2025 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD Towing Test

The muscled-up 2025 Silverado 2500 HD makes short work of long towing trips.

Benjamin Hunting | 

Aug 11, 2025 | 4 min read

Benjamin Hunting

"Full-size" is a big banner when it comes to pickup trucks, and it's possible to spend significant amounts of money to secure exceptional hauling and towing capabilities. Under the full-size truck umbrella, "heavy duty" pickups let you tap into commercial-grade capabilities and give you access to drivetrains that are a cut above the traditional "light-duty" trucks in the torque department.

Within that context, using a rig such as the 2025 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD, which offers a maximum conventional trailering capacity of up to 20,000 pounds, to tow 3 tons of track-day load might seem like aiming a cannon at a housefly.

Nevertheless, a recent 800-mile round trip from southern Quebec to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, offered the perfect chance to explore the overkill inherent in Chevy's heavy-duty truck platform — and also check out the special equipment and features that apply regardless of how weighty your load might be.

Benjamin Hunting

The Silverado 2500 HD Boasts Big Bones and a Torquey Turbo-Diesel

Two things immediately set my Silverado 2500 HD test vehicle apart from a Silverado 1500 light-duty truck.

The first is a chassis designed to accommodate a hefty gross combination weight rating (GCWR). A GCWR refers to the mass of the vehicle itself plus its passengers, cargo-bed contents, and trailer load. The upgrades gave my test truck 27,500 pounds of GCWR, which translated into a conventional tow rating of 18,500 pounds. That's well above the 13,300-pound limit for a Silverado 1500.

The second is the optional Duramax 6.6-liter turbo-diesel V8 engine ($9,990), which produces 470 horsepower and 975 pound-feet of torque. It pairs with an Allison 10-speed automatic transmission, and both the Allison's toughness and the Duramax's torque are echelons ahead of what any Silverado 1500 has to offer.

Benjamin Hunting

Worry-Free Towing All Day Long With the Silverado 2500 HD

The Silverado 2500 HD easily shrugged off the weight of my Ford Mustang track car and steel trailer.

Most of my trip involved highway driving, and with so much torque available, the Chevy easily got up to speed even on shorter entrance ramps. Aside from a bit of growly clatter when pulling away from a stop, the 6.6-liter turbo-diesel V8 was remarkably quiet. With the Silverado in its Tow/Haul driving mode, the Allison transmission deftly employed engine braking on long declines and selected the correct gear when it came time to pull out and pass.

Hitching up was easy, thanks to a high-resolution camera system that guided me toward the trailer ball. Plus, an extensive set of rear-facing LED lights — in the bed, on the enormous side-view mirrors, and at the top of the cab — ensured I could see all wiring and connections easily when dropping the trailer at night.

Chevrolet also provides trailering software that tracks trip mileage and fuel efficiency, conducts a trailer-lighting test, and offers a helpful checklist of everything you need to take care of before setting off on the road.

Benjamin Hunting

This Tall-Riding Silverado HD Is Hard to Access

My complaints about the Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD stemmed from its mammoth proportions.

The LT Trail Boss includes the contents of the Z71 off-road package, and while there's no suspension lift, the knobby off-road tires boost its already tall ride height. Without side steps, this made it awkward to get in and out of the truck. You can add them, which I recommend, even if they detract from the ground clearance.

Additionally, the stiff suspension and big tread blocks on the tires also made for uncomfortable bouncing over rough asphalt. Skip this version of the truck if towing is your primary concern instead of off-roading.

Benjamin Hunting

Also irritating? You can't get adaptive cruise control with an LT-trim 2500 HD, even one equipped with the Safety package like my test vehicle. I genuinely missed it on such a long trip, and its omission is inexcusable in a vehicle with a sticker price closing in on $80,000.

Finally, there's a fuel cost to pay with such a massive pickup and commensurately enormous engine. Unladen, I saw just under 15 mpg in a mix of highway and city driving. That dropped to 14 mpg over the course of my highway towing. That's an impressively slight difference, but you can easily beat the day-to-day efficiency of this truck with any light-duty model.

Benjamin Hunting

The 2025 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD Is a Tough Taskmaster

The 2025 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD is a great tow rig. If you can lay off the options, a base two-door LT is less than $55,000, which is substantial value for a task-focused truck. Not everyone needs to pay for all that diesel torque, either, so if you don't mind giving up a couple thousand pounds of trailering capacity — and, likely, some fuel efficiency — sticking with the standard 6.6-liter gas V8 is far from a consolation prize.

Chevrolet provided the vehicle for this 2025 Silverado 2500 HD review.

Benjamin Hunting

Nearly two decades into his career as an automotive journalist, Benjamin has had his hands greasy, his hair blown back, and his heart broken by more than one project car. In addition to his work at Capital One, he has contributed features and reviews to Motor Trend, Car and Driver, Hagerty, Driving Line, Inside Hook, Super Street, European Car, Roadkill Magazine, Motor 1, The Drive, the Toronto Star, the National Post, Business Insider, NAPA, Autoblog, Automotive News Canada, and AutoGuide. He is also cohost of the Unnamed Automotive Podcast and cocreator of the Code 45 and Dead Air graphic novels. In his spare time, he's a friend to vinyl and enjoys keeping the shiny side up during track days.