Mud is just one of those things that makes trucks better. Here at the Mid Missouri Powerhouse, we love the thrill we feel when we see a truck tear through the mud, and the 2023 Chevy Silverado ZR2 is one of the current off-road “bosses” that masters every challenge that off-roading in the mud can bring. It certainly leaves us wanting more!
The Road and Track crew took a ZR2 down to Southern California where it typically remains bone dry. Recent rain, however, changed the terrain drastically into a challenging “mud-scape”. The full-size Silverado ZR2 is the top-of-the-line sibling to the Colorado ZR2, which is already a well-loved midsize marvel within the Chevy realm. This is an off-road ready, four-wheel-drive, crew cab truck that is equipped to get any place that its 81.2 inches of width can persistently push through.
There is always competition for any trailblazing truck, and in this case, it happens to be from the Ford F-150 Tremor, Ram 1500 Rebel, and Toyota Tundra TRD Pro. When compared to this trio, the Silverado is more civilized and can edge around urban areas before blasting off to dirt with a serious advantage. When it comes time to properly tackle the rural terrain and wander through the wilderness, it remains a full two steps up from the Z71 trim and one step above and beyond the Trail Boss edition.
Some of the design elements that were transferred over from the Colorado ZR2 are the extra-bulged hood with a black painted center, the cut-corner design of the steel front bumper, along with the very capable and awesome visible protective skid plates. There are also very cool red front tow hooks and the always-on-point Multimatic DSSV shock absorbers that provide quality unrivaled by any other unit in the market. Three cylindrical sleeves move within one another to repeatedly tune the rebound curves and compression of the damper.
This makes for an incredible quality of sure-footedness off-road, and the expert-grade prowess that the truck displayed for this testing crew while they covered the challenging trails of Ventura County in December. Everything included added up to the perfect formula for moving the 420-horsepower and 460-lb ft of peak torque around the messy terrain, rendering the small block phenomenal in all ways when it comes to heavy-footing it through thoroughly soaked conditions.
The Silverado ZR2’s approach angles are even better than on the standard TRX or Raptor, and the incredibly thick steel front bumper can withstand some intense brute force. The displays on board offer up a good view of the camera feeds surrounding the truck, along with the navigation and entertainment systems. There is still an inherently playful nature to this powerhouse of a rig, and the recent explosion in popularity of trail riding is only bound to make an already attractive light shine brighter on this masterful work of All-American engineering!
