Have I ever mentioned I hate camping? Perhaps not in an article I have written, probably because it would have never come up. I never go camping, so why would I mention I hate it, right? Well the unthinkable has happened – I, Mr. “Hate camping and would rather poke my eyes out with needles while bathing in a bath of acid”, went camping.

Thankfully I didn’t take on the full on camping experience or things may not have turned out so well, I may no longer be here to talk about this new Chevrolet Silverado with the 6.2L V8 engine had I gone full-on camping.

You see I was headed to a rally, part training, part fun, part helping out a driver that needed a navigator / co-driver. At first the gig included free usage of a friend’s cottage in Bancroft, about an hour away from the rally location where we needed to be for 8 am on Saturday morning – so sleeping at home really wasn’t an option.

But then the cottage offer was revoked and my driver mumbled something to me about camping in a quarry, on rocks in tents – umm no. We have a great community of racers, friends and enthusiasts here in Ottawa so I fired off an e-mail to one of our forum members from Autos.ca – he came through and lent me his tent trailer, a Coleman Mesa, a trailer weighting in at approximately 3,500 lb according to “Angry Chicken”, I’m going to guess loaded up with gear it might actually be a little more.

As luck would have it, GM had a Silverado in town for me to test, the stars aligned, I picked up the trailer and the Silverado and here we have a real test, towing probably close to 4000 lb over 800 km to “camp” in a quarry.

I actually picked up the Silverado a few days before I was headed out camping so I got some “me” time with the truck on regular daily driven roads as well. The Z71 package with the additional appearance package and sports package really make this Silverado stand out, with a blacked out grill and headlights and a black body I was really digging the looks. Until I realized the mirrors were chrome as were the 20-inch wheels. Chrome how I hate thee, remove the chrome and this truck really does look badass.

Heavy duty: First Drive: 2015 GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado 2500/3500

But hey those are easy fixes, my tester also had a tonneau cover on the back which certainly helped me in my weekend excursion as it was the perfect place to store my generator in a lockable safe area – it is a $930 option though.

You can read the included option list of this vehicle at the end of the article, but this is one pricey truck at over $65,000, but a lot of those additions are vanity and luxury ones – what really counts here is the heart of the vehicle, that 6.2L V8 with cylinder deactivation (because Eco Trucks) and the eight-speed automatic transmission.

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