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2015 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD Aces Frame Twist Test, Beats Ford F-250 Super Duty

Heavy-duty pickup truck owners know that it's an essential asset to have a truck as tough as nails. These owners need serious towing and hauling capabilities, with toughness being a constituting element in making heavy-duty happen. This is an important matter in this day and age, especially after Ram, General Motors and Ford started to rate their new trucks according to the SAE J2807 standard.
2015 Chevrolet Colorado 2500 HD 1 photo
Photo: Chevrolet
That's why GM employed third-party research firm AMCI Testing to find out exactly how robust is the 2015 Chevrolet Colorado 2500 HD against Ford's F-250 Super Duty. Of course, we'd recommend to take the result with a grain of salt 'cos everyone knows how marketing works, but nevertheless, AMCI Testing found out the Chevy is harder than the Ford.

The research firm came up with a rigorous procedure to test the truck's frame twist, in which both the Blue Oval and the GM-developed models were driven onto two staggered ramps. Those ramps were specially developed for the wheels on one side of the truck to hit the ramp before the other, placing a large amount of torque on the frame. Measurements were taken for the distance of displacement of the cab body and the bed, thus determining how rigid the frame actually is.

According to the video attached below, AMCI found out that the Chevy Silverado HD boasts with a frame that allows 0.26 inches of twist, while the Ford F-250 Super Duty twisted 0.94 inches, which is considerably more than that of the Silverado. The Ford F-250 was subjected to so much torsional stress that its tailgate couldn't be lowered, but the Silverado’s tailgate still operated normally.

But then again, where the hell does a heavy-duty pickup truck owner actually needs such toughness? It's not like the Silverado 2500 HD or F-250 are the weapon of choice of off-road junkies. This test also begs the question where does the typical truck owner come across a paved surface as uneven as the ramps developed by AMCI? Chevrolet's marketing is definitely on the defensive when it comes to its full-size truck, which is a bit retro in the face of the aluminum-bodied 2015 Ford F-150 and the new Super Duty.

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About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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