Why You Don't Need a 2500: This Chevy 1500 LTZ Does Both

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]Daily driver or real tourer? This 1500 can do both. Not everyone needs a 2500 and this 1500 proves it. One truck to drive during the week that can also get you off grid on weekends, this is the one. Don't let the modest looks fool you. This 1500 has got it all. It's got 3.85 ton GVM which has increased the payload. It can still tow 4 and 1/2 ton because it's the LTZ 1500. So, that means when this truck is loaded to 3.85 ton GVM, you can still put an enormous caravan or boat on the rear. Would I tour around Australia with this setup and those sorts of weights? Absolutely not. But, this setup here is perfect for the daily driver. It's got a pretty epic under seat battery setup which we'll get into later on in the video. But, the pre-registration GVM upgrade is the real highlight for this Chevy. I'm Dean Blizna, the co-founder of Big Dog Builds. With well over 750 trucks now through the workshop, the 1500s, they get left behind a little bit. But, built the right way, they can definitely go the distance. [music] And speaking of distance, if our workshop's too far away from your location, we can help get the vehicle into the workshop, get the full build done, and then fly in, drive that vehicle home. It's going to be worth the effort. If that's still too hard, we can help transport that vehicle back to your local dealer or straight to your house as well. Now, let's start at the front end of the Chevy 1500. We'll get into the features of the brand new LTZ. We'll get into what we've done both exterior, suspension wise, interior, and what features this build could get in the future [music] as well.

[00:01:36]The new radiant red in the Chevy 1500 LTZ definitely looks the part. I love this new red color in a HD 2500 with all the gloss black, but it almost looks better with all that chrome added to it as well. So, being pre-registration straight from the dealer, the LTZ's already look amazing. The chrome features, the chrome grill, depending on what color you're going for in the vehicle itself, I think chrome's coming back a little bit personally. But, the front end definitely looks the part. The struggle is the vehicles are quite low.

[00:02:04]So, approach angles, departure angles, and then also the on the sides of the vehicle as well. In my opinion, if you're wanting to take them off road, get better tow performance, this pre-reg GVM kit is where you need to be. We've done a 3.5 inch suspension lift in the front end. The rear leaf springs have been swapped over and this is all with the Apex 3.85 ton GVM kit. That means this vehicle can get up to that 3.85 ton on the vehicle GVM itself, can still tow 4 and 1/2 ton out the back. That's 300 kilos more than the ZR2 option. And that's because the ZR2 comes out with a 4.2 ton tow. LTZ can get up to that 4 and 1/2. So, 4 and 1/2 ton towing, 3.85 ton GVM, and you can still retain your factory wheel and tire combo. Those figures are pretty damn good. What we are going to do is throw this one on the scales at the end of this video. It has got an under seat battery setup which we'll get into in a second. It's got the outlets into the tub itself and this vehicle here is ready for weekly driving, getting away on weekends. Throw a fridge in the back, this power setup is epic. You can put a solar blanket on those extended trips away, you're going to have the best of both worlds. Great driving vehicle, power off grid, >> [music] >> and it's going to drive amazing. So, the factory wheels and tires, it's got 20 inch wheels, 275 60 20 tires on this one here. So, you've got a good all terrain tire. We can step down and get this GVM kit up to 4.2 ton with an aftermarket wheel and tire combination. This one here having a factory 20 is going to still do the job. Down the track when you do need to change your tires, we could step down to a smaller rim, get that little bit more performance off road as well. But, the Apex upper control arms in this kit, the front coil overs in this kit as well, you've got adjustability in these 2.5 remote res shock. Adjustable under the front there.

[00:03:47]The Apex kit, good quality, good upper control arms, everything's going to be where it needs to be for a good wheel alignment and that's that front end sorted with a 3 and 1/2 inch lift. The drivability with this 3 and 1/2 inch lift compared to standard, it's not a night and day difference. I think you need to get behind the wheel of one to feel the difference. With the good 2 and 1/2 inch shock, these bigger, heavier trucks definitely need a 2 and 1/2 inch remote res shock in my opinion. And that front end setup, although it is quite basic, it's going to do the job and do it really, really well.

[00:04:16]>> [music] >> So, the real special part of this build is that under seat battery setup. It is our new design. The cool thing with it is it fits both the 1500 variant as well as the 2500 HD. So, same under seat battery setup in both the smaller one and the HD truck. And we can do multiple different setups depending on what you're wanting, whether it be a tray on the back, whether it be the factory tub.

