Pickup trucks and durability go together like America and apple pie. And the new GMC CarbonPro carbon fiber composite box for the 2019 Sierra takes the truck’s already-high durability and turns it up several notches to deliver the most durable pickup truck bed in the history of the pickup truck. Besides its primary benefit of extremely high durability, the CarbonPro box also carries several secondary benefits over traditional steel-rolled beds. One of these is the added benefit of not needing to install rear wheelhouse liners.
Wheelhouse liners, otherwise known as wheel well liners, are the (typically flimsy) plastic pieces installed in the wheel well to keep water, dirt, and other debris from infiltrating a vehicle’s underside. On pickup trucks specifically, rear wheelhouse liners keep debris and moisture away from the underside of the box, helping to prevent corrosion and rust on the metal bed.
A stronger, aftermarket wheelhouse liner being installed on a GM K2 pickup truck
But thanks to its increased dent resistance compared to aluminum, the CarbonPro box doesn’t require rear wheelhouse liners. And since the box is not made of metal but rather of a stronger and more resistant carbon fiber composite material, it eliminates the need to keep dirt, grime, and moisture away from it.
The GMC CarbonPro carbon fiber composite bed also delivers various other benefits. The entire construction is so strong that one does not need a spray-in bed liner. In addition, the surface of the truck bed features a grained surface and the lightweight material also increases the Sierra’s payload capacity.
The box also features three indentations and two additional tie-downs at the front to help secure the wheels of motorcycles.
The one thing we don’t know about the CarbonPro box at the moment is its price. At first, GMC will offer the box on limited-run models branded as GMC Sierra CarbonPro Edition, which will be available with the 2019 Sierra AT4 1500 and 2019 Sierra Denali 1500. However, availability will be expanded on the 2020 GMC Sierra.
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Comments
Hopefully this is a bigger success for GM than the short-lived Pro-Tec box.
What was the Pro-Tec box? I don’t remember it.
In 2001, GM first offered a composite box. The conveyors for it are still partially abandoned inside Fort Wayne Assembly. $100 million dollar blunder, not counting R&D. They added onto the plant for this, and built them for less than 1 calendar year across 2 model years.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/08/when-gm-couldnt-think-outside-the-box-remembering-pro-tec/
I don’t understand how the carbon fiber bed is going to keep the rear wheel wells from rusting out. The bed rusting out hasn’t been the problem, its always been the wheel wells rusting from the inside out. Any GM or Ram older than 5 years old around hear has at a minimum rust bubbles showing on the rear wheel wells.
It is not the wheel wells that are rusting it is the lip of the quarter panel. All trucks tend to rust there as do few ever flush that area when washing.
But with the Carbon Pro bed the Quarter panels are bolt on so if they rust or get damaged they can be easily replaced.
As for fender lip rust here in the snow and salt belt it takes about 12 years on the GM trucks not 5 years to show bubbles.
I do remember in the old trucks they had no rear well liners. The steel bed wells would have stone dings from under the truck and fractured paint.
Its not an issue with flushing it out, there is/was a design issue with the way the rear quarter panels were constructed. At least on my 2003, there was not a way to flush that area out. I wasn’t exaggerating about the 5 year mark.
There’s hundreds of the gmt-900’s around here where the the bed sides are completely rotted away a good 2-3 inches up starting at the lip. 12 years? Here it’s more like 6 and the beds are toast. Those came out in late 07 and it was literally in 2013 you started seeing severe bubbles over the rear wheels everywhere on the road. The same thing has been showing up the last couple of years on the F-150’s that came out in 09/10. Rotted out in the same area to the same extent the Chevy’s are. Again, the 6 year mark on those too. Both the GM/Ford models started using paper thin sheet metal on those trucks and it’s worthless.
GM needs to offer not only a carbon inner section of the bed but the outer panels too. They need to market it properly as well. The few Pro-Tec boxes that are around still look like new. Had customers actually understood the benefits back then I’m convinced they would have sold in large numbers.
