Climb the Truck Ladder: The Silverado 1500, 2500, and 3500

Buying a pickup truck is exciting, but it’s not always an easy process. To begin with, prices can be ridiculous, especially in the big city. It’s important to know where to go to find the best deals. Why work with a used Chevy dealership in Atlanta proper when you can go out of the city and get a far better deal? Duluth is less than an hour out of town, and we’ve got deals waiting for you. Just sayin’.

But, even beyond the prices, there is an abundance of options. If it’s your first time buying a truck, you may be unsure as to which features are most important, especially if you are unsure what kind of work you’ll need to tackle over time. Midsize? Full-size? Heavy-duty? What kind of engine do I need? What specs are good specs? These are all very reasonable questions to be asking.

We’ll tell you right now that if you’re using your truck for any significant amount of work, you’ll want to take midsize out of the picture, meaning you’re looking at a full-size truck at the very least. In Chevy language, this means you’ll be looking at a Silverado 1500, 2500, or 3500. They’re all the same truck, but it’s different degrees of the same truck. You don’t want to have too much or too little while trucking, so you’ll want to understand the differences between these three to come to an educated decision. And we are here to educate you.

The Silverado 1500

This is where it all begins. The Silverado 1500 is one of the most celebrated trucks on the market. It is a specifically fantastic truck to purchase used. Why? Because Chevy is always ahead of the game. So, a used Chevy Silverado 1500 is likely to perform at or above the level of many new trucks from other leading brands.

Recent model years will have you reaching up to 420 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque with the V8 engine, while many other new trucks don’t even reach the 400s in their performance specs. The Silverado 1500 is ideal for anybody purchasing a truck for personal work jobs and projects; it is definitely a decent hunk of truck, but it is manageable in size and still feels like a family vehicle. It will take up a significant amount of space, but it won’t feel like parking a semi.

In terms of how much space is taken up and how that space is used, the Silverado 1500 gives you some flexibility. The Regular Cab will give you a two-door truck with an extra long bed, putting the emphasis on work over family use. You’ll sacrifice the back seats, but you’ll have significantly more cargo volume. The Double Cab provides the happy medium with a compact two-dar cab but the opportunity for a little extra space in the cargo bed (though not as much as the Regular Cab provides). This is ideal if you think you may be driving some small kids around with you as you use your truck, but not ideal if you’re looking to give adult passengers a comfortable riding experience.

If the backseat space is important to you, then the Crew Cab provides a much more spacious interior. Now, the exciting part about the Crew Cab is that it has two bed options: a short bed and a standard bed. The short bed is, of course, the smallest bed available, but the standard bed is actually the same size as the bed provided with the Double Cab. So, the Crew Cab provides more interior space and more bed space. If you don’t need the most bed space and you want some extra interior space, the Crew Cab with the Standard Bed is a no-brainer.

If you’re looking at a used Silverado 1500, 2019 might be the best recent model year. The truck underwent a significant overhaul and redesign. It lost 450 pounds, making it lighter, more versatile, and more highly capable than ever. This year also has some great trims ready to specify your vehicle for all kinds of adventure (namely, off-road adventures). The 1500 has fantastic maximum towing and payload capacities (12,200 and 2,280, respectively, in the 2019 model) and can be optimized with available packages.

Overall, if you’re looking for a highly-capable truck to take care of significant and manageable workloads, the Silverado is a fun and manageable full-size truck. Just hefty enough to be a workhorse but not too big to be overwhelming. Check it out.

The Silverado 2500

While the Silverado 1500 is a full-size truck, the Silverado 2500 begins the Heavy-Duty Silverado models. As you may have gleaned from the title, heavy-duty (HD) trucks have a heftier architecture, making them better suited to larger workloads. Once you understand the difference, you’ll start to know a full-size from a heavy-duty when you see them on the road. HD trucks have a little more girth to them and oftentimes look a little more professional than a full-size truck.

This, of course, makes heavy-duty trucks better suited to industrial and professional use for those of you looking to get a business off the ground. Truthfully, if you’re going to be using the truck mainly for professional use, you’ll want to keep reading to understand the significance of a 3500 because the 2500 is a good gap bridger between domestic and professional. So, if you’re using your truck on the worksite by day and the family by night, a used Chevy Silverado 2500 may be your best bet.

Now, before we get into the nitty-gritty of why this is so, it’s important to note that if you are a performance and trucking enthusiast, you will just have more fun in a heavy-duty truck. Heavy duty means more truck to enjoy! Alright, but what does “more truck” look like in the Silverado 2500?

How does 18,500 pounds of towing and 3,862 pounds of payload sound? It’s available on the 2020 Silverado 2500. That’s a hearty increase from the Silverado 1500, and if you’re using this for bigger jobs, that extra capacity will not go to waste. But, we know that for some of you, even specs like this aren’t enough. Rest assured that the Silverado does not give up here. No, it goes further. Much further.

The Silverado 3500

If you’re looking for a truck that really digs down and does the jobs that some would consider impossible, the Silverado 3500 will show them just how possible those jobs may be. This is the ideal truck for those seeking a hefty performer for industrial use, no matter what the business may be. Why is that?

Well, with a max trailering capacity of 35,500 pounds, a maximum payload of 7,442 pounds, 445 horsepower, and 910 pound-feet of torque, we think that the used Chevy Silverado 3500 has a leg up. We’re not fudging these numbers; these are real numbers available on the 2020 Silverado 3500. Now, not every 2020 Silverado 3500 will automatically come with the capability for all of these numbers together, but we’ll help you work out the details to make sure you have access to numbers like these.

The key is that you’re looking at over 20,000 pounds of towing capacity over the standard Silverado 1500. When you need to work, you need to work. You can’t tow 35,500 pounds on your own. That’s why you need a truck that can do it.

Working Your Way Up

It’s fun to track the increase of the Silverado’s capability as you work your way up the ladder from 1500 to 2500 to 3500. All three are great trucks; don’t let the capability of the 3500 trick you into thinking that the 1500 is in any way a “bad” truck. That is not the case at all! These three trucks have very different purposes.

If you want a great domestic truck that can take care of hefty workloads, the 1500 is your target. If you want an industrial champion of performance, the 3500 is the way to go. If you want something that bridges the gap, the 2500 hits the mark. There’s not a bad truck to be found in the Silverado lineup. Come on in and try all three; we’ll let you work your way up the ladder to find what’s best for you.