Although they’re one of the parts of a truck that we tend to interact with the most, all-too-often, the bed and tailgate are overlooked when we think about a pickup. For example, consider the 2022 Chevy Silverado 2500 HD, one of the largest and most powerful trucks available from Chevy. When people look at this truck, we typically evaluate its engine options, towing and payload numbers, and configuration options for the cab. Those are all important, of course, but that makes it really easy to not look at something just as important: the bed and tailgate.
The rear of the vehicle is important for any model, of course, but with a truck, the area behind the cab is often just as vital as what rests in front of it. If you’re like me, you want a truck so you can load up its bed with a bunch of stuff you need to take to or from a job site. The tailgate makes loading and unloading your truck’s bed a lot easier, while the design of the bed can help with everything from simply holding cargo to powering your tools. Let’s take a closer look at the bed and tailgate options for the Silverado 2500 HD to see how they can help you get your job done.
Two Bed Lengths
Before getting into some of the more unique details of the bed and tailgate on the Silverado 2500 HD, it’s important to note that there are two different options available for the bed length. You have five total options for overall configuration, including the cab size and bed length. There’s a regular cab only available with a long bed, but both the double cab and crew cab can come with either bed length. The two bed sizes are the Standard Bed and the Long Bed, which is longer as you’d probably expect.
The size difference here can be pretty substantial and impacts the bed as well as the overall length of the truck. Looking at a model with a crew cab, for example, the Standard Bed makes the Silverado 2500 HD measure 250 inches in total length, while the Long Bed stretches that to 266 inches – more than a foot longer. This has no impact on the width or overall height of the truck, however, just the length.
At its floor, the Standard Bed measures just over 82 inches in length, while the Long Bed is just over 98 inches long. You can see this is 16 inches difference – the same as the overall change in length, which makes sense. The width and height of both beds are the same, though the Standard Bed has about an inch more width at the wheel housings. In terms of total space, you get 69.5 cubic feet of cargo space inside the Standard Bed, while the Long Bed gives you 83.5 cubic feet of cargo volume. You’ll have to decide if that’s enough of a difference to justify the larger size – just consider the length of what you like to load into your truck, along with the total space you want.
The Chevy Durabed
Choosing the right bed length is important, of course, since you want something that can fit what you need to haul with you, but you also want to consider the overall functionality of your truck’s bed and how well it works for you. This will depend on the trim you choose. Starting trims might have available options that come as standard on higher trims.
The 2022 Silverado 2500 HD has Chevy’s Durabed that is incredibly functional, so you can get the most from it. This includes 12 standard fixed tie-downs, which you get on every model; located at the corners, each tie-down is rated at 500 lbs of capacity. Available LED cargo area lighting lets you easily see what you have loaded into the bed, even at night in the middle of nowhere or at a poorly lit job site. Perhaps best of all, there’s an available built-in 120-volt outlet that you can use to charge power tools or to plug in other devices that you need to use.
All of these features come together to make the bed incredibly useful. A rear corner step and side bed step also make it easy for you to reach into the bed without lowering the tailgate, so you can more quickly load or remove items. Although it’s not standard, you can also get a Chevytec spray-on bedliner on the Silverado 2500 HD. This provides a black, textured, non-skid surface that helps keep cargo in place and provides a watertight seal that protects the frame of your truck.
Chevy’s Multi-Flex Tailgate
For decades, the tailgate was just the thing that kept stuff from falling out the back of your truck. While that’s definitely still an important role, there’s a lot more functionality now available than ever before, which really lets you get the most from your pickup. The standard tailgate on the Silverado 2500 HD can be locked and features EZ Lift functionality that makes it easy to open and close, even with your hands full.
To really see what this truck has to offer, however, check out the available Multi-Flex Tailgate that you can choose for most trims. For starters, this tailgate includes power up and down functionality, which lets you open or close the tailgate using a button on the tailgate, inside the cab, or on the key fob. You can close the tailgate manually if you prefer, but this makes it incredibly easy to get materials into or out of your truck.
The Multi-Flex Tailgate includes six functions that let you really get the most from your truck bed and the tailgate. First, there’s the primary gate that you expect from any truck; then there’s a primary gate load stop that you can lift up to help prevent longer items from sliding out of the bed. Third, an inner gate can fold down to let you reach farther into the bed with the tailgate open, along with a full-width step on the inner gate that unfolds to make it easy to get into or out of the bed. There’s a secondary inner gate, which you can open to use as a work surface while keeping the primary tailgate in place, and finally, an inner-gate load stop helps prevent stacked, second-tier items from sliding out of the truck bed.
Do These Things Really Matter?
Is your truck bed and tailgate really that important when all is said and done? I think so – these things directly impact the experience you have with your truck and the kind of functionality it offers you day in and day out. Let’s say you’re at a job site and you need a flat work surface to place a laptop on or to roll out some plans – do you want to have to get inside your truck each time you need that? Or would you prefer to lower the secondary inner gate on your Silverado 2500 HD to have that kind of surface while keeping the main gate in place so lumber, pipes, or whatever else will stay put? Next time you’re unloading bags of Quikrete from the back of your pickup, think about how much easier it would be with a full-width step built into the tailgate so you could walk in and out of it without a care.