They need to do the rocker panels and cab corners too as those are the next to go.
That bed rust is one of the first things I look for when doing a trade evaluation on a truck. Ford is definitely the worst, but everyone went to that thin sheet metal for weight and cost savings. It holds up fine during the comprehensive warranty period (most buyers have no clue about the rust warranty so there are virtually no claims ever filed), but breaks down way too easily over time.
These liners are there for refinement and noise insulation. Reduction in tire & road noise, reduce “road sizzle,” water splashing on to the body.
Water, sand, dirt, leaves, etc. will still get in there.
Agreed. Ford doesn’t have these, even on their nicest trim levels, and that’s one of the reasons the GMC is a much quieter ride. (But then Ford makes theirs ride “like a truck” because that’s what the majority of their buyers say they want.)
Rocks will destroy the carbon fiber…
Well, the G2 Honda Ridgeline has a bed made up of a composite something or other and I haven’t heard anything concerning them failing. Of course the G2 Ridgeline isn’t very old but it should give us an idea on how this will pan out. In the case of the GMC I’m sure it’ll be fairly $$$.
The Ridgeline uses a form of fiberglass for their bed, and it was actually born of a GM process:
https://www.autonews.com/article/20050124/SUB/501240701/honda-ridgeline-forgoes-steel-for-composite-bed
Fiberglass is far less durable than carbon fiber (assuming both are properly produced), but Honda Ridgelines are generally subjected to less abuse than larger trucks (at least among those who actually use their trucks as trucks). I sell GMCs next door to our Honda store, so maybe I have a good perspective here? I haven’t heard of any issues with the bed in the Ridgeline.
Again, from my perspective selling the GMCs, my theory is that they are using this not so much to create the ultimate truck bed (but not that they would be opposed to that either), but rather as a test platform of the specific carbon fiber manufacturing process. It’s not like most carbon fiber, as it doesn’t have to be as durable as many carbon fiber applications. They even chop up and recycle the trimmed sections of beds into the next batch. That’s unheard of with most carbon fiber processes which favor either ultimate strength or appearance. I think they’re wanting to see how well this more affordable approach holds up, with other plans for the technology in the future (body panels? frames? who knows?). That’s entirely my theory, with no actual source of proprietary information or whatever. We’ll see, I guess.
This is not carbon fiber like in aircraft or Ferrari’s. This is really a thermoplastic composite fit a mix of carbon threads.
Traditional carbon fiber is made like traditional fiberglass win sheets of fiber with resin. They lay it out in layers then they bake it in an autoclave.
This material is more like sheet molded fiberglass. In this case they make the blank panels in Japan and then press them in heated presses to the shape they need. This cuts production time from hours to minutes thus lowering the cost.
The material is very tough as the have tested it for over 8 years. It was tested against the steel and aluminum beds and it has held up better. It was in these test where they found the Ford bed would puncture.
I have seen a video of a bobcat dropping a bucket of cement blocks from high up with no damage to show for it.
The real issue was UV light and protecting the carbon from it. It can damage the material. The other was warp like on the old Composite bed GM did. Both have been resolved.
Right now I expect the price to be around $1500 to $2000 max. Prices should drop as time goes on.
Hard to tell if the CarbonPro box will be able to accept clamp on Tonneau covers. Can’t tell if there will be a lip along the side bed rails where the cover would clamp on to. I like the idea of the carbon bed, and would pay the extra $3k to have it, but not if it can’t be enclosed.
Covers will not be a problem.
Please elaborate on covers will not be a problem as there is no lip for the cover to clamp onto. Is there a bracket you can get?
LET ME KNOW. I JUST TRADED MY 2018 SLT THAT HAD A SLIDE LOCKABLE COVER. I JUST CALL THE PLACE THAT INSTALLED AND THEY SAID THEY CANT INSTALL A COVER BECAUSE OF NO LIP.