Words and photos by Ro McGonegal - 11/15/07
Though not the baddest axle handle in the GM Diesel File pile, the Silverado 2500 HD equipped with the Turbo diesel V8 and matching Allison 1000 automatic transmission could well be the best all-round heavy-duty crusher based on criteria alone. That and user input, especially from one who hasn’t driven a diesel for five years. A truly freaky experience, that one was built by Steve Cole at TTS Power Systems and it steamrollered more than 1,000 pounds-feet to the tarmac, child! Completely streetable. It ran low 12s for heaven’s sake! You can’t imagine the sensation—or the abysmal fuel mileage.
Our diesel experience prior to the TTS disturbance had probably been more than ten years. So in the Great Soap Opera, this time we were ready to pounce (well, climb slowly) on the big 4WD HD and looked around for step stool to get inside it. You gotta stttrettcchh a leg up into a cockpit that’s as big as a living room. Even though a center console of epic proportions dominates the sanctum, the overwhelming vibe is one of open space and more importantly, room to breathe.
A compression-ignition engine requires glow plugs to light it off. In the “old days,” the plugs took a little time to start glowing and this was a nuisance at least, especially in the black dead of winter. Though glow plugs are unavoidable, they heated up rapidamente here, so big Isuzu turbodiesel fired immediately, although this was in 93-degree ambient. There was not a wisp of charcoal, not a particle of soot out of the blunderbuss tip on that 4-inch exhaust pipe, even under heavy throttle, but there was something amiss. This thing was way too quiet to be any diesel of our acquaintance. Indeed, the clatter that heralded an era is all but subdued and the combustion rattle has become just a warm and fuzzy noise.
All these things were the objections to the diesel as a mainstream engine in the first place. That, and the perfume of Number 2 wafting off your hands at lunch. Chevy has cauterized the first yapping mouths. The last one is just part is the adventure. As your ol’ mum used to say, ”Wear white at night…and carry gloves.”
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When you drive a four-wheeler whale like this around town, you must have some constraint, some appreciation for its height and length. That way you won’t be taking the noses off baby carriages or caving in the grille of the guy parked behind you. A driver and half tank of Number 2 hoists the leggy Silverado to 7,000 pounds or more (this thing’s ready to take on a pissed-off rhino) but it comports with ease and agility. That big torque pig under the insulated hood makes it all happen with a satisfying immediacy. There’s no lag, no wait time. The HD Turbodiesel is already at full crank whenever you are ready, makin’ maximum bacon at 1,600rpm.
The suspension is nothing but heavy duty, so expect no mercy on choppy pavement. Its frequency will jiggle whatever isn’t lashed to the deck like an earthquake machine. But to someone who can’t find a factory suspension stiff enough (us), the 2500 strides over-the-road with an attitude. Soon, you assume the attitude. This thing can go through your worst nightmare and be shining bright and unbloodied when it comes out the other end. At least that’s the perception it suggests. The suspension team needs a big, tall beer for the work it did on the compliance bogie. Lots of masters to please here, but they put all the right frequencies and orders in all the right places. Leaf springs will never feel this good again.