Big Truck, Small Sound: 2001 Silverado 2500HD Single Cab

[Bakerman]

Hey Guys.  Name is Jonathan Baker.  I used to be VERY active in this forum, prior to getting married when I had a lot of expendable income.  As I've grown and advanced in the world, I am financially able to fund my audio addiction again.  Last year I scored a nice 2001 Silverado 2500HD.  Long story short, when my wife and I were moving to Myrtle Beach, SC I needed a truck to move things, so I bought a dodge dakota at a vehicle auction with tax money.  When we moved here, I wanted to get rid of it.  Found a guy from Texas that had moved here as well, wanting to get rid of his truck, for something with better gas mileage.  So for a direct trade, I scored this 2 wheel drive, single cab, long bed 3/4 ton truck.  I have ambitions to lower this thing a bit, do some bolt on mods, and get it to the drag strip on the weekends.  It currently has less than 150k miles on it, and is showing a code for a knock sensor.  So that will get replaced when I get the balls to go in the motor and change out the valves and cam.  But first, I want to get some tunes in it.  As it sits, it has a cheap kenwood single din, and only one speaker works.  Yesterday I got inside the panels, and got both door speakers working.  This is what made me realize how much I miss this aspect, and got me back on this forum.  So, to keep from going on and on, I will just show off a few photos of this truck.  And bear with me, things have changed since I was last on here.  So there may be some delay on how quick photos are added.

Now, at times I do use this truck when me and my buddies go camping/hunting.  To be honest, I got super tired of sleeping on the ground during the cold winter months.  So, one of the first "mods" I did was to install a camper shell, and basically turn the inside into a "camper".  All of this is removable, and is normally only installed during deer season.  But nonetheless, it houses a single bed, some solar panels, a 12v battery bank.  This power cell phone charger, light, heated blanket, etc.

[Bakerman]

I want you to watch the video below...then read.

 

 

I don't know how well that link worked, but lets pretend it did.  Well, this is how I got to that point.  Notice that I had a wire coming through the door jam.  Not the safest thing, but for the last year I have been avoiding it, and it wasn't causing any issues.  Well, today I had the door panel off fixing the speaker that wasn't working, so I decided to follow it.

Well, if you look in my first post, you will see one of the pics shows all the pretty orange driving lights on the cab and bumper.  This wire goes in between the the lights on the bumper, and the lights on the cab.  Basically connecting them together, getting power to the cab lights.  As I follow it down through the door, and into the engine bay, I see some obvious issues and fire hazards.

Then I proceed to follow it to the bumper, where I see a rats nest of wires old tape, and cheap splicers.

So, what was happening was the previous owner had about 15 orange lights between the cab and bumper, along with the two angel eyes on each headlight, and several other vanity LED's on the headlight and turning light all wired into a splice on one, ONE, pigtail for the driver's side turn signal.  So that one, ONE, 12 gauge wire was spliced and was feeding power to all those various LED's and such.  Combine that with the absolute shitty wiring job that you see in the photos and video, its a miracle this truck hasn't gone up in flames.  And don't get me started on the tail lights.

I don't have any photos, but let me tell you about that nightmare.  I noticed the tail lights were stock, and 1 gen newer than the truck. Cool. Nice little upgrade. Well, one of the bulbs went out, so I needed to change it. Well, when I pull the housing, every single bulb is taped to the taillight with electrical tape. Apparently, the previous owner wanted the tail lights from the cat eye Silverados. Got some, and went to install them. The mounting screws for the housings were a perfect match. But the pigtails (I was about to explain what a pigtail is in this section, but realized if you don't know what a pigtail is, then you're probably a person that would do this kind of shitty wiring) are different from one gen to the next. Instead of spending $20 on the correct pigtails, and wiring them in to fit the housing, genius just forces the bulb in the hole as good as he could, then taped them in as best he could. And hint, it wasn't very good.