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Sep 05, 2023

The Four

And, no, the engine won’t blow up in a spectacular fireball—or at all. A

And, no, the engine won't blow up in a spectacular fireball—or at all.

A full-size pickup truck with a four-cylinder engine? Yes. It happened. It's real. It's fine. No need to panic, the sun continues to rise each morning. Besides, take a look at the power specs for a minute: 310 hp, 348 lb-ft of torque available from 1,500 rpm. Those look like healthy truck numbers to me. One that could haul a load, even. And, don't worry, Chevrolet isn't claiming the Silverado with the 2.7-liter engine can tow 5 tons of gravel. For this four-wheel-drive, double-cab example, maximum tow capacity is 6,700 pounds. That's 800 pounds less than the equivalent V6 truck and more than a ton less than either V8.

This doesn't call for vitriol. It calls for a test. And it just so happens I have just the thing in mind. My family has a 17.5-foot open-bow Larson motorboat that needed to move from its former home in Traverse City, Michigan, to metro Detroit. This is not a particularly heavy load. The boat, full of fuel, weighs around 2,250 pounds and the trailer it rides on is about 750 pounds. In addition to that I had a not terribly heavy, but large, pile of stuff to haul down, as well. We’ll tack on a few hundred pounds and put the grand total of payload and towing at 3,500 pounds.

But first I needed to get to Traverse City. With just me and a few tools in the truck, I set off on the 240-mile journey, setting cruise control at 80 mph. I arrived at my uncle's place where the boat was stored having averaged 21 mpg, right in line with the EPA's combined figure. After some prep work, it was time to load the Silverado with stuff.

Our poor family boat and trailer had been neglected for years. I was quite nervous of the tires' condition, the bearings and, well, everything in general, so I brought plenty of repairing and replacing a trailer tire equipment: jack, jack stands, breaker bar, tools, ratcheting straps, etc. In addition to that, I was hauling down water skis, a wakeboard, inner tubes, gas tanks, the boat cover and three plastic 55-gallon drums my uncle didn't want anymore. Fortunately, Chevrolet's latest light duty truck includes 12 tie-down locations, three per corner.

I finally finished loading the truck, and it was time to hitch up. This Silverado did have the trailering package, including something called hitch guidance. It's a backup-style camera aimed right at the hitch and drawing a straight orange line just beyond it to give you a way to precisely aim. Without any guidance, I was able to line the ball directly underneath the coupler, connect it and begin the journey home.

When I first set off, I’ll admit the Silverado made some sounds that were unnerving me. Hearing a four-cylinder whine at first felt unnatural—it sounded labored and intense, like an overworked machine, with critical components getting hot. I checked all the gauges. Coolant and oil temp both read normal. But the noise still bothered me until I noticed how little throttle I was applying.

So, I floored it. The eight-speed transmission kicked down a couple gears and I set off, accelerating as hard as you’d expect an unloaded four-cylinder truck to. Clearly, the Silverado I4 has plenty of reserve power and I was being paranoid. With nerves settled, I merged on to the freeway, set cruise for 68 mph and headed home. The Silverado could go faster, but I was still nervous about the trailer tires.

As I pulled in to my driveway I checked the trip-down fuel economy: 13.9 mpg. Not bad. My round trip, more than 480 miles, returned an average 16.8 mpg. And, aside from paranoia, the 2.7-liter works as claimed, producing zero drama. Additionally, the ride is pleasant with the load, the brakes work well (no electric trailer brakes for this setup), and the seats prove plenty comfortable for the long day.

This is a good time to point out a few caveats. My boat/trailer combination added up to little more than half of the max tow rating. The parts of Michigan I traveled include little more than a few rolling hills. Weather was warm, sunny, with nothing more than mild winds. Not ideal conditions, but close. I am not claiming this to be the end-all-trailer-tests test, just an example. And in this example, the four-cylinder Silverado worked well.

Choosing the 2.7-liter inline-four Silverado and its eight-speed automatic transmission doesn't mean you’re now better equipped than anyone for serious work. But, if you like trucks and do have the occasional family trip to the lake with your boat, you now know a so-equipped truck does the job fine. The biggest, and really only, hurdles to overcome are your mental ones.

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