hunting/camping vehicles

[270man]

I think we can all agree that no single vehicle is perfect for everything. I drove a 2001 Chevy Tahoe 4WD for many years and it worked pretty well for the camping, hunting, trailer-pulling outings I take. A lot of times I have to haul gear for family members and friends who don't own proper vehicles, so the Tahoe had some disadvantages -- the biggest one was gear hauling capacity. My 2010 Chevy Silverado pickup is now 6-months old and I have drawn some conclusions on the design and performance that GM has engineered into this truck.

One huge improvement (over my Tahoe) is that the trailer connecter has been moved up into the bumper and not hanging down alongside the trailer receiver hitch. The one on my Tahoe has been bent multiple times when I dragged the rear end, and I even broke it off once.

I like my Tahoe gauges better than the Silverado. The Silverado gauges are harder to read in bright sunlight.

Now for my BIG, BIG gripe! The Silverado has bells and whistles that go off for every imaginable condition. Backwoods travelers should be able to turn off those annoying alarms. When I am slowly driving back roads, going through gates, etc., I don't wan't to have to buckle and unbuckle seat belts (I do have the good sense to use them at other times). The same manual control should be available for lights -- why do my headlights have to go on when I lock/unlock the truck? Finally, the automatic door locks drive me crazy.

Now here's the good part: My manual says some of this stuff can be disabled through controls available on the dash (I don't have DIC control buttons on the steering wheel) -- they can't. I took the truck to my dealer to hook up to their computer and they tell me that they can't disable the automatic stuff either.

Does this bother any of you? And do you think GM would listen to such complaints as mine?

Just blowin' off steam,

270man