Thanks to all for the welcome mat; with work, a short holiday (with the truck & 5W) I haven't made it back here for awhile. After the trip it was obvious Big Red (thanks to my neighbour for that name) needed something so with the positive info on the TST site I ordered and installed their #6 kit - WHAT A DIFFERENCE. Have not pulled the trailer yet but it is easily as fast as my buddy's 01 already. Doing the install I came to understand how the whole AFC/torque plate works. I might have seen sufficient gains for my needs just by moving the stock plate and AFC forward a bit. The AFC was all the way back with some preload dialed in to boot. No wonder it never smoked a bit under any load. Anyway it has enough power now, plenty of smoke too so I am moving the starwheel back bit by bit to tone that down. TST says the stock transmission will take this mod. Hopefully if I go easy with the trailer that will be true.
Also installed new rear springs, bilsteins all around and the ride is awesome now.
Has anyone installed the DSS (Darin's Steering Stabilizer)? I have too much steering wheel play although the truck tracks well enough. The steering shaft is moving a bit but not enough to warrant replacing. The DSS is supposed to do a good job of stabilizing that lower bearing connection.
Also what about these different Track Bar fixes like Luke's Links and 3rd gen adjustable bars, etc. Better than just going OEM?
And finally, I don't know if anyone ever did anything with the KDP on this truck but with 200k miles should that still concern me or can I conclude that it is not going to be an issue or has been done?

Okay, this is becoming a book.

Thanks again everyone.

 

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