Traditional full-size, body-on-frame pickup trucks—and their derivative “family-size” sport-utility vehicles—are said to be the most profitable items on the menu in Detroit. At the same time, our appetite for pickup trucks continues to grow. Is it any wonder that Ford, GM and Dodge keep coming up with new ways to put lipstick on the pig? And to compete tooth & nail, hoof & claw with each other in this particular farmyard?

Chevrolet’s large pickup is the Silverado, a name that goes back to 1999. The 1500 designation refers to the “half-ton” version of the Silverado, and there are heavier-duty 2500 and 3500 versions (comparable to Ford’s F-150, F-250 and F-350 trucks). But a Silverado 1500 can manage a payload—driver, passengers plus stuff in the back, without a trailer—of 2,280 pounds, 1.14 tons, so the “half-ton” rating is merely comparative.

“Crew” refers to the four-door, five-person truck cabin, hewing to the pleasant fiction that trucks are work vehicles meant to transport a crew of roughnecks to an oil rig or deckhands to a fishing trawler. Today, of course, a crew cab makes a pickup a family vehicle. The traditional two-passenger pickup cab seems to have joined the hand-crank car window in the museum of automotive relics.

“4WD,” as distinct from “AWD,” is important to off-road enthusiasts. Vehicles with all-wheel drive (most crossover SUVs) have a center differential that automatically distributes varying amounts of engine power fore and aft as well as differentials on each axle that send power out to each wheel, depending on which of them has traction. The driver doesn’t get involved. Vehicles with true four-wheel drive have a transfer case, a second transmission, that the driver can engage in order to send power to the front as well as the rear axle, which have locking differentials. It’s a positive division of torque; if a tire doesn’t have traction, that wheel going to keep turning anyway, for maximum grab.

This can be problematic on dry pavement because when going around corners the inside and outside wheels have to be able to turn at different speeds; true 4WD  doesn’t allow this, so there will be binding and bucking and wear and tear of tires and gears. On dirt, snow or ice, however, the tires can slip a bit, letting the wheels turn without this binding or crow-hopping.

A transfer case usually has a low-speed range of gears too, which lets the vehicle crawl over rough terrain and climb steeper grades thanks to a torque-multiplying effect. In general, AWD is fine for off-road driving; but when things get gnarly, steep & deep, drivers want 4WD.

Which finally brings us to the ZR2 designation, which means a $10,000 package of off-road hardware. This includes heavy-duty skid plates, to protect the guts of the truck from rocks, plus 33-inch-tall all-terrain tires, two more inches of ground clearance (and compact “off-road” running boards to go with) and a long-travel, relatively soft-riding suspension with brand-name shock absorbers and jounce dampers. Our ZR2 has a 6.2-litre V-8 gas engine rated for 420 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque; a 3.0-litre turbo-diesel Six that makes 305 horses and 495 torques is optional. Both motors are hooked to a 10-speed automatic transmission.

At least in heavily forested New England, the Silverado ZR2 is a conundrum. In my experience, the best off-road vehicles here—the ones that can snake along our narrow, forested, usually off-camber and washed-out trails without losing bits & pieces (or paint) to tree branches and ledge—are skinny machines like vintage Jeeps and Land Rovers. Regardless of their big engines, ground clearance, wheel travel, transfer cases, fancy differentials and selectable modes, enormous off-road pickups like this one are best suited to the wide-open spaces of the West.

(Nothing I write will change a pickup-truck devotee’s mind about anything, so I’m just venting.)

On-road, however, which is where 95 percent of us spend 95 percent of our time, old Jeeps and Landies are dreadful—uncomfortable, slow, noisy and, on the interstate, possibly even dangerous. Here’s where a modern off-roader like the ZR2 shines. Given sufficient width of reasonably smooth pavement, thanks to its bump-eating suspension this truck can do a creditable imitation of a near-luxury sedan. Although these days even flagship sedans are capable of more than 15 miles per gallon.

Our 2024 1500 ZR2 with the crew cab lists for $69,900. Add $1,970 for the Technology Package (rear-view camera, head-up display, adaptive cruise control and power-adjustable steering wheel), $1,500 more for the V-8 engine, $995 for the power sunroof, $750 for the narrow running boards with extra ground clearance, $445 for the two-stage, counterbalanced Multiflex tailgate and $195 for “active exhaust,” and we get to the final sticker price of $77,750. Yikes.

One of the two changes to the ZR2 for 2025 is the addition of front parking sensors to the list of standard features; the other is that the starting price has inched up to $70,995. Oh, and it looks like some of the color options have changed too.

Next week: Toyota Crown Platinum