New Silverados, How I Realized the Daily Driver Truck Appeal

"Swayze Train GTi" (swayzetrain) 01/30/2016 at 16:12 • Filed to: chevy silverado, silverado, chevrolet, truck yeah, jalopnik, truck, towing

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A new Silverado LT(z) Z71 is the truck for the moment. This moment, specifically. Our gas is cheap (for now) and our trucks are sizable and well equipped enough to host a small party. Modern men want trucks. “I survived the recession, recently installed a sink, learned how to cook, and got a bonus from my job, which is in construction!” he reasons.
Sighing, his girlfriend patiently reminds him he’s in management, and his desk isn’t located at the top of a sand dune accessible by logging trail only. She also explains that grilling hot dogs which had marinated in beer doesn’t count as cooking.

But a lot of men are getting away with it nowadays, and that’s a good thing.

Our Construction manager needs a truck to avoid his friends derisive jokes and self conscious feelings brought on by picking up his girlfriend in a Cobalt, the memory and circumstances of its purchase obscured by time like his vision on the snowstorm night that wrecked the hand-me-down Blazer of his college years. Sure, he doesn’t haul stuff, but he wants one, and if he can reasonably afford it, I would say more power to him. Enough people compromise on their vehicles nowadays that those of us who don’t want to shouldn’t have to. And in a country like America, automobile emission standards are so good that really, focusing on auto manufacturers is probably doing more harm than good (here’s where I’m supposed to make a VW joke that isn’t about the abbreviation of Volkswagen AktienGesellschaft, but that’s exactly what you were expecting me to do).

To a lot of us, the appeal of just driving a truck doesn’t make sense. We think of mid-90s F-150s covered in JEGS stickers, Dodge Rams with fading clearcoat and secondhand lift spacers, or some ex work truck with a big “fuck you” plastic panel right where the radio should be and a pressure washable vinyl interior. All these trucks squeak like the doors in your grandma’s house, have more rattles than a baby toy store, and the rides are more jarring than the daily output of a Smucker’s facility.

Putting in a fat lip, cracking a beer, farmers tans, and sitting on tailgates. These are all truck things.

But today’s trucks are much different beasts. While the unequipped fleet style trucks still exist, most trucks are purchased by private citizens who want a screen to tell them where the nearest Starbucks is, or what particular George Strait song they’re listening to at any given time.

The fact of the matter is, the modern full size truck is truly usable as a daily driver, and almost without compromise. In the past you’d be out in your half ton doing truck guy things, wearing the Alabama University cap with the “worn” bill that you’d taken an angle grinder to earlier in the evening, belting out Skynyrd’s “Call Me the Breeze”, weighing the merits of the aesthetics of Super Swampers against the practicality of BF Goodrich Mud Terrains. With your brain distracted by tread patterns and your eyes removed from the road as you finish the last drops of a Budweiser and toss it out the window, a speed bump ambushes your rear axle and send it a few butt clenching inches into the air before returning to the ground with a resounding rattle. Then your tailpipe falls off.

But new trucks aren’t like this. Somehow, manufacturers have enlisted the witchcraft of suspension experts to counteract the natural behavior of heavy springs and a light rear end. Nowadays, trucks are, dare I say it, comfortable! One might imagine using them for an 8 hour trip without resorting to filling the bed with sand bags, lead weights, your fattest child, and the latest Iron Maiden album to weigh down the rear axle.

And in this interior you’ll never be bored. That touch screen does many, many things.

So now the suspension is smooth enough for Santana, but what about the rest of it? One expects a torque filled monster that will peter around all day at 2k RPM, but will need to be put on oxygen if you run it all the way up to 5. Not so. As long as you avoid the base Vortec 4300 V6, that is. This effortlessly designed engine should have been retired over a decade before it saw yet another use in the 2007+ Silverados, but no. GM kept the old slab around as a threat for people who were looking at completely base model trucks. “Oh sure, you can have this 2wd LS single cab shortbed. Of course you can. 195 horsepower is totally adequate, right? Man, you’ll be able to pass all those 93 Nissan Maximas like nobodies business with that thing!”.

Fortunately, if you opt for any of the V8s, you’ll be looking at a minimum of 300 horsepower, and these trucks will hustle when you need them to. Go for the top gas engine, a 6.2L V8, and you’ll have yourself a solid 400 horsepower to play around with. Find yourself a Duramax and start strapping turbos and computer tunes to it and you’ll be blowing people’s doors off like they came in a Jeep.