[00:04:42]We can do different outlets depending on what you need. The most common outlets is what we've got installed in this one here, which is gray Anderson output. a red Anderson input. That one would be for a solar blanket to plug in. The gray Anderson plug output, constant powered from that under seat battery setup, best for fridges or anything like that. And then you've also got your USB-C, USB-A as well. There's nothing better than strapping a good size fridge down to the floor or inside the tub, putting your phone on charge, throwing that one in the front of the fridge pocket, and then the beers are going to stay cold all day. Your phone's going to get topped up and you're ready for adventure. We've also got an installed an ARB twin compressor. This is the brushless ARB twin model. So, if you are wanting to hit the beaches, you've got air there ready to air up those tires at the end of the day. Vehicle came in with the roll up tonneau cover. Open that one up, the spare wheel will get put back up underneath, and then you've got loads of room, nice neat air compressor setup on the left hand side. All of the outlets needed bottom there as well. And if you do need [music] a few more outlets or anything like that, the team can get those ones sorted for you as well. So, nice and simple. Again, the red looks amazing on the rear. This customer has opted for the white Chevy sticker kit.

[00:05:52]Tonneau cover was done at the dealer. If you get to add that one at the dealership, we can obviously do it after the fact as well. And then at the rear end of the vehicle as well, we've got the red and the gray Anderson plug combo. So, gray Anderson plug combos powered through an ignition relay. So, that one's only live while the vehicle's driving. Your red Anderson plug's going to be direct to the battery under the bonnet. And if you did want to throw a solar blanket under that one there with its own MPPT regulator, you can trickle charge [music] the battery under the bonnet as well. That feature's pretty cool. But, the real standout feature is the under seat battery setup. That DCDC charger we'll get into in a second can also charge the battery under the bonnet as well. So, having the ability to charge that battery under the bonnet, that battery then charged, the alternator then charged the whole setup as well. This vehicle here is ready for a great weekend away and it's going to be damn comfortable during the week as well. If you haven't driven with the 6.2 V8, these things are amazing. I do miss the ZR2 a little bit. I must face [music] it. The big HD truck, you can barely hear them driving. But, the 6.2 V8 sounds amazing. Throw that one in sport mode. So, the new models have all got sport mode. Switch that feature out in the dash, the exhaust is going to open up and it sounds damn good. You want it to be even more aggressive than that, we've got some pretty cool exhaust options that we can do for the LTZ and the ZR2 options as well. The main difference being is the outlets at the rear. So, the LTZ outlets are going to go through the bumper. ZR2 outlets are going to dip down and just dump underneath the vehicle itself. So, we've got a few different exhaust options, a few different [music] exhaust notes as well. And we'll get your setup dialed in. But, under the engine bay, quite factory, quite simple, and a nice neat install that the team have done. Off the battery, it's got one big board there with the mini fuses on it and that's going to charge everything from the BCDC under the back seat. We've got the twin ARB compressors powered off this one here through ignition relay. So, that one's only live while the vehicle's running. Those compressors do pull a lot of power. So, it's important to make sure that the vehicle's driving or the vehicle's running while you're powering up those compressors. And then we've got your gray Anderson plug out at the rear.

[00:07:52]We've got your red Anderson plug at the rear as well. All fused off that board under the bonnet here. So, quite a simple neat setup there. All of the mini fuses on that board, few spares if needed as well. And we can option this one up no matter what sort of setup you have or what you need. That's as simple as it is under here. Let's get into the real thing, which is the under seat battery setup.

[00:08:11]One other thing as well before we do get into that under seat battery setup, we've got the bonnet mount UHF bracket, the GME XRS 370 combo, and the 640 mil antenna on here as well. So, staying connected while off grid is important.

[00:08:24]If you've got the beer, you've got the fridge, you got the food, you can stay off grid for longer. Having communication to those other users on the road, in the convoys or just on those highway channels is important as well. So, a good UHF combo is definitely recommended on every single build. Well, if you haven't driven with the 6.2 liter V8 under the bonnet on the 1500 Chevys, [music] that's one good reason why you need to get behind the wheel of one. The other one, you've got big kids, big teenagers, there's nothing better than a HD [music] truck for rear seat room. So, leg room in the back here, I think the person drove it over is a little bit short, but I'm 6'2", big long legs, and plenty of room in the back here.

