2016 Silverado Adventurer

[b dash rian]

Hello all - long time lurker, first time poster here. Figured i'd put my stuff in one place, if for no other reason, a documenting spot for myself.

Truck:
2016 Silverado 1500
Crew Cab, 6.5' bed
4wd, 5.3 V8
Formerly a Canadian rental truck (as far as i can tell. it still had sticker residue from the "no smoking" stickers they put on the dashboard)

V1: Contractor blank ARE topper, stock wheels, and Bilstein 5100 leveling shocks

Did a Thanksgiving trip through Big Bend, then came home and immediately upgraded:
V2: Wrapped the topper, added roof racks, and some Methods with 285/70/17 Duratracs

Don't mind the bumper being derpy - managed to come up short wrapping the chrome bumper with black, and haven't gone back and fixed it...

So 2020 happened, and i spent some time updating the truck bed camper parts of the truck.

Started with a sketch of what i wanted, then made a plan to make it happen.
MDF cutouts, epoxied and fiberglassed into place:


Then painted, and rods mounted - the rods are just conduit. Power box from Harbor Freight - future plan include actually hooking up some bed lights


Then some sewing projects:
Side bag #1


And installed, with some pockets full. In hindsight - the pouch style pockets need to be higher on the bag. The way it carries weight on an angle, the pockets end up kinda too horizontal - lessons learned and noted.


Then for the platform. A key for the sleeping area for me is that I still use the truck as a truck. So it needs to be relatively easily removed. Sadly, it prevents me from committing to drawers. Now that I have lots of nights in the bed - more on that later - I do really want to find a drawer solution that I can still use the bed as a full-on truck sometimes.

Frame indexes into the bed slots. This gives some locator points, and holds the frame in place


Center board fits between the front and rear bars, and supports the plywood platform down the center.


3/8ths plywood top. Because the outside are unsupported, I ended up adding some 3/4 board structure to the outside. It fits snugly between the front and rear supports.

Out of attachments on this post, so i'll start another one for the mattress that i made. The modularity has been super handy, as the whole platform can disassemble, store in the bed, and still have the vast majority of the bed useable.

 

[b dash rian]

Sewing Projects

2020 saw the sewing machine come out and stare me down sitting next to it at my WFH office. So I got busy.

Mattress:
2 inch foam, canvas duck cloth covers



If you've driven a GM with the fold down center console, you'll know that if you have a phone in a cupholder, you've effectively lost your center console. So, I made myself a little cover with some phone pouches and clips for water bottles so that everything has a place:


And I made a second bag for the bed organizer. The black and green one holds a recovery rope, a battery powered fan, and an air hose for the air compressor. The multi colored one is a light sleeping bag, a blanket, and a hammock.

 

[Isgro]

Welcome. Nice build. I in the same boat in that I like the idea of being able to quickly remove the sleep platform and use the truck bed for truck stuff. I'm in the early stages of building out the back of my 2018. I've got Monday off from work, so hoping to make big progress. I'm going in a different direction, but it's cool to see other ideas!

 

[SDDiver5]

Nice work and kudos to you on the sewing!

Regarding the sleeping platform...I'm sure you've heard of decked? If not, look them up. I've never personally used them but lots of people use them and they can be easily removed and are rugged enough to keep them in the bed while continuing to use the bed for what it is designed for. Pricey but might be the perfect solution for you.

 

[b dash rian]

Adventure time!
So I've really tried to stick to the mantra "spend more on travelling than on your truck." So i try to find adventures wherever I can. Sometime its its local trips to the beach, sometimes to the local lake for evening kayaking:


We did Big Bend in 2019, across River Road, camping and doing some hiking along the way


Sometimes work sends me places, and I get to camp in the swamp:


2020 Took a trip to Colorado for a week. Stopped and fished along the way:

Then a few days in the Westlake area for some rad views and good alpine lake fishing. We had a solid crew of full size domestics - 2 half ton Chevy's and an Excursion


Then over Medano Pass into Sand Dunes National Park. Highly recommend it - super fun, not difficult driving, but narrow in a few places with brush growth. I thought we were wide - but the ranger was driving a Raptor - so he had some width on us.


Unfortunately, my power steering failed in the park... On the GM's, its a complete power steering rack - all electronic, and when it fails... well, you get to wheel out of the park with a very tough steering wheel. It ended up parked at the dealership in Alamosa for the rest of the week for a very expensive steering rack replacement (which needed to be redone when i returned to Houston at the end of the week)

 

[b dash rian]

So we pivoted, left the truck at the dealer, and got on with the adventure in the Spool Bus


We did some of the high passes around Silverton, found some snow, and, unfortunately, lots of smoke from wild fires. A lot of the passes have been opened up as designated ORV trails, which we were worried would mean theyd be full of SxS's - or "Land jet skis" as my friend described them. Luckily, when they come around a corner to meet an Excursion grille, they're pretty quick to get out of the way...

Anyway, smoke:


We camped at one more alpine lake - actually one of the highest camp spots we had for the week. Our campsite was also invaded by giant salamanders! These things were like 8+ inches long!

 

[b dash rian]

Fall and winter had a few smaller trips as well, but truck upgrades include a new cooler... that's much bigger. I gave up 1 of 3 backseat spots for a cooler - need to still build a platform for it, since GM has an extra lumpy floor...


And i spent a weekend solo out on the beach. Waking up to watch the world go by is my favorite part of going out to remote places. I actually watched a pod of dolphins swim by the one morning - they were close enough to the beach to see them jumping and playing