The wife's DD, a 1995 9C1 Caprice has right at 200K miles on it. While not a big deal these days, it's age is starting to show, and she needs a dependable car when she's on call. So, what better to replace a police car with than a police truck:



We got it out of Florida. It's an ex-Sarasota County Sheriff's vehicle. It was apparently a supervisor's truck, as the holes for all the gear is minimal. There's two antenna holes in the roof, and a 3/4" hole in the shell of each side mirror I'll have to deal with. We also need to locate a console, since it probably had a Havas console full of radio gear. The outside and underside look barely used for a 90K mile truck, and it looks like the back seats have never been sat in. It has a little wear and tear on the driver's seat, but not much else.

It runs great, and handles better than the 9C1 it replaces. This now brings the cop car portion of our 'fleet' up to 3, including it, our 9C1 and our 92 B4C Camaro. The 9C1 will probably be relegated to 'spare' status for her should we need to have the truck down for extended service. Hopefully that's a rare occurrence for a while.

On the plus side is it even has a receiver hitch, so it could be used to tow the Firebird around a bit should our 2500HD be unavailable.

Oh, and the spot light works!

Gene

Sweet ride. Had a 06 PPV Tahoe. One of the best vehicles I have ever owned. Have been looking for a new style PPV for a while. Did that come from a Dealer or right out of the Auction?

John

One pic?? You tease.............

That will clear the left lane for trouble free interstate cruising lol.

John,

It came from a dealer that specializes in police vehicles, Cop Cars Online:

http://www.copcarsonline.com/inventory.asp...amp;pagesize=50

We had been looking off and on for more than a hear, and actually been in touch with these guys for half of that, trying to get one. Lately, the Tahoes don't come up often, and it seems they're getting more and more popular. It looks like they have another 2010 in inventory right now:

http://www.copcarsonline.com/2010_Chevrole...L_224963933.veh

It has a bit more mileage on it than ours, though, but looks decent. The guys at Cop Cars Online seem to be a bit more than just a used car dealership, in that they actually have a Cop Car Museum on premises, and even take some of their museum cars to distant police car shows. They said this truck was a good one, and so far, it's proved them right. The only issue I've discovered so far is the Ticket Light was not even connected, so I'm trying to find out how and where to power it so I can get it to work.

While I'm not sure I'd recommend long distant car buying, I think this instance went well, if not a bit long. Having to coordinate between the dealership and our credit union for the purchase, and then shepherding the paperwork around was tedious, at times. I figured the cost to have the truck shipped to our place would about even out the price of a plane ticket and hotel/gas charges, and I was pretty right. Shipping cost us $650 from Florida to Texas. It did take a couple of weeks before the shipper picked up the truck, but I'm getting the feeling that is about average. All in all, it wasn't a bad experience. I'd highly-recommend buying a truck from these guys, they seem to know what they're doing. Heck, they have a couple of Dodge Magnum Persuits in their inventory that I've been eyeing. :-)

Heh, well, it's the only picture we've taken, so far!! Here are a couple from the dealer:



And, since this is a tech forum, under hood:



I plan on loosing the cover (I hate those things!), and am contemplating a cold air intake, but haven't decided yet. The Caprice is pretty much stock, and ran and functioned well as-is.

Hopefully, we'll see. It does garner you odd side glances when this middle-aged couple gets out of it, and neither 'look' like regular cops.

The vinyl flooring, while functional, provides absolutely NO traction for anything. We had some plastic containers in the back of it yesterday, and just about every gentle lane change had them banging the side panels. I need to find a solution, it may be getting the carpet out of a total.

It does handle well. I can't wait to take this thing to one of our autocross events and run it. A C Prepared truck!!! One of our sites is the City of Houston Police Academy, so the thing would be right at home there.

First order of business, though, other than the set of license plate screws we bought yesterday, is to get on Helm's site and get a set of FSMs headed out direction.

That is sharp looking. Love it.

Gene

Thanks for the info. I have seen there site before when I was driving my CVPI. Clean stuff and No Rust. Cant say that for PPV Tahoe from my area.

One of the best bangs for the buck I had done on my truck is had the computer Tuned by Blackbear Perfromance. I had a in-person tune done. Best 200 bucks spent. I have e-85 available in my locations. I got 4 miles per gallon increase on Gasoline. 3.5 mpg increase on e-85 which at times is over $1.00 less a gallon. After the tune the truck got the same fuel mileage on e-85 as it did gasoline. The savings alone paid for the tune in two month's!!!! Even with the performance increases the changes to the shifting would of been worth it by itself for me.

I wish I could buy one of these for what the state pays for them. Last time I checked NYS Contract price was $23,750 for 2010.

Later John

I'm reading great things about BB, and will probably opt for one soon. Gotta get new tires on the race car first!! This truck runs _very_ well, but I would like a bit better throttle response. It seems just a bit dead at tip-in, which I believe they can tune out, so it would be worth it then. It should be fun!

