2018 Chevy Colorado Z71

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great08

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AEV Chevy Colorado Rims

This is a vid of two ZR2s and a Raptor out having fun off-roading and followed up by taking some scenic high speed off-road most of the way home. The gas ZR2 has on some new AEV rims and said that in the high speed dirt road cruising it was much more stable... and that it was getting him into trouble due to cruising about 15mph faster than normal.

He accidentally jumped his truck, and almost flew off of the side of the road a few times, as well as hitting some rough obstacles too hard. His truck survived for the return trip but he had to get out and inspect it a few times.

I have a feeling that I will one day be wanting to upgrade my shocks so that it will perform better for this type of driving. My stock shocks should be fine @ handling the heat... but will not handle as well @ higher speeds like these guys were doing. However, I am a cheap bastard... so I may just slow down and deal with it. Also, throwing a load into a truck (AKA what overlanders tend to do) has a tendency to settle down the suspension and provide a much cushier ride. I once threw about 1200lbs into the back of my old 1st Gen Colorado. That thing rode like a Cadillac... but somehow had even less lean into corners! I wonder how that worked?

Looks like the ZR2 can take a beating and keep on going after seeing some of those hits.

The high speed dirt track driving starts @ around the 8:30min mark...

 
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He beats Raptor times all the time with his ZR2, especially when on tighter courses. His times are even better with his new rims. And he punishes that poor thing, lol. But it always seems to take it.
 
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madcratebuilder

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jplemons said:
He beats Raptor times all the time with his ZR2, especially when on tighter courses. His times are even better with his new rims. And he punishes that poor thing, lol. But it always seems to take it.
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The new bead locks allow high speed corners at low tire pressure without debeading the tires. Carlos does the best vids around imho, shows the strong and weak points of the different rigs. I was surprised that the ZR2 competed so well against the Raptors.
 
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madcratebuilder said:
The new bead locks allow high speed corners at low tire pressure without debeading the tires. Carlos does the best vids around imho, shows the strong and weak points of the different rigs. I was surprised that the ZR2 competed so well against the Raptors.
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I was surprised too. I am still trying to figure out if it is just driver capability/skill/guts... or the truck. I imagine that driver confidence makes a huge difference.

I know that my confidence would double by... just having a truck that costs half as much! lol

If I had a massive Raptor and a massive payment... I would ease off of the throttle a lot. Which is something that does not show up in a vehicle's specs sheet.

Both trucks are super amazing machines though. It is a good time to be a truck guy! No matter your favorite flavor.
 
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great08

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madcratebuilder said:
Those guys had a grand time.
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What is really cool is that they did the same test in the same spot in the same conditions with a Raptor... and had to use a winch to get unstuck! Being lighter... and skinnier matters a lot when off road.

Did you know the Raptor is almost as wide as an H1 was? 1/4” skinnier than a H1.

The Tundra didn’t get anywhere near that far though. It needed some tires pretty badly, which makes a massive difference.
 
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When I drove the Raptor it felt larger than my 2000 Chevy 1tn CC dully. Weight is one of several reasons I went with a ext cab colorado, 200lbs lighter than the CC and I have a longer bed. Tires and wheel base make a huge difference.
 
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Snow is weird. I've gone up a trail and had excellent traction only to come back the same way later in the day to find out that the traction levels have dropped significantly due to some top layer melting. Snow traction can change drastically so it's hard to discredit the Raptor unless they drove both trucks on the same exact trail at the same time taking turns leading. :)
 
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JCWages said:
Snow is weird. I've gone up a trail and had excellent traction only to come back the same way later in the day to find out that the traction levels have dropped significantly due to some top layer melting. Snow traction can change drastically so it's hard to discredit the Raptor unless they drove both trucks on the same exact trail at the same time taking turns leading. :)
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You are right on that one. The Raptor is a beastly truck no matter how you look at it. I would not mind owning one.
 
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alexdnick said:
Liking everyone’s builds in this thread. Hope to see the community continue to grow to the size of the Tacos
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I hope so too. That would be an awesome thing to see. The Tacoma following is quite the site.

I can’t wait to make as many memories with my kids as I can!

We may be witnessing the birth of a following... just maybe.
 
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great08

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Sorry for the sideline lately folks. House hunting has taken up some serious time! If I get the house I want I will end up with a full acre! A big... empty... acre to fill up with awesomeness over the years... set in a very nice neighborhood.


Here is an awesome vid that showed up in my video feed earlier today. Long Story short they both did great. However, I kept pretending that the TRD Pro was a Z71 in my head. The type of driving they did in this vid came nowhere close to pushing either truck to their limits on shock quality or angles. This was pretty much a battle of traction and both did great.

The TRD Pro is essentially the same setup as my Z71 Colorado (in mud traction regards). A true 4WD with rear locker only... and the EXACT same tires. I do have a better crawl ratio but worse angles... neither of which mattered in this situation.

So... I may want to get the ZR2 style tires after mine wear out. Especially if I get a home just a few miles from work. Fuel economy won't matter no more! I may even be willing to do a mild level kit in the front and diff re-gear as well to take strain off of the drivetrain. Having great hwy fuel economy is great , however, I would rather have more power when needed... and a drivetrain that lasts longer. I have noticed over the years that the dudes with over 500k miles on their trucks drive like a grandpa and usually have a low gear ratio in the rear end.

 
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emulous74 said:
So the Duratecs that come on the ZR2 are decent tires, but they are still street biased and just have the looks of an all-terrain. I think for most folks they will perform admirably off-road. They are pretty bad on road in the rain. I always had to switch to AWD mode in the rain with them because they would slip constantly. I switched to BFG K02's on my Bison, and while they are louder than the Duratecs, they perform better off-road and have a great ride on-road. I even ran them on my Honda Element and they performed great on that. This is just my own opinion.
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I agree although the Duratracs are a bit more of a hybrid all-terrain/mud tire so they are better in thick mud than the K02 or Wildpeak AT3W. However, like emulous74 said, they are terrible in the rain. I had to use Auto4wd on twisty roads or the back end would swing out on me. They also tend to get very loud after 25k or so and are prone to cupping. The KO2s are better for wet traction but not everyone loves the wet traction on them either but overall they are a great AT tire. The Wildpeak AT3W is currently a top choice for all around use and the wet traction is outstanding compared to the Duratrac and KO2 and ST Maxx. The only trouble with the Wildpeak is sometimes people have a hard time balancing them and have to have tires swapped out because they simply won't balance. Every AT tire has had this issue but it seems more predominant with the Wildpeak. Having run everything except the ST Maxx and Ridge Grappler in all kinds of conditions I feel pretty good about my assessments. Plus I'm a tire nerd so I read the reviews and browse the other truck and SUV forums for opinions/experiences as well. lol
 
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