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LOADED4X4.COM.AU
LOADED 006: SILVERADO
Ultimate Offroad camper for a 3,500kg Bushtracker caravan, Bill
set about finding a tow tug that wasn’t full of false promises.
It was 2015, and there weren’t a lot of full-sized American utes
on the second-hand market at the time, but a phone call to
Performax in Gympie proved fortuitous. Performax had a 2012
Silverado LTZ dual-cab on the lot, and the previous owner had
spent the equivalent of the deposit for a big house fitting it out.
Bill bought it sight unseen and hoped it was a good ‘un. Turns out
it was.
Bill’s Silverado is powered by 6.6-litres of turbocharged
and intercooled Chevy Duramax diesel. The Duramax works in
tandem with an Alison 1000 6-speed automatic that somehow
tames the big diesel’s 1,000+ Nm of torque. The Silverado has
been upgraded from 2500 to 3500 single rear wheel specs, which
is achieved with some suspension changes, and it now boasts a
Gross Combination Mass (GCM) of over 11,100kg. And that right
there is the big difference between a Silverado and a 200 Series
Cruiser. When fully loaded with the Bushtracker van and all their
gear, Bill says all-up weight is around 8,400kg, leaving around
2,700kg of available payload, and that’s after they’ve packed!
Bill tells it straight, and he knows the Silverado is a tow-tug and