"Deleted" trucks

[Cowgirl]

I had a GMC 2002 2500HD Duramax diesel. Great truck!!! I had 257k miles on it and well maintained it. This past summer all the wiring started going and I was replacing sensors and wiring and other things. So I bought a new truck. I am buying a 2+1 gooseneck and since I mostly only haul my horse trailer with truck or pick stuff up from the feed store, I decided to go with gas this time. They do not stock them!!! I could find plenty of $90k diesel trucks but no gas trucks. I ordered one and then kept looking, every weekend, at the local dealers. I found one a few weeks ago, a 2024 GMC Sierra 2500 HD (now has Allison transmission on the gas engine), emailed the dealer (it had just come in and wasn’t sold) and bought it pending test drive. I drove over to the dealership, put 25 miles on it, and bought it. I will feel so much more comfortable hauling distances with a new truck. Anyway, I left it with the dealer to install running boards, and when I went to pick it up the sales guy gave me a two hour tutorial on the truck. The computer on that thing is massive. For a moment, I wanted my old truck back!

The GMC with the multipro tailgate has a design flaw: if you want to use a bumper pull hitch on it (I have a flatbed trailer I will want to haul), you need to either make sure you take off your hitch before you open the tailgate or buy a $400 tow and stow hitch so that you don’t smash your tailgate. Dumb!!! They should have designed a retractable hitch or provided the $400 hitch. (Although you will also smash your tailgate if you don’t stow the ball before you drop the tailgate).

[endlessclimb]

Check to see if in that monster computer you can disable that little step thing, because lots of guys use the bed of the truck with the tailgate down while still hitched to whatever bumper pull trailer they’re pulling.

If not, that is a super moronic design flaw that makes this truck all but unusable for landscape folks.

[SusanO]

I will take note of this. I am hoping my truck is fixable at a reasonable cost and I don’t have other costtly problems lurking. But if I have to buy a new truck I wasn’t planning on a new Ford and GMC was the route I was planning to take. I need to be able to switch between my horse trailer and flat bed trailer without taking things apart.

[ReSomething]

They claim the tailgate can be used just like a regular one as one of its seven “modes”. Is that not correct?

[Cowgirl]

it might be and I will have to find time to watch a youtube on the multipro tailgate, but the way the sales guy showed me to open it (two fingers on both buttons–the top button only drops the tiny top part), it drops all the way down and then you can open the step part. I haven’t yet figured out how to make it work like a regular tailgate. The sales guy was pretty focused on spending a lot of our time putting apps on the computer screen, downloading the phone app and showing me how to use my phone to start and lock the truck, etc. NOT the things the horse people want to know! He did tell me that a lot of people bash their multipro tailgates on their hitches and wrote down the name of the $400 hitch. https://www.amazon.com/Trailer-Hitches-MultiPro-Tow-Stow/dp/B08CY72484

[Bonnie2]

My SO tried to “game” the sensor and ran his 2018 F350 past all the warnings until he had 30 miles to shut down. He had also gotten a $10k estimate for repair, found new truck availability and pricing prohibitive, and was making arrangements to delete it. A non-dealer mechanic replaced tank and sensor for under $2k. Not cheap but easily the best solution. Hopefully the truck has another 100,000 miles in it!

[B_and_B]

Those new tailgates and hitches are insane. The first time I saw one of those complicated steps, and folding tailgates my jaw dropped.
The tailgate is a workspace, so is the hitch. Ours is routinely used as a platform for cutting, spot welding, hammering the S–t out of broken part, and otherwise abused. The hitch is routinely swapped out for a modified hitch and sleeve with an attached vice.(DH is a logger) The idea of putting expensive electronics in that section, that if they aren’t working are a problem? Oy vey!
Personally, I wish the silly camera wasn’t in it even. It makes it impossible to easily remove the tailgate, which is sometimes useful. (for example, until we got a PTO driven spreader, we spread seed using a hitch mounted spreader, the tailgate needs to be off)

[banmharcach]

@Cowgirl

The GMC with the multipro tailgate has a design flaw: if you want to use a bumper pull hitch on it (I have a flatbed trailer I will want to haul), you need to either make sure you take off your hitch before you open the tailgate or buy a $400 tow and stow hitch so that you don’t smash your tailgate. Dumb!!! They should have designed a retractable hitch or provided the $400 hitch. (Although you will also smash your tailgate if you don’t stow the ball before you drop the tailgate).