And this power is what makes this great American tradition of owning a pickup truck so great. You don’t need that power 10 months out of the year. But say you have a boat, anything from a 13 foot Boston Whaler to a 30 foot Four Winns. Maybe you’ve got horses. Maybe you’ve got ATVs, motorcycles, snowmobiles, a bunch of illegal workers who need jobsite transportation. Or maybe, my personal favorite example: Maybe you have a Caravan (though they’re actually called campers over here)

Now, we all know what Top Gear and indeed most Europeans think about Caravans, and we also know what they think about trucks. They think both are useless, expensive, impractical, and any other number of horrible adjectives. But they’re wrong. They hate caravans because they plug up the road, being towed by 90 horsepower diesel hatchbacks with stupid names like Skoda or Renault. In America, we don’t have these problems, because we tow things with trucks. Vehicles that are quite literally made to tow things. A memory of heading back from the Florida Keys strikes me in particular. There is but one road that leads to the keys up the east coast, and it’s not particularly big. This route cannot suffer slow drivers. Booking up the coast at 80 MPH, lights appear in the rearview, closing quickly. A diesel Silverado roars by, 20-25 foot boat in tow, doing what must have been close to 100 miles per hour. Completely composed on the smooth, windless interstate, and not getting in the way of literally anyone.

No, your diesel Astra can’t do this.

So every time you see an unloaded truck driving around your town, don’t automatically chastise the owner for driving something whose potential he doesn’t fully utilize every week, or even every month. After all, how often do you hit redline in your sports car? How often do you see your commute to work as an autocross session and make use of your coilovers? What’s the ratio of your roll cage saving your life against how often you bash your head against it? Trucks are what some people want to drive, and usually they have a good reason for it, even if it’s only once a year. That one time, you’ll be glad to see them doing 75 on the interstate instead of 55. Take a bit of time to appreciate that as one of the luxuries we have in this country.

DanZman > Swayze Train GTi 01/30/2016 at 17:02

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I love my 2014 Silverado! It’s an LT with all the infotainment options and 18" wheels. I didn’t want the leather interior of the LTZ. Still the interior is much nicer than it has any business being. It miles better than my Vette.

Swayze Train GTi > DanZman 01/30/2016 at 18:03

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Nice truck and Vette! Gotta ask though, why didn’t you want the leather? As far as I can tell, the only advantage cloth seats have is that they don’t burn your ass off when you get in in the summer, and don’t freeze it during the winter.

Sweet Trav > DanZman 01/30/2016 at 18:47

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Does it have the smooth road shake issue that some of them have?

shop-teacher > Swayze Train GTi 01/30/2016 at 19:10

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A-freaking-men!

I love my ‘06 Sierra crew cab. Doesn’t ride as nice or have as much power as the newer ones, but I love it and it’s been reliable as the day is long. Took it out for a family drive today actually. I was going to take my ‘94 Roadmaster wagon, but my 3-year old girl insisted that we take “Truckie” instead :)

DanZman > Swayze Train GTi 01/30/2016 at 20:11

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Thanks! I’m in the Phoenix area and leather is HOT in the summer. I wish the Vette was cloth too. Also, I’m a contractor so I use my truck for actual truck things most days and I don’t feel like a truck is the right place for luxury features. I actually completely removed the back seat to make more room for stuff in the cab.

DanZman > Sweet Trav 01/30/2016 at 20:14

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I'm not sure if it's the same issue, but yes, when it was brand new it would shake and vibrate on smooth freeways. The dealer replaced all 4 tires under warranty and the problem hasn't returned. I have about 50k on it now.

Sweet Trav > DanZman 01/30/2016 at 20:59

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If it does, contact me in December. I have a fix for you.

DanZman > Sweet Trav 01/30/2016 at 21:34

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What is the common issue? Is it in the steering?

Sweet Trav > DanZman 01/30/2016 at 21:37

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I’ll just say that my company has developed a solution that tackles the root cause. I will update you when it goes into production

Somethin' 'bout a truck > Swayze Train GTi 02/02/2016 at 20:50

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This: After all, how often do you hit redline in your sports car? How often do you see your commute to work as an autocross session and make use of your coilovers? What’s the ratio of your roll cage saving your life against how often you bash your head against it?

Mike > Sweet Trav 12/02/2016 at 11:40

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http://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/topic/153186-shake-or-vibration-issues/

Everyone on this forum including myself would be interested in a fix for the smooth road vibration problems.