2012 K3500 Stakerack is a DOG
 

The company I work for bought a 2012 K 3500 last year, to be our plow truck through the winter here in upstate New York. I'm not sure what size the motor is, somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 ci, automatic tranny, 4X4. The truck runs and drives nice, lots of power, the problem is the torque management system. The computer controls the shifts, and when I'm plowing, and shifting from drive to reverse, or reverse to drive there's a lag that seems like an eternity.There also seems to be quite a lag in throttle response, even in normal driving. Drive to reverse is a problem because when your pushing snow into a pile, when you get to the point where you need to back out, you need to back out right now, not when the computer thinks it's ready. By then the snow has rolled back down and buried the blade, and hung you in the snowbank. Reverse to drive is more of an annoyance, I've never stalled an automatic transmission vehicle as much as this one. We took the truck to the local dealer and they told us that it's preforming within specs. My question is, is there a way to reprogram the computer to minimize the torque management. It used to be the torque management was on the end of your right leg, and that's how I like it. Maybe the computer allows them to build trucks cheesier, with weaker parts. Any insight would be appreciated, thanks.

You might be able to reprogram the TM and delays in the transmission by using HPTuners. It's expensive, but well worth it. And I say might, because GM tries to stay one step ahead of HPTuners and others, but they do catch up.

Thanks Mike, I'll check into it. I'm willing to bet the boss won't be willing to go for it, but it's worth a shot.

blackbear performance can do it for you for about half of what hptuners is. and its a 6.0 probably. ive plowed alot with the 6.0 and it was pretty good. but everyone seems to be complaining about the new transmissions

Thanks to you JW, I'm starting to hear that too about the tranny's. I wish there was someone to complain too that would really give a crap. My guess is a sale is a sale, used to be "buyer beware" only applied to used vehicles.

Blackbear may be able to do it for a set cheaper price. But what if the tune is not right the first time? More down time to send the PCM in for a retune. If you own your own tuner, it can be done in a matter of minutes vs weeks.

It seems that most modern "work trucks" aren't really made to do much work, especially with the weak automatic transmissions they have now. Hopefully you get some sort of solution with it.

true if they dont get it right, but you can pay the deposit the first time and all the later times and not end up with any down time. and if you call him and tell him your problem, he has probably done enough that he should be able to tell you weather or not he can do anything and get it right the first time.

Then that's a good support system they have. Others don't care what happens after the initial tune.

ive never done the tune but the folks on the other forums speak very highly. they do enough where he may even come out and do an in person thing if they get a certain amount.