Potential problems were only an afterthought for this chap promoting its many features

How to use the GMC MultiPro Tailgate on the 2022 GMC Sierra 1500 AT4

[SusanO]

Hey I could do that - replace the tank and the sensor for 2k. Mechanic looking at it says if somehow the tank was contaminated then ALL the sensors may go. I did run mine down to 300 miles before putting in DEF but that isn’t empty. I wasn’t trying to game the sensor but was bringing hay back from another state and didn’t want to stop.

[enjoytheride]

I’m just going to add that people can and still do the delete modification or work on deleted trucks. You generally have to do this after hours cash only, no receipts. If you ask quietly in a reputable shop you may find someone who knows a guy who does it.

[SusanO]

I have an old horse riding buddy that has a son that does this sort of stuff for a living. If he doesn’t do the procedure he will certainly know someone that does because he buys and sells those jacked up trucks. Although I would rather use my Mastercard and get money back points I am not fussy these days. You want cash - I can do that! I am out of hay and am feeding the horses with the $30 a bale Standlee Grab and Go bales so I am very motivated to get my truck back up and running!

[CindyCRNA]

I am too. Probably going to order a 2024 Hawk XXL side ramp bumper pull. Tricked out it is still only $26K. But I haul mostly 1 horse, sometimes 2.

[ReSomething]

I figure that’ll work, oh, 5-9 years before the electronics go all to he!!. My friend has a 2015 impala that sucks it’s battery down overnight without fail, she’s broke and can’t replace it, just aggravating as all get out.

[endlessclimb]

I’m going for a tricked out hawk, 2h straight load with extra room in the dressing room and AC and an awning. I’m pumped. Now I just have to get my existing monster cleaned up to sell.

[Pennywell_Bay]

Not going to comment on all the above, I had my 2008 F250 deleted, best decision ever IF you can find someone to do it. The guys say it will last forever now that nonsense is done and it now runs perfect. This was after 2 years of misery.

[SusanO]

This is what I am doing. I ordered the whole kit yesterday. This was pretty much the conclusion from the people that looked at the truck. I am not doing it to get better gas mileage or better “performance” - I just need to be able to crank up my truck when I need it and not have the “check engine” light on. If there was another option that didn’t include $10k then I would have done that. And I REALLY don’t want to buy a whole new truck!

[endlessclimb]

You think it hauls like a beast now, just get ready. They sing a whole different tune when that junk is pulled off.

Enjoy!

[endlessclimb]

Note though that the parts are not the problem. It’s the tuning. Will your shop tune it?

[rothmpp]

@SusanO

I just need to be able to crank up my truck when I need it and not have the “check engine” light on

@endlessclimb

Note though that the parts are not the problem. It’s the tuning. Will your shop tune it?

Excellent point on the tuning. We had to purchase a module/controller from Canada for our deleted Dodge 3500. If was already deleted when we bought it and the original owner kept the controller for his next truck.

If you don’t have the knowledge to tune it yourself or someone who can do it for you, you’re not necessarily free of the dreaded “check engine” light. We’ve been battling engine codes for weeks now and nothing we’ve done so far will clear the faults.

[TheHunterKid90]

We have inspections in PA but diesel vehicles are emissions exempt so the DEF being deleted wouldn’t be an inspection fail.
With that said, I deleted my 2016 6.7 when the DEF system failed and Ford told me $15,000 to fix it.
Paid a friend who is a diesel mechanic to do the work. Cost about $3,000 total. I would do it again in a heartbeat. It ran so much better.
Unfortunately I got T boned last year and totaled it. Back to a new GMC….and DEF.