Rocks & Dirt! 2022 Chevy Silverado ZR2 Review - Can Chevy's New Silverado ZR2 Challenge the Raptor?

Hi folks and welcome to the Truck King YouTube channel. Today is a big day because we are out here with the new Silverado ZR2. What the heck? Hey man, we're trying to work here. Andre? No, no, this is California. Let me show you how it's done. Get out of here man. I came all the way to California and TFL is still bugging me. Anyways, this is an exciting day because we have this, the brand new Silverado ZR2 and we're gonna hit the desert and tell you all about it. Let's start with the walk around. So powering this ZR2 and the only engine you can get in this truck is a naturally aspirated 6.2 liter V8. Right here it's making 420 horsepower, 460 pound-feet of torque and that of course is sent through a 10-speed automatic. Now first of all you'll notice the styling changes on ZR2, unique grille, you get the flow tie for extra air flow, of course the big red tow hooks and then you get all the functional stuff. So you have skid plates all the way underneath this thing, lockers in the front and the rear, that's a big deal. DSSV dampers from Multimatic and now let me hit you with all of the off-road numbers. So this truck has a 31.8 degree approach angle, 11.2 inches of ground clearance, 23.4 degrees of breakover and 23.3 degrees of departure. Just like a lot of other OEM off-roaders these days, the ZR2 comes with Goodyear Wrangler Territory tires. This is a 33 inch tire, a little smaller than the competitors but still a solid all-terrain. So how hard can this off-road truck work? What's the towing and payload? I love General Motors because they put their handy-dandy towing sticker right here on the door jamb. So for this truck right here we're talking about conventional tow rating of 8,900 pounds and a payload rating of 1,429 pounds which is seriously impressive for an off-road truck. Alrighty folks here we are ZR2 out in the desert. We are actually heading into Joshua Tree National Park which personally I've never been to. I don't know about you but I'm looking forward to it. It's pretty famous and yeah we're out here running this ZR2. So most of what we've been doing today so far has just been kind of washy sandy trails down here in the canyons but it's really giving us a chance to feel the suspension because we're in a constant washboard and bumping over rocks and everything like that and from the passenger seat it is definitely a significant step forward from a stock Silverado or even a Silverado Trail Boss. The Trail Boss gets a lift and some unique suspension tuning but it doesn't get these DSSV dampers and that's really what the the magic of this truck is the fact that those dampers can really eat stuff up off-road and then give you a pretty nice ride on road. So yeah it's a step forward for sure and as always dad you're driving so what have you been feeling? Well first off shout out to the Multimatic guys who Canadian company designed and built the shock system and you know what this thing just works. I mean we've already had the preview of this in the Colorado ZR2. True. So we know what we're getting. Yeah and same formula bigger package. Yeah yeah it's exactly right and between the lifts and the body adjustments approach decline you know and departure angles this thing has just been doing a really really good job today. So like I mentioned we're just kind of cruising around here on these trails but we are going to tackle a bunch of obstacles one of which is this hill climb which was really rutted out gave us a chance to use the lockers and you can see it here. So I'll get your transfer case in four low so it's going to be your first step. Now your second step we're going to go to terrain mode so that's going to give you your one pedal driving. So two over for terrain. Okay. Next step your lockers. Okay. And then the other step we're going to do is we're going to go ahead and go to drive and then actually go back one more time and that's going to give you hope L1. That's going to be your lowest that's going to be your most aggressive version of terrain mode and well it's keeping first gear for this. So is there a mark of life for the one pedal drive? Does anything come up says now you're one pedal drive? So terrain mode means you are in one. Terrain mode is synonymous with one pedal drive. Okay. So here we go first real off-road obstacle in the ZR2. It's a big rutted out hill and really the key here dad is feeling the lockers right. We're fully locked up. Nice articulation. These are big holes. They are big holes but that's the beauty of having the front and the rear locker. No spin whatsoever. Nice and calm. Okay. It's nice and dry too. It is nice and dry. It's the desert. We are used to water. We're used to mud but it's still pretty cool and then I mean you will have to keep on feeling it but we are in the new one pedal driving mode here in the ZR2 which as it suggests in low you only need to use the gas. The second you lift off the gas it's going to actually brake for you which is supposed to give you some more precise control. I don't know what are you feeling? Yeah well you feel it. Okay so speed up. I'm off the gas. So it's like it's a gentle braking. It really is. And then when it gets near the bottom it rolls a little. Yeah