Motor Trend Reflects on Their Reasons Why Chevy Colorado ZR2 Dominates Off-Road Category

Even though it's the smallest truck in the Chevy lineup, the Colorado is the one to keep in mind if off-road driving is your forte. The Colorado ZR2 now has a long list of suspension upgrades and cladding to assure that it is the best off-road small truck money can buy. The well-respected and experienced staff on duty at Motor Trend cranked out a feature this past week that points out the elements of their choice that are the defining qualities making it the best off-road small truck money can buy.

The much Stronger Chassis makes for a stronger overall body on the ZR2, providing better payload ability. Additional skid plates add the detailed protection underneath so that you don't scrape away at the most important parts of the truck when conquering many different obstacles. The skid plates are so important: many who choose to try and conquer the wild without them immediately hear dreadful noises when they don't have proper clearance on roots or dirt.

Unlike some of the competition, the V6-powered Colorado ZR2 provides for you an 8-speed automatic transmission that is specially tuned to handle the challenges that off-road driving provides. When you combine this with very hefty power amounts, you finish with the magic formula that rounds out one of the best off-road small trucks in existence.

For its class, the Colorado ZR2 has the most power and torque, depending on which engine is your final choice. The 3.6-liter V-6 packs 308 hp, and 275 lb-ft of torque while the 2.8-liter turbodiesel has 181 hp and 369 lb-ft, giving you two flexed and grunty options to power this current king of off-road trucks.

To add even more improvement to the ZR2's off-road abilities, it comes standard with locking front and rear differentials. You also have full control over both, allowing you to choose when you should opt for increased traction, which helps as the trails become more densely-populated with boulders and debris. If you are crawling up a particularly rocky trail and one of your wheels ends up sticking up straight in the air, power can be sent to the wheel experiencing the lowest amount of resistance.

The state-of-the-art suspension that the ZR2 is adorned with allows for plenty of ground clearance for rock crawling, which is one of the first categories in which an off-road truck fails if not properly equipped. The DSSV spool-valve shocks help provide enough compliance to deal with jumps and other obstacles that would cause a normal pickup to bottom out from the sheer impact. We hope to see you here this fall at Jim Butler Chevy of St Louis, where you can check out the amazing abilities and off-road prowess of this truck that now resides at the top of the dirt-trail ranks!