Professor Hansen
January 22, 2014
Chevrolet Colorado Quite a few car manufacturers have created models similar to this mid-sized truck but still the Chevrolet Colorado LTZ with Z71 suspension and four-wheel drive is the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to smaller trucks. Many individuals say the truck is almost worthless when it comes to being an actual “pick-up” truck. Some say the cab and/or the truck bed is too small, others will tell you that the 3.7 liter engine is just plain silly when it comes to torque and horsepower. Then again, there are people out there that will tell you that all of those things can be put to great use and that just because the truck is small does not mean it is at all worthless. …show more content…
They have different variations of two-wheel drive trucks with stock suspension, four-wheel drive trucks with stock suspension, but the for the pure off-roaders Chevrolet has created the four-wheel drive with Z71 suspension. Any truck that has this suspension is ready for the roughest of terrain. The Z71 package includes bigger, 18 inch aluminum wheels which are fitted on with off-road blackwall tires. Blackwall meaning, a more aggressive tread pattern and thicker rubber to withstand puncture wounds. So not only does the truck sit higher off the ground for more clearance but also gives it a more aggressive stance to take on deep ruts or large bumps. The biggest difference between stock and Z71 is the suspension. Z71 provides the truck with specially tuned shock coils and mono tube shocks giving the overall suspension better support for the truck itself. Other features are included in the Z71 package too like its rear locking differential to improve power in the drive shaft. This means that all of the wheels are moving with the same amount of horsepower, rather than the wheels individually feeling whether or not they have traction beneath them and adjusting torque by themselves. Thus giving the truck a better advantage on slippery roads or muddy …show more content…
You see, the “liter” term is used to describe the size of the engine, the cylinders to be more specific. The bigger the cylinders, the more fuel has to be pumped in to keep the cylinders firing. The bigger the engine, the worse fuel mileage the vehicle gets. Sure there are some companies out there, like landscaping companies or people with horse trailers, which will actually need an engine that can haul that big of a load. In that case yes, the Colorado would struggle to accomplish that task. You would need a larger .350 V8 or even a diesel truck to finish that job. The Colorado has a capacity of a horsepower of 185 horsepower at about 6000 rpm. Although the engine cannot tow as much as some would like, that is not the point of the in-line 3.7 V5 (or V4). The whole reason is so that the driver can get a better miles per gallon in a pick-up. So if an individual works a manual labor job with a long commute which requires him to throw things in a truck bed instead of the cab, this would be a good truck for