The 2014 PPVs were going for right at $30K here in Texas, but a civi like me can't touch one new, so this was the next best thing. We've had the 9C1 for about 10 years now, so if we get that kind of life out of the Tahoe, that'll be nice. I suspect it'll last much longer as long as nothing bad happens.

I love it.

I bought a 2004 5.3 Silverado and did research on a CAI.

The Airaid MIT(tube only) made 1 more HP than all the others tested on the dyno same day, and it's the cheapest. It bumped my MPG around town 1 mpg, I average 15.4-15.8 with a 3.73 gear.

http://www.airaid.com/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductID=200-912

I love the PPV Tahoes. Great looking vehicles. Good luck with it.

Thanks, Jacob, we really like the look of them, too. The handling is a bonus. It feels several hundred pounds lighter than it really is. I can't wait to make a lap on an autocross course.

Brother-in-law is in town on business, so we took the truck out to dinner last night. Wife drove, BIL was shotgun, and I rode 'perp'. I did notice that the back door lock knobs had been removed, but when it came time to get out of the truck I also noticed that that interior door handles did nothing. I don't remember if these things have a switch on the door like the B-bodys to disable the interior handes (hopefully, so), or if I'll have to pull the doors apart to fix. Since the back seat occupants will usually be our dogs, that might not be a bad option to leave in.

I found on my PPV they had disconnected the cables. just had to reattach the cables.

Yeah, that's probably it. I'll wait until the FSM volume arrives before I start pulling the doors apart. I also opted for the PPV Supplement, so hopefully that has some more detail.

I already discovered the 'Ticket Light' doesn't appear to have ever been connected. I'll be getting that to work, as it's been very handy in the 9C1.

Well, since we're still working on our Firebird, we had to have something to run at last Sunday's regional autocross. Sooo, we decided we'd run the Tahoe. I checked and verified that the truck was not on any specific exclusion list due to roll over concerns (the civilian Tahoe is), and we loaded her up and off we went.

Now driving something on street tires that probably outweighs _anything_ else at the event by at least a factor of 2, we knew we wouldn't be competitive. We weren't. We placed DFL in PAX, although we scored a 1 and 2 in C Prepared. It WAS a ton of fun to drive. It handles surprisingly well for something it's size, and has a fair amount of power. We probably won't drive it again, primarily because it's my wife's DD, and has to be ready to run on Monday, but we still smile about it. The event was held at the driving school area of the Houston Police Academy, so it was right at home.

Me:



Her:


Then we went home, and headed out to the gun range to sight in the new scope on our AR.

That's all it took. It took longer to figure out how to get the door panel off than to reattach the cable. Now I need to figure out how to get the back door windows to work with the switches on the back door. I think all the relays and fuses are in place, and the switches at the back door are definitely plugged in, but don't work. That's not a deal breaker, though, as most of our back seat passengers will be our dogs. They don't need to be putting the window down.

Glad that helped on the doors. What I found on my 06 was that GM broke off a tab on the switch to where it would not work. I had to replace the two rear switches. Do the windows work from the Front drivers seat?

Later John

Yep, the front door controls work, and I've tried the 'child lock' both ways on both doors with no success from the back door switches. I'll have to pull a switch panel and have a look. Thanks for the information.

Awesome tahoe, I would love to own one of those.

Thanks, we're really enjoying it. One can be yours:

http://www.copcarsonline.com/2010_Chevrole...L_224963933.veh



Ours was right at 20k, and it cost $650 to ship to the southeast Houston area. Time didn't allow a trip out there, but if we do this again, I'll fly out and drive back. These guys have a police car museum, and I understand there are a couple of other nice car museums in the Tampa area. I'd do some sightseeing and then head back west.

Gene,

Does your PPV Tahoe have provisions to mount a third seat?

I like the Tahoe PPV idea, but would rather change the second seat to another pair of captains chairs and then have the ability to put in the third row should it be needed.

thanks!
Costas

Paul,

Yes, all the mounting points are present in the back of the truck. And while second-row captain's chairs are an option, our truck has 60/40 folding bench seats, which I think would be fine for most. It's certainly okay with our pups.

We haven't tried towing the car with it yet, it is a rare PPV with a hitch, and we plan to try, but I'll probably have to get a hitch with a different offset than the one we use for our GMC, and may need to add bags. Not that the trailer/car are all that heavy, it's just that the truck is that low, and I fear bouncing off the bump-stops. I know it can handle the load, Doug Willie tows his C Mod car in an enclosed trailer with a Tahoe.

And man, this thing hauls butt bone stock!! I do plan on a tune, and maybe some bolt-ons, but when you crack the throttle open, man does it go! We did finally get the console installed. I had to trim the mounting bracket back a bit so it would fit around the roll-over sensor, but after that, no worries. We even got our gun vault bolted to the steel portion of the mounting bracket, so they'll have to pull the seats and console to get it out.

Gene

Well I bit the bullet on a 2013 Tahoe PPV today. Like Gene I have been looking for a few years. My Charger just doesn't fit the bill anymore. Barring no issues, I pick it up next Fri/Sat.

