Silverado and Sierra HD get it done
Tough two are built for real work
PHOENIX — Farmers and contractors are lucky people. They, along with horse people and drivers of racing cars, get to play with all the cool stuff. They drive tractors, diggers or heavy loaders, they go fast around tracks, move wild beasts and live and breathe their work instead of commuting to a routine job like the rest of us.
These are the outdoors types who also tend to buy the biggest pickups — the diesels, duallys or Denalis, the HD trucks that are defined as much by how much they can haul as how tough they look. In the U.S., one in four pickups sold is an HD truck. Of course, some of those HD trucks are for work, but many are used for personal or family transportation.
And no wonder. My gosh, step inside an HD pickup such as the 2015 GMC Sierra or Chevrolet Silverado and you get an immediate appreciation for the world in which these people live. Acres of space, the power equipment, the refinement and fit and finish, and the sheer pleasure of driving something that doesn’t just command the road but owns it are reason enough to question one’s chosen career path.
The GM HD trucks are one leg of GM’s three-truck strategy (alongside the new Colorado and Canyon mid-size trucks). The HD trucks, available with either a two-metre or 2.4-metre bed, can be configured in more than 150 combinations of body style, powertrain, bed length, axle type and so on. Starting at $37,430 in Canada for the most basic two-wheel-drive Sierra 2500 and climbing to over $68,000 for a four-wheel-drive crew cab 3500 before options, the trucks are as lucrative as they are essential to GM’s overall business.
Taking design cues from the regular Silverado and Sierra, the Sierra and Silverado HD trucks get the new double cab and revised crew cab bodies seen in the 2014 1500 models, creating an extra five centimetres of legroom in the rear. Both the Sierra and Silverado, replete with grilles the size of Kevin O’Leary’s ego, still maintain unique identities, even if the underpinnings and fully boxed steel frames are the same.
The maximum capability for the 2500, equipped with the Duramax, is 6,500 kilograms for conventional towing and 8,000 kg under a fifth wheel. Payload maximum is 1,950 kg. On the 3500, maximum towing is 8,900 kg via the hitch, and 10,500 kg with a fifth wheel. Payload max is 3,300 kg in the 3500.
While most of GM’s HD trucks will be sold with a Duramax diesel, because about 80 per cent of HD buyers choose the $9,600 diesel option over gasoline, the standard engine on the HD trucks shouldn’t go without applause. The 6.0-litre Vortec gas V-8 with 360 horsepower and 380 pound-feet of torque is fairly smooth and appreciably quiet. A version rated at 322 horsepower is standard on the 3500s.
Surprisingly, GM hasn’t tried to match the impressive numbers touted by Ram, which says its 3500 HD dually diesel can pull a maximum 13,500 kg in fifthwheel towing. GM execs say they wanted to make their new HD trucks smarter, and to show that in real life it isn’t just about the numbers, it’s about towing and hauling with confidence and comfort.
If that’s the rule by which farmers and contractors measure their trucks, they’ll be happy with GM’s approach.