How Much Weight Can A Chevy Colorado Hold In The Bed?

A Chevy Colorado is a midsize truck that is in competition with Toyota Tacoma, Ford Ranger, and its sibling, the GMC Canyon. 

Colorado trucks can haul as much as the competition and also tows enough for personal errands. 

But how much can the Colorado carry in its bed?

How Much Weight Can A Chevy Colorado Hold In The Bed? 

You can carry up to 1,574 pounds in the bed of your Chevrolet Colorado. The payload capacity of the Colorado mostly depends on which of the 3 engine options your truck is equipped with under the hood.

There are three main engine options. 

The 2.5L four-cylinder engine can haul up to 1,440 pounds.

The 3.6L V6 can haul up to 1,574 pounds. 

The third engine is a 2.8L Turbo diesel engine that can carry up to 1,496 pounds in its bed. 

For your vehicle to carry as much, it needs to be well equipped and well maintained. 

You need to have all the necessary bed accessories to secure the cargo and the vehicle needs to be in good condition. 

If you carry the maximum payload, you may want to take your Colorado for service more often so that the mechanic ensures the engine is always ready to go. 

A Colorado comes with either a 5-foot-2-inch bed length or a 6-foot-4-inch bed length. 

The longer bed allows you more space to distribute your cargo well. 

If you need more space and more power than that, you may have to consider towing instead of hauling.

A Colorado can tow up to 7,700 pounds, which is enough to haul most small and some midsize trailers and campers. 

Read on to learn more about the payload capacity of Chevy Colorado.

Can You Carry the Maximum Recommended Payload in your Truck’s Bed? 

You cannot carry the maximum recommended payload in the bed of your truck. 

Payload refers to all the maximum weight that the truck can carry in its bed and its cabin. 

This means that the weight of the driver and passengers is factored in the recommended payload. 

As such, you need to consider the weight of the cargo you need to carry before planning your trip. 

If you plan to bring a driver and two passengers, then you have to subtract the weight of the passengers from the payload capacity. 

Assuming one person weighs 200 pounds, and you bring two people and a driver, you reduce the payload capacity by 600 pounds. 

For a Colorado rated to carry 1,574 pounds, you can only carry 926 pounds with these three passengers. 

If you bring some cargo in the cabin, you have to subtract its weight from the payload capacity too. 

Other factors, such as aftermarket additions on the truck, will also affect how much you can carry in the truck bed. 

Heavy additions will limit how much you can carry in the bed. 

Your truck also needs to be in the best operating condition for you to bring as much cargo as the bed can accommodate. 

If your Colorado has not been serviced for a while, you are better off carrying the minimum your Colorado can carry. 

Further, if you do not have the right accessories, avoid carrying heavy loads in your truck’s bed. 

You can maximize the cargo you carry by bringing no passengers in your cabin and by ensuring the vehicle is in the best operating condition. 

You can also bring accessories, such as truck bed organizers and bed extenders. 

What To Avoid When Loading Your Chevy Colorado

The law in most states prohibits overloading. 

You may pay a fine if you carry more than your truck can handle. 

There are three problems you may experience with loading cargo in your Colorado:

Overloading

If your truck carries more than the automaker recommends, you may cause mechanical failures because of the excess weight. 

These failures can affect your control of the vehicle and make you cause an accident on the roads. 

This is why most states insist that you must not carry more than your truck can handle. 

The extra weight exacerbates the wear and tear on vehicle components, especially the suspension system. 

This way, your Colorado will require more frequent maintenance schedules to keep it in good condition.

If the weight doesn’t make you cause an accident, it will make it challenging for you to brake from high speeds. 

This means that the truck will need a longer distance to brake. 

If you are going down a hill, gravity pulls the truck forward and the brakes are not as effective as they should, and this is how collisions occur. 

Regardless of whether you have a tight deadline to meet, you should never overload your truck. 

There are so many dangers that come with that. 

Unevenly Distributed Cargo

Besides overloading your truck, you may have unevenly distributed cargo. 

The cargo needs to be distributed evenly on the cargo bed where the two sides of the bed carry the same weight. 

Most of the cargo should be towards the cabin. 

If the cargo is heavier on one side of the truck bed, making simple maneuvers might be a problem. 

Changing lanes or turning the truck might cause the vehicle to steer away from the intended direction. 

This puts the driver and other motorists on the road in danger. 

Unsecured Cargo

Further, cargo has to be well secured. 

If the cargo is within the acceptable limits, but it is not well secured, it could topple over and make a lot of noise. 

The cargo movements in the bed might also cause the truck to swerve into a different lane. 

If the cargo keeps flipping, it will cause the cargo to be unevenly distributed, and this might cause the truck to turn over when it takes a corner. 

Cargo might also fly off the bed and cause injuries to other motorists on the road. 

Other drivers behind you may not have time or space to swerve away from the flying cargo, and this can cause severe accidents on the road. 

What is in a Chevy Colorado? 

The Colorado can handle most of the tasks you throw at it as long as you do not exceed the set limits. 

Although GM produced the GMC Canyon as a more upscale version of the Colorado, you will still find so much comfort in the Colorado. 

In 2020, GM introduced more features to the Colorado to make it more comfortable and more drivable on and off the road. 

It now has Infotainment 3 Premium system, an 8.0-inch touchscreen, and a navigation system. 

It also offers a tire-fill alert so that you do not under- or over-inflate the tires. 

There is also a remote locking liftgate on the EZ-lift tailgate standard on the LT models. 

Newer models, from 2020, do not have a six-speed manual transmission. 

Here is what you get with a Chevy Colorado:

Engine Options

There are three engine options; a powerful 308-hp V6 engine that mates to an eight-speed automatic transmission, a 2.8L diesel engine that makes 369 horsepower, and a 2.5L four-cylinder engine that is standard in lower trims. 

The V6 engine can tow up to 7,000 pounds while the diesel engine tows up to 7,700 pounds. 

For you to tow that much, you need to have the trailer package offered by Chevrolet and have other features, such as trailer sway control. 

Your truck also needs to have trailer brakes and trailer lights and be in its best operating condition. 

The standard engine offers 20/26 mpg for city/highway driving while the V6 offers 17/24 mpg for city/highway driving. 

Interior and Comfort

The Colorado has so many comfort and driver assistance features, including 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot, Chevrolet Infotainment 3 Premium system, and two intuitive touchscreen interfaces. 

You will also get features, such as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with attractive and easy-to-use menus. 

The Teen Driver System is standard on all Colorado trucks, and this is one of the systems that make the truck very safe. 

This system allows parents to monitor the location and the speed of their vehicles wherever they are. 

It also doesn’t start the vehicle until the driver has the seatbelt buckled on. 

Other safety features include rear, front, curtain, and bolster airbags, lane departure warning, and forward-collision warning. 

These features place the Colorado at the top of the competition. 

Chevy Colorado Payload Capacity

If you equip your Colorado right and ensure it is well-maintained, you can carry more than 1,200 pounds in its bed. 

The amount of weight you bring in your Colorado is dependent on many conditions, including where you will be traveling (on-road or off-road), the condition of the vehicle, the accessories you have, and whether there are any aftermarket additions that affect the payload capacity or improve it. 

Some drivers enhance the suspension system to make the Colorado carry more while others add the number of accessories so that the truck can be well-organized and secure on the road. 

If you have never hauled cargo with your Colorado before, you may want to start with a smaller load until you are confident you have control of your vehicle with maximum load in the bed.

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