It’s time to take the redesigned 2024 Chevy Silverado HD 2500 Duramax V8 down and up the world’s toughest towing test – the Ike Gauntlet™. We hitch up a 16,500 lbs gooseneck trailer to see what the new Duramax will do.
This is the year of the new heavy-duty pickup trucks. Ram made small updates to their 2023 Ram HD truck lineup. Ford is introducing what they call the all-new 2023 Ford Super Duty. GM has the updated 2024 Chevy Silverado HD and 2024 GMC Sierra HD trucks.
Thanks to Complete Trailers for making this video possible and providing a Diamond C gooseneck trailer for us to use.
GM updated the style of the new trucks, gave the upper trim levels trucks a new interior, boosted the power, and updated their capability features. The latest L5P 6.6-liter Duramax V8 is now rated at 470 horsepower @ 2,800 rpm and 975 lb-ft of torque @ 1,600 rpm. It’s still mated to an Allison-branded 10-speed heavy-duty automatic transmission.
The Ike Gauntlet is the world’s toughest towing test because this stretch of the I-70 highway crosses the Rocky Mountain continental divide at an elevation of over 11,158 feet above sea level. It’s an 8-mile stretch of the intestate with a maximum 7% grade.
This truck is equipped with an exhaust brake, so we expected a great downhill performance. This is exactly what we got. The truck was able to control and slow down our heavy trailer (with our Ram HD TrailHound on top of it). We registered just one brake application on the way down, which is basically the best that any pickup truck can do. In theory, getting zero brake applications is also possible – but we only experienced this once in an International medium-duty semi-truck.
The truck performed very strong on the way up the mountain as well. The engine was maxed out a couple of times to maintain 60 MPH on the way up, but it generally had power in reserve for any passing maneuvers.
The suspension worked well during the test, but the truck’s rear end did squat nearly 3.5 inches (which is a bit more than what we like to see). Still, the truck was stable and confident with this trailer.
The fully-optioned 2024 Chevy Silverado HD 2500 crew cab High Country luxury truck has an as-tested price of just over $87,000. Please join Mr. Truck and me in the video below for this fun and windy Ike Gauntlet™.
