2005 Chevy Silverado 1500 Work Truck - Back 2 Basics

Those dismal stock taillights are indeed DOT-approved, but that doesn't mean we have to settle for substandard lighting. It was mostly the blinkers that bugged us, but the brake lights weren't overly visible, either. Victims of a designer trend, it is the lack of fresnels in the lenses that hampers the lights' performance, and we proved that by taping an old Jeep CJ lens over one, which made it far more visible. Swapping some fashion-conscious sucker his '99-'02 taillights for our ugly new ones would've been the easiest. Those earlier ones have amber turn signals and work quite well, but we kept looking for ways to fix what we had.

One attempt was with an amber Grand General LED 3157 replacement bulb in the blinker, because for some reason, amber LEDs still look amber through a red lens, and amber light is much easier to see than red. The 19-LED bulb sure perked up the light output, but only if you looked at it from straight behind. LEDs are very directional, and those damn smooth lenses don't spread the light at all. Without fresnels, they're technically not even lenses-just colored covers over poorly designed reflectors, and, obviously, the root of the problem.

It looks like a regular 4-inch-round taillight could be made to fit where the blinker and backup light is by cutting a hole in the lens and then putting backup lights somewhere else. We bought a spare lens on eBay to try this surgery on, only to come across the SpiderLite expandable LED bulb the next day. A SpiderLite is an ingeniously designed replacement bulb with three or five arms, each with LEDs on both sides, which gives both direct and indirect (through the reflector) light once expanded.

A pair of five-arm, 2.74-inch SpiderLite bulbs in the blinkers did wonders for visibility, at $45 each. Too bad they're not approved for street use and (like most LEDs) won't work correctly with the stock blinker relay because they draw so little current. We ran magnetic tow lights in the bed to make the SpiderLites blink at the right speed, and when we eventually did find a Grote 13-pin relay that would work with LEDs (P/A 44160) it was about $100. Bummer. However, it's easy enough to add resistors in the wiring instead of changing the relay, and when SpiderLite comes out with the amber version, we'll stick a pair in the front blinkers.

Before making it to the local electronics store for some resistors, we found out about Hella's replacement LED taillights for Silverados. Bingo. These taillights convert the separate brake and blinker functions back into a very visible "single bulb" setup, work with the stock relay, and are completely legal. They also look a lot better than the stockers, although that's not hard to achieve. We feel they're worth every penny of the nearly $200 the pair cost, because if somebody claims they didn't see the Hella blinkers or brake lights, that person must be beyond legally blind. Hopefully, Hella is working on something tasteful and effective for the headlights too.

While the taillight quest had officially ended, we later found a low-buck light fix, the Tailgate Running Light by Pacer (PN 20-801). It's a thin strip of LEDs that attaches just below the tailgate with self-adhesive pads and is powered by the trailer plug (although we'd suggest hard-wiring it). The entire 60 inches light up with the parking lights, the brake lights make it shine brighter yet all the way across, and the blinker function works its respective half. For about $60, that's a lot of extra visibility, and we like that the Pacer setup is practically invisible when not lit up. Either one of the above upgrades would be quite worthwhile from a safety standpoint, except in Los Angeles, where nobody uses their blinkers anyway.

We're not sure exactly what the $95 "Heavy Duty" suspension option consists of, but if it was any less heavy-duty, we'd be afraid to let too much dust accumulate on the 11/42-ton pickup. Since the springs couldn't be any softer, the HD part had to be those spindly gas-charged shock absorbers. Don't get us wrong now-we really like a soft and cushy ride, but as soon as speeds exceeded 75 mph or the road surface got bumpy, this Silverado reminded us of a '59 Invicta we used to drive. Be glad if you have the regular shocks, as they seem to work much better.

The lighter American Racing wheels and Bridgestones helped keep the tires in contact with irregular road surfaces, but the vehicle showed every sign of being underdamped, particularly in the rear. Not knowing what damping rates would be ideal, a safe bet was to use Rancho's adjustable RS 9000X. Since the rear was likely the biggest problem and two shocks are cheaper than four (plus, it doesn't look like 9000s would physically fit in the front anyway), we replaced only the rear shocks. After setting them on "5" out of the nine positions, the Chevy rode and handled so nice that we never even tried another setting. The front end could still use an upgrade to get a truly controlled ride, and we may eventually stick a set of Rancho's self-adjusting RSXs in there. We've been told that Bilsteins all around could solve the problem and might well try a set, but for now the improvement the rear RS 9000X shocks delivered is plenty good enough.

We honestly thought that only a select few things had to be changed on this lowly W/T platform, and while we're getting used to some of its idiosyncrasies, new things seems to be creeping up on the list. We're still undecided whether to spend another $100-and-change on a better stereo from Crutchfield, for example. Additional tie-downs in the bed would be really helpful at times. Is the steering getting sloppy, or are we asking for sports-car-like response from what is, after all, a mere work vehicle? Perhaps we should leave well enough alone at this point and just enjoy the Chevy with the many improvements it already has. Nah, an enthusiast's vehicle is never done. Time will tell what happens next.