion to the plastic for room. Not much, really. They went right into place like they were meant to be there... and the are! The bolt holes line up perfectly, as they should!

Here are a couple of pics of the hooks installed and in progress. The hardware is 3/4 or 19mm. It was loose on both, and I actually got my 18mm wrech on them. I used two wrenches on the long bolt, and a shallow socket and a long handle 3/8 drive ratchet on the short bolt.

I am satisfied. The assurance that I am not going to have the bumper or the plastic under it ripped off by a well-meaning cousin is wonderful. ;-)

Since the Tahoe is used for more than hauling kids.... I have been looking for a few tid bits that can help make this thing last a looooong time. I wanted to add a couple of new gauges. The main one that I wanted to get was a tranny temp gauge. I had seen one or two other Tahoes and Silverados that had an OEM tranny temp gauge. Since the Tahoe didn't come with the factory towing package, it came with the "highway gears"... something like a 3.24:1 or something. It also didn't have the tranny temp gauge. I got to doing some research. Turnsout that the Tahoe, Sunurban, Silverado, Denali.... practically ALL of the GM fullsize trucks and SUVs are prewired with the sending unit. All they lack is the cluster equipped with the gauge.

So, I won't get into the details, but we found one. The wife picked it out, so I got it. I wasn't quite sure how it would turn out. After installing it, I am very pleased. It is a "SS" style cluster. Instead of the black-on-white, though it is white digits on BLUE. And it is an excellent quality. OEM quality to be exact. The gauges' backlighting is more of a teal like color... and since the wife like teal, it's a win-win situation. I have the temp gauge I wanted and she got it in the color she wanted. I have had a problem with being able to read the speedometer while wearing sunglasses. The OEM cluster was hard... somtimes impossible to read. The SS cluster digits are bolder and therefore easier to read. A couple of pics.

Ok, so I like the growl of that 40 series, but the resonance in side the cab is unbearable. I hauled a trailer about mid way up the South Carolina coast back in January. It was horrible. The drone inside that truck was annoying. I had a friend with me and felt that I had to appologize for the loud ass muffler. Lori was bothered by it, but had gotten used to it for the most part.

I had decided some time ago that I was going to wrap it in fiberglass packing and header wrap to kill some of the noise. It took a little searching, but I found an auction on Ebay at about $10 for a 24x36" sheet of fibergass packing. As it turns out, ONE sheet folded in half will cover the muffler. I ran some sheet metal screws in with some washers. It sinched the packing down. I then used the screws to anchor some safety wire which I used to wrap the packing, making it that much tighter on the case. Next up, I ran some DEI header wrap around it. I used one sheet metal screw (with washer) at the beginning of the wrap, doubling it over the muffler there. With about 1/4" of overlap, I wrapped it tight employing my oldest son to hold it while I ran in two more screws (again with washers) on the last wrap to keep it tight.

The end result was uplifting. The resonance is still there. It is obviously duller though. The edge was snipped off of it. There is still a very luscualr rumble under the Tahoe, but my own chest doesn't shake as I sleak inside the cab. Nice. A bonus is that it is a little quieter throughout it's range. We'll see how long the wrap lasts, now. :-)

Yea, it was time. The old tires lasted a good while... but with wear and some chunking (??!!), it was time for some new tires. Lori had made me put it off until the originals wore out. Most of the way. So, without further ado.... pics of the new wheels. 20" ASA silver spokes with Goodyear GTII tires.

Welp. After dealing with the horrible interior resonance of the Flowmaster 40 series... I thought I'd try a different muffler. I have had MANY people tell me that the Magnaflow muffler was quieter than the Flowmaster. HAHAHAH!!! NO!!! It has the exact same note, tone and volume. There is still a nasty resonance at 2100 rpm... but there is only some truth. It is quieter at interstate speeds than the 40 series. Only a little. But... even a little is better than nothing... or worse.