and you know we've used it in Ford products and I'd say Ford the braking is much more aggressive. It comes to a stop. Yeah this was very very gradual the way it slowed you down. And here you can see once you go in four low and terrain mode you do get the front facing camera that comes up at all times and this is a great kind of challenge right here to see it working because you're really in this tight area and you can make sure that your truck's going to fit through and it's especially helpful when you're going up hills and you're cresting the hill and all you're looking at is sky. Well you can look down at your camera and that will show you what's immediately in front of your vehicle. So on the off-road pages here it says we're doing 17 degrees, 16, 15. Nice. Downhill. This is always so deceiving because you'd swear you're doing about 45. Yeah that's not bad though and actually what I like too dad is the off-road screens down there but you can also get it in your head up display so you can watch your angles in your head up display which is pretty cool. So let's talk power just a little bit dad because there's definitely a different strategy here than when you look you know across the fence at Ford and Ram. This is your top trim off-road truck but it still has you know the same standard power train as the Silverado has. Now it is a 6.2 liter v8 it's over 400 horsepower so I'm not saying it is underpowered but again it is a different strategy than those other brands took. I guess what I like about this v8 is it's naturally aspirated, very predictable, very linear power, great torque down low and then here in this truck with the performance exhaust it sounds pretty dang good too. Now if you're looking for the exhausts on the ZR2 you won't see them and you can see that's because they're right there and they've been cut flat with the bumper to make sure that they're not taking away from your departure angle but boy does this truck sound good. Dad, hit it! Nice. I was maybe a little disappointed that there was no other engine options maybe even the diesel would be cool here but I don't think I can complain about the 6.2. What do you think? Honestly the 6.2 is a great engine. We've been surprised over the last couple of years as to how close the fuel economy is to the 5.3 so much so that I think it was probably five years ago that I went you know on record and said if you're thinking of a 5.3 just go to the 6.2 because you're getting all that extra power and you're barely paying a little bit more at the pump so that said this is going to be a great daily driver and that's what we have to look at here is that Chevy decided not to go whole hog off-road TRX Raptor mode yeah yeah they've built something that is really good but you know what I could daily drive this every day not have to suck up the huge fuel bills of a TRX and at the same time it's still in the same body silhouette like this is not this is not a wide body which I really appreciate in some of these tight tight canyons here totally so yeah it's a slightly different strategy appreciate that as it is did they not drop you a an absolutely monster eight liter engine yeah well get over it because I don't think you needed it anyway all right folks now we're really having some fun we've been doing slow speed all day but now it's time for high speed that's what this truck is really all about and uh we're just out here on this sandy wash we're doing between 50 and 60 miles an hour so we are feeling these dssv dampers work and uh so far it's really good I think the biggest thing is that these dampers have jounce bumpers built right inside of them internal jounce bumpers and when you hit something really hard this thing won't bottom out we haven't found that bottom out limit yet and we have come around a few corners and really nailed a couple of things so that's my first big takeaway is we are running really hard and we still haven't really found that limit which is exactly what you want out of this suspension what uh what do you think I think I'm really busy trying not to crash so don't bother me now okay okay thank you stability control it just saved your bacon right yeah well it just broke loose a little bit but not a lot I saved it I saved it yeah it wasn't bad and what are you doing four high we're in off-road mode so the truck does have off-road mode and that is going to tune your stability control and actually right there it felt like it did let you step out it did let you slide it a bit and then it reins you back in which is what you want because on this sand man it gets real slippery yeah well some places it's dead bare and then all of a sudden you get into like this deep patch yeah and it just starts kicking around but uh it's good yeah and then I think the other thing we have to point out is just that it's not any bigger than a standard Silverado unlike its competition okay you're ready to slow down there now Robbie Gordon you're going to lose it I do not want us to roll we're not gonna roll I'm nervous man you're too confident out here yeah well it's always worse when you're in that seat yeah you're probably right all right 50 there's a there's freaking cactus over here stuck on the mirror no yeah something's stuck I clipped the cactus oh no so anyways what I was saying