2007 Gmc Sierra 1500 Slt Crew Cab Pickup 4-door 5.3l on 2040-cars

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Next Chevy Silverado could get this built-in tailgate step

General Motors just received patent approval for a tailgate step in a pickup bed. And given the timing, don't be surprised if you see this on the upcoming 2019 Silverado pickup (not the mention its GMC Sierra twin), expected to arrive in late 2018. According to the patent, granted in December of last year, the whole mechanism is housed in the tailgate assemble. The magic happens when a portion of the top half of the tailgate swings down and a step folds out. There's also a handle that locks into position to help climb up into the bed. As trucks get bigger and taller over the years, it gets harder and harder to access the cargo bed. Ford's solution with the 2009 F-150 was a step that slides out from the end of the tailgate. Back then, Chevy made an ill-advised ad highlighting the feature for Ford. And while Howie Long mocked the F-150's "man step" Ford saw almost a third of its trucks with the option in the first year. The GM design seems to improve on Ford's idea as it appears to be wider and has a back to the lower step. That is, you don't have to worry about stepping through the ladder-rung design as on the F-150. Ford's tailgate step later spread to the F Super Duty, and other cargo access assists have proliferated through the truck world. On the most recent redesign, the Chevrolet Silverado took a trick from the Avalanche and added cutouts to the corners of the rear bumper that act as a foothold. Ford also offers a deployable side step, Chevrolet has running boards that scoot rearward with a kick of the boot, and Ram offers fixed wheel-to-wheel side rails. Nissan is in on the game too, with an optional folding step that tucks under the rear bumper. We don't expect Chevrolet to comment on when or if we'll see this feature in the showrooms. But given that engineers are already hard at work on the next Silverado and the timing of this patent lines right up with the new truck's development cycle, we'll be disappointed if this patent stays in the file cabinet. Related Video:

2019 GMC Sierra carbon fiber bed: How it's made

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The redesigned 2019 GMC Sierra has some pretty nifty features, and the one that has had the most attention is the MultiPro flipping and folding tailgate. But the Sierra also features the first-of-its-kind carbon fiber truck bed. It's interesting, of course, for its capabilities, such as being 62 pounds lighter than the all-steel box. It even adds more cargo volume since the material can be assembled and shaped differently from steel. As it turns out, the assembly process is cool, too, which we learned when GMC invited us to see the beds being made. Every GMC carbon fiber bed starts out as perfectly flat sheets of thermoplastic carbon fiber. The sheets consist of a mix of fibers and resins, a bit like the molded carbon fiber parts Lamborghini uses. The sheets are manufactured by Japanese company Teijin, which collaborated with GMC to develop the bed. They're all delivered to Continental Structural Plastics (CSP) in Fort Wayne, Ind., for construction into the actual bed. The company, a subsidiary of Teijin, makes a wide variety of composite and plastic parts for the car industry, including body panels for the C7 Chevy Corvette. The rectangular sheets are cut to shape and stacked up at a giant stamping press. Robots pick up sheets and slide them onto a conveyor that goes into a large oven. The heat softens the parts so they can be stamped. The large primary bed parts such as the base are stamped by CSP's enormous 3,600-ton press, and the smaller ones go through a 1,000-ton press. Each press can do different parts using different stamping dies, and CSP switches between dies to produce different batches of parts. After stamping, the parts roll out mostly ready for assembly, but there are rough edges that are trimmed off by water-jet cutters. These cutting machines also create holes for fasteners and for parts such as tie-down hooks and lights. The stamping process also provides the carbon fiber bed with a unique Easter egg. On the bottom of the base of the bed, there are two words: "Connors Way." This is a tribute to Tim Connors, who was the chief engineer of manufacturing at GM and a strong proponent of the carbon fiber bed. He was tragically killed in a motorcycle crash a few years ago. The words were added to honor him, and they were fortunately approved for production. There are some components to the bed that aren't stamped from the flat sheets of material.

Junkyard Gem: 1990 GMC S-15 Jimmy 4x4

The General sold the GMC-badged version of the first-generation Chevy S-10 Blazer, known as the S-15 Jimmy or just the Jimmy, from the 1982 through 1994 model years. These trucks were based on the small S-10 pickup and sold well (until small trucks were forced to get bigger and less truck-like after the dawn of the Ford Explorer-inspired commuter-truck era), but they have become difficult to find in vehicle graveyards in our current century. Here's a '90 Jimmy 4x4 with red-primer paint job, found in a self-service yard on California's Central Coast last month. GMC shoppers could get the 1990 Jimmy as a rear-wheel-drive truck, but this one has the four-wheel-drive option that allowed Tahoe-bound skiers to skip the chain monkeys on the way to the slopes (the CHP, understanding that California drivers have a 95% mortality rate on snow or ice, requires chains or four-wheel-drive to get over Donner Pass when there's a hint of snow forecast). GM sold so many millions of small-block Chevrolet V8s that it made economic sense to use the same tooling to produce a V6 version. The result was this truck's 4.3-liter V6 that was three-quarters of the good old Chevy 350 (5.7-liter) V8 that powered so many Camaros, Chevelles and Impalas. The 4.3 didn't make smooth power, but it got the job done and held together quite well. This one was rated at 160 horsepower, good enough for the Jimmy 4x4's 3,512-pound curb weight. These days, though, used-truck shoppers insist on at least two tons of heft plus four doors. Some discount lot in Monterey or Salinas couldn't even get $999 for this truck, and so it ended up in the final stop before the cold steel jaws of the crusher. 1990 was the last model year for the two-door-only Jimmy; for 1991, the Jimmy came with a choice of two doors (for devil-may-care types) or four doors (for drop-the-kids-at-school types). I've always liked the look of the instrument panels on the early S-10s and its siblings; even though the designers had to work within strict budgetary limitations, they made the panels look interesting. This truck nearly made it to 170,000 miles before the end. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. So powerful with the 4.3 (the regular S-15 pickup still came with a 2.8-liter V6 as base equipment) that it could destroy a TV camera.