Towing with the 2024 Silverado 1500 ZR2 3.0-Liter Duramax Diesel

Above and beyond dragging their kids to school, a big reason why customers buy pickup trucks is to tow and haul. Whether they are towing boats, trailers, cars, or lawn maintenance equipment, trucks like the Chevrolet Silverado are meant to pull weight. The latest Chevy Silverado 1500 ZR2 with the 3.0-liter Duramax diesel is no exception, as MotorTrend recently found out.  

Off-Roadability with Great Towing Ability 

The Silverado ZR2 is brilliant, and even though it is tailored toward off-roading, the ZR2 still makes for an excellent tow vehicle. MotorTrend has spent the last year with the truck doing everything it can think of with it, including towing up to its maximum capacity of 8,700 pounds. The 3.0-liter I-6 Duramax turbodiesel produces 305 horsepower and 495 lb-ft of torque.  

The Latest SAE J2807 Towing Standard 

For some time now pickup truck brands have been adhering to the SAE J2807 standard, which is a test procedure that puts a truck through various tests to properly determine the towing capacity of said vehicle. Jason Gonderman from MotorTrend explains, “Getting to the maximum tow rating is just as direct thanks to the implementation of the SAE J2807 standard test procedure. Each vehicle must pass a battery of trials that includes 0–30 mph and 0–60 mph acceleration, climbing a 12-percent grade from a stop, holding the vehicle on said grade with just the parking brake, stopping with and without trailer brakes, an understeer test, a trailer sway test, and a simulated tromp up the Davis Dam grade—all of which are done at full gross combined weight. When a vehicle passes, its maximum tow rating can be advertised as simply GCWR minus GVWR. For our Silverado ZR2, its 8,700-pound max tow rating is a product of subtracting its 7,300-pound GVWR from its 15,000-GCWR (which is reduced from other Silverado models due to ZR2’s lifted height, softer suspension, and off-road tires).” 

Towing Too Much Weight Is Unsafe 

It is absolutely imperative that truck owners who intend to tow with their vehicles know the proper limits and how to calculate them. As silly as it may sound, it is 100% true that towing properly saves lives. Towing too much weight is as unsafe as it gets, as you risk losing braking power and emergency steering ability. It is easy to tow something that starts to control your truck, and some people may not even realize it’s too much until it’s too late.  

Loading Up Requires Exact Information 

Writer Jason Gonderman used the ZR2 Duramax to tow a 20-foot travel trailer, various bits of gear that included some camping chairs, diesel exhaust fluid, tools, 5 extra gallons of diesel fuel, propane tanks, among other things, combined with humans and pets in the Silverado. The entire package ended up weighing 15,380 pounds, which was 380 pounds over the max gross combined weight rating (GCWR) of the ZR2. So, he dumped half of the 100-gallon water tank in the travel trailer, which brought them to within spec. Before driving up to a certified scale, Jason had already pre-weighed everything to get a good estimation of what the total weight would be, and yet he still accidentally overloaded the truck by 380 pounds. It’s easy to do.  

A Great Option When You Need to Go  

In the past year of the magazine’s long-term review of the 2024 Chevy Silverado ZR2 with the Duramax, the editors have liked it very much and have used the truck to tow more than 2,626 miles—and they don’t seem to be stopping any time soon.   

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