Even though the revised 2011 Chevy Silverado HD is a great truck, it still got out-trucked by Ford’s revised F350 Super Duty. But not all hope is lost, as we’ve received a few tips from trusted sources telling us that the un-announced 2011 GMC Sierra HD will top Silverado’s numbers.
If you’re not up to date on the latest developments of the truck wars, here’s a quick recap:
- Back in January Tom Stephens, Vice Chairman of global product development at GM, challenged Ford’s Super Dutys to a tug-of-war match with the revised GM Heavy Duty trucks. Ford courteously chickened out
- Then GM unveiled the 2011 Silverado HD at the Chicago Auto Show, but didn’t release all of the numbers behind the serious truck. What we got were the payload and towing capacities, but not the horsepower and torque figures. We later received a few tips that these numbers would be somewhere around 400 hp and 700 lb.-ft. of torque
- Interestingly, the release of the updated Silverado HDs weren’t joined by their GMC Sierra counterparts at Chicago
- And that’s when the trouble began: last week, Ford released the numbers for its updated Super Duty trucks that ended up out-towing and out-payloading GM’s Heavy Dutys. Here’s a quick table using the diesel powerplants of both trucks (GM 6.6L Duramax and Ford’s 6.7L Power Stroke):
| 2011 | Chevy Silverado HD | Ford F350 |
| Payload | 6,335 lbs | 6,520 lbs |
| Towing | 20,000 lbs | 21,600 lbs |
Fast forward to today, when we were informed by a very trusted source that the 2011 GMC Sierra will open up a can of you-know-what on Ford’s Super Duty trucks, with one of our sources saying “GM will unveil its true numbers with the GMC.” That’s all the information we have right now, so stay tuned as GM reveals the revised Sierra HD as well as Silverado’s exact horsepower and torque figures in the coming days.
Comments
But it didn’t top the numbers, in fact, Silverado is selling over 75% more. Combined GM trucks range from slightly behind to a good percentage behind Ford in sales, recently it’s pretty close. Even with the “Cummins high output” which is only available in a limited number, the Silverado would smack the Ram in the Rumble in the Rockies, with a perfected axel, transmission and engine, just like it beat the Super Duty. HP on paper isn’t tested int he real world, and since the Silverado HD is the only heavy duty truck with a full-boxed frame it has a strong advantage over any other truck.