2024 Chevy Silverado HD ZR2 Bison First Drive: The Ideal Vehicle For The End Times

Sometimes I like to daydream about what vehicle would make the best end-of-times vehicle, the one that could power me through hell and high water to come out unscathed on the other side. Obviously, I’d want something with off-road capabilities to compensate for the inevitable crumbling of our infrastructure. I’d want to tackle terrains that few other people can touch. I’d want to be able to haul things, whether that’s dragging a friend from disaster or snatching a big trailer for pillaging purposes. Plus, I’d really just want to have something way bigger than anything else on the road. This past week, I found that the 2024 Chevy Silverado HD ZR2 Bison is just that vehicle.

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Full Disclosure: Chevy invited me out to Palm Springs, California to get my hands on every member of the ZR2 off-roading family, including the Bison.

Photo: Jalopnik / Elizabeth Blackstock

What Is The 2024 Chevy Silverado HD ZR2 Bison?

The 2024 Chevy Silverado HD ZR2 Bison is a little late to the heavy-duty off-road truck game. Between Ram’s 2500 HD Power Wagon and Ford’s F-250 Tremor, GM diehards have been wondering exactly when it’ll be their turn to nab a big ol’ truck that can handle rugged terrain. Look no further: the Silverado HD ZR2 Bison is here.

The Bison name comes from Chevy’s partnership with American Expeditionary Vehicles, or AEV. Basically, this is Chevy’s way of giving buyers range-topping off-road features right from GM — no need to hit the aftermarket for parts. You’re getting unique steel pumpers with integrated winches and recovery points, distinct wheels and interior trim, plus stamped steel skid plates to protect the engine, steering rack, transfer case, and exhaust. Plus, you’re getting three-spool Multimatic dampers, an exclusive off-road mode, and 35-inch all-terrain tires. Off-road enthusiasts will appreciate 11.8 inches of ground clearance, an approach angle of 29.8 degrees, a departure angle of 25.7 degrees, and a breaker angle of 22.6 degrees.

You have two engine options: the 6.6-liter V8 gas engine, or the 6.6-liter V8 Duramax diesel. In the desert, I was behind the wheel of the gas-powered Silverado HD, which makes 401 horsepower and 464 lb-ft of torque; the Diesel power plant will bump you up to 470 hp and 975 lb-ft of torque.

And for those of you who are as keen on hauling a house as you are on hitting the trail, you can still tow either 16,000 or 18,500 lbs depending on whether you opt for the gas or diesel engine, respectively. Paired with an overall HD styling refresh, you’ve got one slick machine capable of hauling you through the end of days.

With destination fee, the Silverado HD ZR2 Bison starts at $81,830.

Photo: Jalopnik / Elizabeth Blackstock

Driving Conditions

After heading out to Johnson Valley, we took the 2024 Chevy Silverado HD ZR2 Bison out to climb and descend some rock-strewn hills before driving back to base camp. Compared to some of the other off-roading we did that day with a much smaller member of the ZR2 family, this was a far slower and more deliberate excursion.

Photo: Jalopnik / Elizabeth Blackstock

What’s Good

Due to the nature of my drive, I can’t say for certain how the Silverado HD ZR2 Bison would fare in daily-life situations — but as far as off-roading goes, this is one hell of a comfortable beast. Pop the truck into off-road mode and drop it down to one of three selectable low gears, and you’re set to start conquering whatever the terrain has to throw at you.

We started our excursion by driving up a sandy dune, utilizing the Low 1 gear with the off-road mode. I’ll be honest: given my height, I really couldn’t see a damn thing other than the sky, but I had a plethora of different camera views to choose from that meant I could keep an eye on the terrain I was about to take on as well as on the line of trucks in front of me. Without those cameras, I really don’t think I’d have been able to actually maneuver through the desert.

Our path back down the dune was less sandy and far more rocky, which meant modulating speed while also navigating around some big-ass boulders. Once again, I was primarily relying on different camera angles to get my bearings and keep myself from clunking into anything.

All that being said, though, I was really surprised by how nimble the Silverado HD felt, even though it also did still kind of feel like I was driving a large boat through the desert. That primarily came from my ability to keep my bearings even though my view out of the windows was extremely limited. When you’ve got a camera that can give you a sense of just how close you are to that rock over there, you can make fine adjustments to ensure that you’re not going to go cracking into anything you don’t intend to crack into. You’re in a big vehicle, but you can still maneuver it through the eye of a needle if you really have to.

Finally, I didn’t have a chance to actually experience the towing features, but flipping through both the infotainment menu and the Silverado HD spec sheets gave me confidence that hauling would be easy thanks to all of the towing-specific driver assistance features. When you’ve got a trailer hooked up to the back, for example, adaptive cruise control has learned how to take that into account via increased drag and stopping distance.

Photo: Jalopnik / Elizabeth Blackstock

What Needs Work

Chevy has been making the Silverado HD for ages now and it has largely perfected the “huge but comfortable truck” formula. Plus, many of my questions and critiques about the ZR2 Bison specifically were met with sensible answers from Chevy reps. There’s no underbody camera showing you the terrain beneath your vehicle because there was no way to wire it up in a way that didn’t make the grille look like garbage. There’s no front locking differential; Chevy says you don’t really need one, but also that adding one would compromise towing capacity. It evaluated the needs of its HD customers and decided those buyers would rather sacrifice a little off-road capability in favor of a better towing figure.

Because of that, I was largely left with some of my standard truck concerns. As a shorter human, it’s a little challenging to enter and drive the vehicle; even with the seat cranked to its maximum height, I struggle to see beyond the hood scoop. There were no power-adjustable pedals, so I ended up sitting ridiculously close to the steering wheel. That made it tough to feel totally comfortable during the off-road sections; it was like trying to climb and descend a mountain from the low-visibility cockpit of an F1 car. Exterior cameras helped compensate for that.

There was also an awful lot of piano black in the interior of a truck designed to get dirty, which I found a little perplexing; Chevy explained that piano black is the cheapest material that still looks nice (compared to tacky chrome or cheap-looking matte black plastic), and since the company is trying to carry as many components from one trim to the next, the off-road trims are also equipped with that godforsaken shiny black plastic that attracts smudges and scratches like a moth to a flame.

Photo: Jalopnik / Elizabeth Blackstock

The Verdict

I can see it perfectly in my head: Rumor has it that there’s a store of provisions just waiting at the top of this mountain, but no one has been able to get up there quickly enough to reach it. But I, in my very giant and also capable 2024 Chevy Silverado HD ZR2 Bison, can scale this mountain with ease. I can stock up on goods — even haul them back to my compatriots who opted for less capable machines as society came crumbling down. I become a hero, a legend of our time.

Okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic. But I do think the point still stands: if you’re looking for a heavy-duty truck that can conquer just about everything you can throw at it, the Silverado HD ZR2 Bison will take care of it. A heavy duty off-road pickup truck from Chevy has been a long time coming, but that means GM has had the luxury of seeing its competition’s weak points and addressing them in its first go. If you’re in the market for a do-all machine, Chevy will have you covered — just make sure you’re prepared to pay for the privilege.