This past Saturday, Chevrolet made our weekend by unveiling the 2019 Silverado 1500 at the Chevy Truck Centennial celebration in Texas. Despite showing off the Silverado Trailboss variant of the all-new Silverado in production form and driving it on the in-field of the Texas Motor Speedway, the Bowtie brand didn’t share too many details about the new truck. But one specific detail in Chevy’s announcement caught our eye – and it’s about the truck’s bed.
“The new Silverado also delivers improved capability and performance”, reads Chevy’s official press release on the 2019 Silverado. “For example, a higher-grade alloy is used in the roll-formed, high-strength-steel bed floor, contributing to a bed that is more functional and lighter weight.”
Using steel in the bed of the 2019 Silverado runs contrary to recent rumors of GM using carbon fiber for the beds of its trucks. We should note that this still might be a possibility for the future Silverado (the generation after this all-new, 2019 model). Chevy’s usage of high-strength steel in 2019 Silverado’s bed is also in stark contrast to heavy usage of “military-grade aluminum” used by the Ford F-Series in order to reduce weight. In fact, Chevrolet has notoriously poked fun at Ford for using aluminum in the bed of its F-Series, with several Chevy ads showing how the Silverado’s roll-formed steel bed is more durable than the aluminum unit of the F-150 (see video below). Notably, these ads were for the current Silverado (on the K2 platform); hence, we imagine that the bed of the new 2019 Silverado will be even more durable.
Alas, that is all we currently know about the 2019 Silverado’s bed, but we expect to find out much more at the truck’s debut at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit on January 13th, 2018, or perhaps prior. So be sure to follow our Chevy Silverado news coverage.
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Comments
This is awesome! I’m glad GM is employing ingenuity in engineering and utilizing high strength steel in place of Aluminum! Whether or not they end up offering a carbon fiber bed makes no difference at this point, as long as enough weight has been siphoned off the current trucks, I’m sold on what their doing now! So far, the new Silverado is looking quite promising! I just hope they soon unveil more innovation as we enter the NAIAS 2018! Because as of now, Ford is simply dominating the segment, and the current crop of GM trucks just aren’t cutting it!
Disagree with you on the last sentence. Ford isn’t dominating any segments. Thru 11 months of this year GM is outselling Ford in truck segment and doing it with over 10% less fleet sales.
There really isn’t any reason to have a CF bed either on the LT or even the luxury trims, where it DOES make sense is for those who tow heavy things aka the dualies…
So will this force Ford to change their bed materials? And will customers make Ford pay for their decision for using all aluminum?