All-Terraining on the Streets of Los Angeles

By Tom Gomez

I got the assignment to test drive the new GMC Sierra 2500 HD 4WD Crew Cab SLT with the All-Terrain X package. As I got into the heavily gated facility for press vehicles, there it was. OMG, it was like the sun was shining only on the truck, you know like you see in the movies where the ray of bright sunshine is streaming down on earth from heaven. Yeah, it was like that.

My favorite color is black until a darker color comes along, and guess what? The GMC was black, with black wheels, black interior, and black bumpers to match its black tires. I was wearing a black t-shirt and black jeans with black socks and I have black hair. I was one with the truck!

Our test truck is a four-wheel drive and with a push of button you can switch from two-wheel to four-wheel drive, and hit the off road with confidence. Those looking for more off-roading capabilities can add the Z71 off-road suspension package as an option on the All Terrain X, adding performance Rancho shocks, Hill Descent Control, and a shield for the underbody transfer case.

Two engine choices are available under this crew cab pickup's massive hood - the 6.0-liter gas V8 or the all-new Duramax 6.6-liter turbo-diesel V8. The gasoline-powered V8 continues to make 360 horsepower and 380 pound-feet of torque, while the new Duramax turbo-diesel generates 445 horsepower and 910 pound-feet of torque. If you notice there is a hood scoop. Is it functional you ask? Hell yes it is! It’s a little deceiving when you first open the hood it looks like the hood scoop is just for looks , but when you trace the plumbing it goes straight to the induction system and yes it works!

Our test truck had the 6.6 turbo diesel V8 and yeah it is awesome. One, it doesn’t smell. Two, it’s probably one of the quietest diesel engines on the planet. Inside the very luxurious, functional cab you cannot hear the diesel engine unless you accelerate hard then you can hear the faint sound of a turbo diesel, but normal acceleration not much different than a gas engine and it does have tremendous torque. After only one day of driving this diesel I was hooked!

RIDE

A lot of your readers will ask ‘how’s the ride?” Well the ride is pretty good. This behemoth rides like a half-ton truck on the freeway and in town is not bad. Turning radius was pretty good as we purposely made legal U turns on busy city streets while other drivers stared in horror that we weren’t going to make the turn. We wanted to yell out the window, “Watch this!” or “I am a professional ma'am.”

So, with all this beefiness the truck handles great in town and on the freeway, but how does it handle off-road? A couple of things: If you are going to construction sites or out to the desert pulling a loaded toy hauler, this truck will definitely do it and then some. But if you have been watching off-road racing on TV and the trucks are flying over giant hills and are hauling ass through the desert at 140 mph. Well, you can forget that.

Bear in mind that these production trucks are made for the everyday guy or girl that will haul stuff from the lumberyard, pull trailers and haul equipment to and from a construction site.

INTERIOR

What can we say about the interior that hasn’t been said already? I have two words: Black leather. The GMC 2500 HD is covered in it. Not just leather but it pretty much has everything that a high-end luxury car has. Power everything, windows, door locks, heated seats, power fold away outside mirrors, back up camera, power sunroof, power back sliding window, power adjustable pedals, whew! Can I stop now, I think you get the idea?

The whole interior is very easy to use and is comfortable on long trips. The one thing that I noticed and maybe that’s why I keep coming back to GM products, is even with all the new amenities that this truck offers, the one thing that was familiar to me and made me smile was the familiarity of the turning the key and the adjustment of the tilt steering in a one-two motion.

It had the same comfortable feel as my 1999 Chevy Suburban. Pure GM. If you think about it my ’99 Suburban is 19 years old and runs awesome, and to have a 19 year old vehicle have the same tight comfortable feel as a 2017 GMC truck is Nirvana for me and proves how GM trucks are continuously quality built.

ON THE STREETS OF L.A. AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

After some serious time maneuvering through dry creeks and steep hills it was time to really test the 2017 GMC HD 2500 Diesel. What? You may ask? Isn’t the rough terrain steep hills, desert conditions, rattlesnakes and the occasional horny Toad, rough conditions? No it isn’t.

Quick note, I never understood why they called them horny toads because if they were that horny, you would see them everywhere, right? Just Kidding!

If any of you have driven the mean streets of L.A. or cruised the wonderful freeways of Southern California, you know we have traffic. It use to be bad morning traffic and in the afternoon 5:00 everybody going home bad traffic.

Now it’s all day bumper-to-bumper bad traffic. Where are you people coming from and where are you going?

I am a seasoned California driver and I have seen it all in my commutes to and from Orange county and L.A. and yes, it can be brutal, unless you're driving a GMC Sierra HD 6.6 diesel.

One, this truck is like a freight train it’s big and long, so these little commuter Kamikaze drivers who like to cut you off or speed up and then dive right in front of you and hit the brakes, well they actually take the time to decide if that’s a good idea or not. Granted not all of them, there are still some who have a death wish. They speed up, glance at you about 20- times trying to decide whether to cut you off and risk getting impaled by a giant black bumper or to stay in their lane. So in this case bigger is better.

Two, this truck is got all the amenities of a luxury car. Comfortable leather seating, ice cold air conditioning, badass sound system and because you sit up high a great view of what’s happening down the road. Not only that but the GPS will let you know what’s going on before you get there. The first time we experience that, we thought we were getting a phone call from the sound system! LOL ! In a sense we were.

Thirdly, the truck is a diesel. Diesels rarely get hot under extreme conditions, and they are made to idle for hours with no ill effects. So sitting in 105 degree heat bumper to bumper with every irate driver in southern California wasn’t that bad. In fact quite relaxing knowing that you weren’t going to overheat anytime soon and with ice cold air conditioning and tunes, yeah it was “Very Fine”.

Now back to some in-town driving. Because it’s a big truck you think we would be limited to where we can go in town with tight turns and small parking lots. If you have never owned a large pickup truck you should practice because it takes some getting use to. Now the factory backup camera and front sensors are really helpful to let you know exactly how close you are to another car or anything that might damage your rig.

BOTTOM LINE

The truck has brains and beauty and the complete functionality for what it was made for. The aggressive off road look is for the most part is very good, but don’t let the big wheels and tires lure you into the next Baja 1000. Maybe as a heavy duty reliable truck to tow the loaded car trailer with your real off road race truck, then yes, buy it.

One last thing, speaking of trailers, the truck is equipped with an engine brake which cuts out some of the compression on the cylinders to slow the vehicle down especially under a load when you’re going downhill. Some of you hardcore guys know this as a “Jake brake” on semi trucks. The only difference is on the new GMC Sierra HD you don’t hear that obnoxious BRRRRaaaaaaappp. Sound, that all truckers know.

So, we hope that we were informative and gave you an idea what to expect when you want to purchase this very cool vehicle. For us here, we are going to ask for a raise so that we can go out and purchase this vehicle and be on a perpetual test drive! Happy motoring people!

The author is a Contributing Editor of LA Car, a long-time truck aficionado, and one of the founding writers for Lowrider Magazine. For specifications and more photographs, go to LACar.com.