is I think the nice thing is that we don't have this super ultra wide truck now of course the width does give you a little bit more stability in these situations but it just makes those other trucks feel so big whereas the Silverado I'm not going to say it feels small but it doesn't have that sort of gargantuan feeling you get out of a TRX so there is more wheel travel here and wheel travel is truly what you need for these situations I can put up the specific numbers but basically they're just a hair under 10 inches in the front and the rear which is pretty good numbers but not again quite competitive with a Raptor or a TRX but I think the other thing is these dampers really the beauty of them is that they're position sensitive so the further you dig into them they're going to offer you that extra damping force so it's kind of funny when you're picking along slowly the truck can feel like a little bit stiff and then as you pick up your speed and you dig into that damper it just gets smoother and smoother till you're out here at 60 running over this washboard and it's it's straight up comfortable our off-roading sadly did have to end sometime so we're heading back to our hotel now and we're back here on road and of course most ZR2s are going to live a lot of their life on road so uh what are you feeling dad how's the truck handling out here just on the pavement it is softer than a typical Silverado a little more body roll to it you've got a little more road noise because of the aggressive tires on it it dips a little when you when you hit the brakes hard so it's it's showing off its characteristic which is an aggressive off-road suspension that's designed to soak up the hits so but you know what as a daily driver this is not going to penalize you this is is is not the crazy off-road type vehicle that really makes on on-road driving uncomfortable yeah so i think it's a great balance yeah and now and now we have to get into sort of the competition and where this fits in with the competition because we know this is you know GM's halo off-road half ton that means we're and here's the thing it doesn't feel as outright bonkers as those two trucks right the the TRX freaking 700 horsepower is just crazy the Raptor's over 500 more suspension travel than this truck wider than this truck bigger tires than this truck so yeah there's no doubt Ford and Ram i think dad said it earlier they went whole hog on this thing they went through everything at the chevy was a little more reserved and i think the key there is the daily drivability it really is a comfortable truck out here on the road and you wouldn't be suffering because of all the off-road goodness and then and then the most important part is the price because if this cost the same as those two other trucks i wouldn't feel as good about it and i'll throw up all of the pricing here including the competition so you can see that yes this ZR2 is undercutting the Ford and the Ram and i think that's exactly where it had to be to make sure guys would come and look at it right because you're gonna get some people who just don't think the the standard powertrain is enough and for those guys well when you realize you're saving a bunch of money maybe you'll be okay with it then i think it's hit the sweet spot well folks you have heard everything we have to say about this truck but of course we have a real expert here Andre Smirnoff from TFL truck so Andre why don't you tell the folks what you think of the ZR2 wait you're calling me the real expert yeah you know you guys are serious down there in Colorado no no you you do some serious stuff too what do i think about the truck tell me yeah well you know i i think that V8 sounds glorious it does that's a huge plus and it's a good all-around truck yeah it's got the luxury i think the price is a little bit high okay what do you think well i mean as long as it's undercutting Raptor and TRX which it is i think that's the key could it be lower maybe but i do think at least it's not the same price as those two trucks but today on the trails we hit uh i actually was glad i'm not on a TRX or the Raptor because we hit some narrow trails absolutely it's not that big wide body of those trucks too right and then on road it's really livable yeah it's totally comfortable uh your seats you know cool you off uh lots of tech i love that yeah beautiful well thanks Andre hey steve uh if you're done sunbathing it's time to close this video it's so nice out here and it's still so cold at home i gotta soak up as much sun as i can okay come on get to work well folks we have come to the end of our day with this Silverado ZR2 so what is the verdict well i gotta tell you this truck has been a long time coming since the day Ford launched the Raptor we've been waiting for a Chevrolet competitor and finally here it is now no it is not an all-out Raptor killer but when you consider the off-road performance the on-road performance and the price point this is a compelling package so folks that's the end of this one now please go below into the comments let me know what you think of the new ZR2 or ZR2 as always while you're down there don't forget to hit like hit subscribe hit join to become a member and then come right back here to Truck King to see what we are testing next see ya