[00:09:02]But, what's really cool is what we've got under this rear seat. So, the new under seat battery setup [music] from the team here at Big Dog Builds looks amazing. All leather bound wrap on the front of this setup here. We've got cig ports, we've got Anderson [music] plug, we've also got your phone chargers on each side as well. So, the kids' phones can stay connected. This under seat battery setup definitely looks the part. It's even got a fancy little LED light setup on there. And the real standout feature is the whole thing. So, 200 amp lithium, we've got the 2000 watt Redarc inverter on this side here. It's going to do things like coffee machines, induction cookers, [music] pretty much any 240 appliance you could run one at a time off this setup over here. And then off that 200 amp lithium battery, you've got all of the different outputs as well. Yeah, we've got the tub Anderson plugs, we've got the front Anderson plugs, we've got two spare mini fuses over there as well. And then we've got the solar input all fused up as well. So, with the Redarc Alpha AR charger, the cool feature on that one there is this thing here. You can actually charge that battery under the bonnet for 15 minutes. So, it does a recovery mode charge. Will charge up the battery under the bonnet. That should give the vehicle enough power [music] to start if it did run flat for whatever reason. Then once the vehicle starts, everything's going to recharge itself as well. Zig ports, lights, USBs, everything else is fused off this little blade fuse holder there. Like I said, you got little red LED lights and this setup here, I don't think there's anything better on the market.

[00:10:25]The team have done a cracker job at this setup.

[00:10:28]>> [music] >> It looks like it's factory and how it should come from the dealership. But I might be a little bit biased, let's face it. So, I always get asked about axle load rates on the 1500s. We're actually going to throw this one on the weight scales. Not too sure how much fuel it's got being pre-regio, but we'll look at that one. One other thing as well that I forgot to mention is the rear airbags.

[00:10:47]So, we've got the airbags at the rear here. We've got the triple bellow boss airbags. That setup there, when you are loaded up, you put the more air in those airbags and find that sweet spot whether you're wanting to inflate, deflate those ones manually at the rear or if you wanted to step up and do the air IQ, which means you can do it from inside the cab. That's another upgrade as well.

[00:11:06]So, this one is built very, very smart.

[00:11:09]It's got the best of everything. Let's get this one over the road onto the weight scales. Let's see what the front axle weighs, the rear axle weighs, what the tare weight of this vehicle here is and I'll even pull out my calculator and see if I can figure out how much more payload we've got to hit that GVM of 3.8 t.

[00:11:36]See if I can figure these things out again, eh?

[00:11:59]Come on.

[00:12:39]I forget what the axles are near as well.

[00:12:46]One Mississippi.

[00:12:58]Two.

[00:13:01]Three.

[00:13:47]I got it right first time. Let's print that.

[00:13:57]Pretty even.

[00:13:58]I didn't check the fuel though.

[00:14:00]Check the fuel.

[00:14:16]Full tank of fuel, we're good.

[00:14:38]I got the axle loads off off the top of my head, but I don't anymore.

[00:14:44]Used to. 1500.

[00:14:46]1500 axle load ratings. It's been a little while.

[00:14:50]So, I'm just having a quick look.

[00:15:02]All right.

[00:15:05]So, factory GVM is 3300 kilos. We're weighing in at 2726.

[00:15:13]With the 3.85 t GVM upgrade, we're up to a 3850 kilo GVM. So, so 550 kilo more GVM by doing the 3.85 t kit. And that means you can still retain your factory wheels and tires. You can go from the 3.85 t up to the 4.2 t GVM and that's with a load rated set of wheels and tires front and rear. So, decent GVM for factory. We've got rear axle at 2126, which is the upgraded axle. So, factory axle load ratings, front axle load rating 1724.

[00:15:48]We're coming in at 1488. So, still plenty there on the front axle. The rear axle load rating.

[00:15:55]We're in the at 1238 kilos. Factory is 1926.

[00:16:01]But now with the new with the 3.85 t GVM, we've now got 1724 on the front, which is factory, and the rear one goes up to 2126.

[00:16:13]2126.

[00:16:17]2126 take away 1238. We've still got 888 kilos we can put on that rear axle. So, that's obviously considering people inside the vehicle, gear inside the rear, and then the tow ball weight at the back there as well. So, plenty of GVM still to go on this one here. And if you're wanting even more, obviously we go up to the bigger GVM kits, the 4.2. Once again, this LTZ can tow that 4.5 t behind it.

[00:16:44]But like anything in a lot of videos that we do here, I think if you got 4.5 t van on the back, you're wanting to load up a vehicle like this one here quite heavy. I'm talking canopy setups, a lot of gear in the rear end. The HD trucks, just like that red one behind us, is where you want to be. 1500 built the right way as a nice daily. They sound amazing with the V8 6.2 L. Throw a set of wheels and tires on there and you still can do some pretty impressive figures and stay safe, compliant, and legal on the road. We've got the figures here like I just ran through in this video. And if you've got any questions about this setup here, we're happy to answer. If you're wanting a setup like this one, we can get you into the workshop pretty quickly. I do miss the ZR2. That's what I've come to figure after just driving this one across the road.

[00:17:31]>> [music] >> That 6.2. Should we get another one? If you like this video guys, check these two videos out here. These two below as well. They're pretty epic. Cheers.