Firstly, the braked towing capacity of the Silverado can be either 3500kg or 4500kg depending on whether your towing set-up uses a 50mm ball or 70mm ball. However, there are gains to be had for those who have a light-truck or medium-truck licence. Keeping the Silverado HD LTZ Premium car licence-friendly as an NB1 vehicle means the GVM sticks to 4495kg, giving you a 733kg payload.
Tick the NB2 box and you’ll need a truck licence, but your GVM blows out to 5148kg and gives you a much healthier 1386kg payload. Even if you only tow 3500kg worth of trailer, consider going up to NB2 level for the additional available payload. This is because you’ll need to account for the ball weight from the trailer as part of the vehicle’s payload.
However, the jewel in the crown is the gross combination mass, which is as high as 12,474kg. You’ll never need to worry about overloading the combination figure in other words, which is a potential problem with other tow vehicles.
Considering 4500kg and 5148kg doesn’t come close to maxxing this number out, you’ll need to invest in “third-party tow bar hardware, braking system & certification” (according to General Motors Special Vehicles) in order to increase the braked towing capacity of the vehicle. In other words, you’re bleeding into Freightliner territory.
Don’t forget, a truck licence also means you’ll need to adhere to stricter alcohol limitations, more severe speeding fines, and pulling into the odd weigh station on the highway. But if you want the whole enchilada, that’s what you’ll need to do.
The information above is why this segment is almost peerless when it comes to those buyers who actually need to tow on a regular basis. While numerous vehicles in 2024 – dual-cabs in the main of course – profess to be able to tow up to 3500kg, the way in which they haul that kind of load on the lowball in the real world is the bone of contention. A full-size truck like the Silverado HD does the job with ridiculous ease.