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by Garth W. Cane
Since January, we have been conducting a
long term test of the Chevy Silverado crew cab 3500HD truck
with a Duramax engine, 3.73 axle ratio and dual rear wheels.
This beast has been put through unimaginable duty towing
boats, snowmobiles, cargo trailers and fifth wheels. Over
hill and dale, to Florida and back, the truck has not surprised
us with its ability to haul just about anything that we
have been able to hook on to it.
 The
heart of this unit is the Duramax 6600 V8 deisel engine
built by a joint venture of Isuzu and General Motors at
a new facility in Morraine, Ohio. With four valves per cylinder
that optimize air flow in and out of the engine, improves
breathing at higher rpms, processes more air and generates
more power. This modern engine has a slight twist to the
valves, giving incoming air a swirl effect that helps improve
combustion and control emissions.
Isuzu has built and sold more than 13 million
deisel engines over the past 60 years and this experience
has produced a dynamite engine for the GM line of trucks
that outperforms its competitors. This new engine replaces
the old 6.5 turbo deisel with better fuel economy, and a
longer life. This engine is designed to still be powering
a recreational vehicle after 200,000 miles on the road with
a heavy trailer in tow. The turbocharged, aftercooled Duramax
puts out more horsepower and torque than the Dodge 5.9L
or the Ford 7.3L engines. A whopping 300 horsepower with
520 pounds-feet of torque generates more low speed torque
and better acceleration to tow heavy trailers to your destination.
This unit is amazingly quiet- you can even hear the radio
and talk to each other as you drive down the road. Even
with a cold engine you will not shatter the calm and sleep
of your camping neighbours as your engine roars into life
for an early morning start.
The front section of the modular frame is
hydroformed from tubes for exceptional strength in a rugged
truck. The mid rails are roll formed using high-strength
low-alloy (HSLA) steel for the strong C-shape cross section.
The rear section of the frame is formed from HSLA stamping
with a deeper 200mm C-shaped cross section for extra rigidity
when mounting trailer hitches. (Page
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