John

Cool!! We've had ours just about a year, and love it. So far, we've added:

Air Raid MIT
Black Bear Tune
K&N drop-in
2010 Tahoe console
LED interior lights
Glass bulb spot light
Laird antenna to replace onr of the roof plugs

It's a fun autocross truck!

I'd add long tubes and a cat back, but she requires a 100% reliable vehicle. Maybe for mine..

Gene

How did the BB tune work out? Your opinions on it? I've only driven one 6sp GM truck a few years back and was not happy with the shifting.

It would be a nice entry in the SUV class of One Lap of America!!!! Little slower than my rides of past but doable for myself.

John

Any pics of your upgrades?

The tune is great. The biggest complaint was the 'dead spot' in the throttle at tip in. Jason said it was because GM pulls all the timing out there to keep the SoccerMoms from waking up from their texting session at the light and spinning the tires. He tuned that in, gave us a 93-octane tune, and we kept the AFM, since that was causing no problems. The truck comes off a light a TON better now, and we're getting about 1.5 better all around MPG. With a 30-minute cruise down the highway at 70, it's easy to watch the MPGs climb another digit, or two.

As far as mods, there's not much to see. What did you want to see?

Oh, and as a side note, our last event was at the Houston Police Academy. The head of the Academy was there, in one of the new 9C1's. He said it was far and above the best police car he's ever driven, and he's been a cop since before the 94-96 Caprice days. A friend went for a ride with him, and said they hit the speed limiter (~155) in a little over a mile. There's ZERO body flex. It's a nice looking car, and fairly comfy. There's a TON of room in the trunk. I may look at one of these when it's time to retire the SS.

Long last few days 1900miles round trip. But the got the Tahoe home. Found out this was never marked, no light bar, one antenna hole, not one screw hole anywhere, dealer already had installed the front center armrest/seat, no ticket light(the factory switches suck to find when driving), Clean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ojust

Sweet!! The switch for the ticket light is on the ticket light. No problem. Nice that they didn't drill a bunch of holes in it. Ours has two antenna holes, and three holes where the laptop mount went through the floorboard. I've covered one of the roof holes with a Laird antenna. Will do the other after Christmas.

Check to see what they used for the antenna plug. Rubber, and you'll want to replace it soon. They don't take the weather that well. ABS, and you should ba okay.

PICS, or it didn't happen. :-)

I grabbed the photo from the ones posted on the Net. It doesn't look this nice after 900 plus miles home.

John

Hey, that looks like ours!!

Gene I should just snagged your photo!!!! LOL

Heh, yep. Hopefully you didn't have to mop the ArmorAll out of the corners of the floor covering.

Finally got around to changing the oil for the first time. I got under it to see if I could get the filter off by hand, and as I was getting my hand up to where the filter was, my finger touched the side of the filter..... and it turned!! Damned thing was probably just one rough road trip from puking oil all over the place. Then, when I was pulling the drain plug, I had the pan angled over to the side of the engine to catch the oil when I pulled the plug out. When that happened, oil shot out like it was under pressure, almost hitting the frame, and spilling about a 1/2 cup of oil onto the driveway. It's new name is now 'Valdez'!!

Oh, and if you're not familiar with these things, they hold 6 quarts of oil.

So between changing the oil in the Tahoe, and our '02 GMC, I poured 4 gallons of oil into the catch bucket. I was hoping to get 4 vehicles done yesterday, but I"ll have to go dump some oil first.

Haaah Gene no ArmorAll here!!. Is that what they use to make the stuff so purdy? after their reconditioning? I do have to ask this. I know where you bought it from and was going to purchase from them. My only pet peeve is that after looking at all their photo's they post, is that they paint the wheel wells/suspension area front and rear. Is that what they do?

Gene I fix this stuff for a living. Very familiar with the In's and Out's of most vehicles.

Now I have to go buy a new floor jack, damm thing is so low and with the running boards, not so easy to pick up.

Hmm 9c1 I saw this on my way out...
9C1 PPV

'14 9C1, you're tempting me!!

Those are nice cars. The speed limiter is set at 155, and they'll do it!

I don't think they paint things much. Maybe if it's rusted, but most of the stuff they pick up comes from south of the Mason-Dixon, so usually don't get much salt on them. Our truck looked brand freaking new when we got it, nothing but the factory 'undercoating' where they put it, and the usual light coating of rust on the bare metal where the paint isn't.

I've seen some of the vehicles there that do look like they've been painted underneath, and I suspect that they may either have been coated by the department, or have had come wreck repairs. Not sure either way, just speculating. My only peeve with the guys we got it from was all of the armor all in the interior. Otherwise, we got a nice truck.

Gene

Thanks for the answer. Brand freaking new on this one too. My wife sat in it and said holy shit this is clean.

I thought you'd like that 9C1!!!!!!!!

John

I do! Probably end up with one of those down the road, if we don't just go get a new SS. I was very impressed on the size of the brakes on those things, and all the room they have inside.