The Chevy Silverado “Bone Collector” sounds intense but actually seems remarkably practical. I dig what a few tubes of steel does for the look and I wish GM would offer this bed drawer system as a factory option, like, yesterday.
Chevy trotted out a roll bar on their Colorado ZR2 concept a few months ago, and now you can order one at a dealership. Apparently the look is catching on, because the 2016 Silverado’s off-road package includes the roll bar and push bar you’re seeing on this thing here. Without the skull-and-antlers, of course.
Full disclosure; “roll bar” is a misnomer because what we’re looking at here are a few tubes bolted to the bed. Looks cool, but it’d turn to wet spaghetti under the impact of a rollover.
If it were integrated to the frame, like on a race truck, that’d be a different story. But that’d also be a lot more expensive. We usually call roll bars that aren’t actual roll-protectors “light bars” because they’re still good for holding lights, you knew what I meant didn’t you?
Chevy has a pretty good grip on how to make a “concept” truck look cool without really working that hard. The formula is simple; throw on some lights and steels tubes and boom; “cool truck.”
The Bone Collector is sponsored, obviously, by the hunting camo company Realtree. They make pictures of trees that look real. Get it?
I’m more interested in the nods to Chevy Avalanche that I’m seeing here; The bars buttressing the cab. The drawer system in the bed.
I’ve never understood why little drawers like that aren’t a standard option on more pickups. What a great compromise for carrying big things and little things at the same time? Like, say, my dirt bike and the filthy gear I don’t want in the cab.
Enthusiasts I’ve talked to seem to hate on the Avalanche but GM crammed a lot of cool ideas into that thing. It didn’t have the payload capacity of a Silverado, but it had loads of neat storage features that made carrying small or fragile things easier. Cargo compartments in the gunwales, an enclosable bed. The cargo bay could even be expanded into the cabin for carrying long things.
Hey, that truck was actually kind of great! Heads to Craigslist.
I don’t think Chevy’s about to bring the Avalanche back, but I love that they’re blowing out their catalog of off-road farkle a little more.
Would you spec any of these parts on your new Silverado?
Contact the author at andrew@jalopnik.com.