I currently drive a 1986 diesel K5 and I love it (pics below for fun). Its an animal off road, and with a fridge and stove slide out and solar its very comfortable to camp out of. It cruises happily at 75 mph with a turbo and overdrive manual trans and gets around 16 MPG.
But its really loud, hot in the summer and cold in the winter, and space is limited when taking a large group out for longer trips. I want something quiet and comfortable and better on fuel to use for long highway trips where I dont need serious off road capability. For the huge majority of travel I have done the last few years I have only needed 4 wheel drive in my K5 a few times (white rim, mojave road a couple times, 10-15 death valley trips, Zion, Bryce, Arches, tons of canyoneering in the north wash and the san rafael swell, etc). I hardly ever use the lockers, winch, etc. My friends just dont wheel that hard anymore unfortunately and I'm too chicken to do it solo anymore.
I've decided I want a new Sierra 1500 AT4, with the 3.0 diesel. It'll start as a simple build out similar to my K5. Fridge and stove slide out, water tank, battery and Victron power system, maybe some solar. All under a tonneau cover or maybe a bed cap/shell,. In the future maybe I add an Ovrlnd or GFC-style lightweight camper. The question is what bed length. My skis are 192cm (75.5 in), and with a fridge and stove and stuff bolted down and taking up space one side I would like to put them in straight front to back if possible
The truck comes in either a 69.9" or 79.4" bed, and I think I want the longer one. I'm curious what y'all think about the extra 10" of bed and wheel base for mild to moderate off road use. Hardscrabble on the white rim is likely as hard as I would go with this truck. If there was any "real" technical driving I would just take the K5 instead. My intuition is going from 147.4 to 157" wheel base probably doesn't make much difference, and my K5 is 106.5" so either truck is going to feel like a yacht in comparison anyway.
But its really loud, hot in the summer and cold in the winter, and space is limited when taking a large group out for longer trips. I want something quiet and comfortable and better on fuel to use for long highway trips where I dont need serious off road capability. For the huge majority of travel I have done the last few years I have only needed 4 wheel drive in my K5 a few times (white rim, mojave road a couple times, 10-15 death valley trips, Zion, Bryce, Arches, tons of canyoneering in the north wash and the san rafael swell, etc). I hardly ever use the lockers, winch, etc. My friends just dont wheel that hard anymore unfortunately and I'm too chicken to do it solo anymore.
I've decided I want a new Sierra 1500 AT4, with the 3.0 diesel. It'll start as a simple build out similar to my K5. Fridge and stove slide out, water tank, battery and Victron power system, maybe some solar. All under a tonneau cover or maybe a bed cap/shell,. In the future maybe I add an Ovrlnd or GFC-style lightweight camper. The question is what bed length. My skis are 192cm (75.5 in), and with a fridge and stove and stuff bolted down and taking up space one side I would like to put them in straight front to back if possible
The truck comes in either a 69.9" or 79.4" bed, and I think I want the longer one. I'm curious what y'all think about the extra 10" of bed and wheel base for mild to moderate off road use. Hardscrabble on the white rim is likely as hard as I would go with this truck. If there was any "real" technical driving I would just take the K5 instead. My intuition is going from 147.4 to 157" wheel base probably doesn't make much difference, and my K5 is 106.5" so either truck is going to feel like a yacht in comparison anyway.
