2020 Silverado 2500HD LTZ Duramax from a Texas lender yard to Billings, the delivery math past 1,000 miles and the first cold snap

promised this in wade's poll thread. i am an electrician at one of the refineries in Billings, and i pull a 30 ft fifth wheel to Fort Peck and the Bighorn in the summer. the old truck was a 2011 Duramax with 260,000 and a cracked frame mount, and i was done putting money into it.

first try did not work. in september i bid 41,000 on a 2019 Sierra 2500HD Denali through conaway's and lost. that is how sealed bidding goes, you never see the winning number, you just get told it was not you. i still do not know if i was 200 short or 4,000 short, and that bugged me for a week.

second try, october. 2020 Silverado 2500HD LTZ crew cab 4x4, L5P, Allison 10 speed, standard box, 61,200 miles, sitting at a lender's yard outside Fort Worth. i bid 43,250 and kept it there. won. the listing is still up on conaways if you want to see their photo set, it was 60 something pictures including under the truck.

delivery past 1,000 miles is the part people ask about. their routing called it 1,350 road miles. first 1,000 free, the other 350 at 0.70 a mile, so 245 dollars. cheaper than me taking two days off and a plane ticket to drive it home through Wyoming in a snowstorm.

it has the block heater, cord and all, which after reading wade's thread i went and checked right away. DEF on the L5P has a heater in the tank, and DEF freezes around 12 above anyway, so the truck is built for it. it was half full when it arrived and i topped it off with fresh.

the one thing that was wrong: the 7 pin trailer plug housing on the bumper was cracked and the spring lid was gone. 19 dollars for the housing at the parts store and twenty minutes in the garage. otherwise it is clean, no rust underneath, which is the whole reason i wanted a Texas truck.

haven't hooked the fifth wheel up yet, it is in storage until may. empty, the 10 speed is smooth and i barely notice it shifting.

prices: a 2020 LTZ crew with 58,000 was listed at 52,900 at a dealer on King Ave in november. there was a 2019 with 80,000 for 47,500. i paid 43,250 plus 245 delivery, and Montana has no sales tax, so the title and registration at the Yellowstone County treasurer came to a bit over three hundred with plates. the out of state title went through fine because the paperwork came notarized with the lien release in it.

for the record, conaway's auto sales gives a limited warranty of six months or ten thousand miles. mine runs to the end of april. i asked about it in wade's thread and i am going to have the shop look over the front end before it runs out.

sorry, missed this over christmas. delivery started a couple days after the wire cleared and the truck was in my driveway 11 days after payment. that is inside the 14 days they say, and with the miles i did not expect better. the carrier called the day before, which i appreciated.

and the first real cold snap: minus 31 at the airport here last week. three and a half hours on the block heater, it started like it was 40 out. the truck is everything i hoped. if anybody is watching the conaways people for a truck, have the money arranged first, same thing wade said, because you will not get a second chance on a lot you like.