Quote:
Originally Posted by Camaro_Corvette
Fen, any chance these trucks will shed some weight and go aluminum in the next three to four years? Try to get that fuel mileage up a little more. Or would that be a next generation thing. Not sure what the current weight is.
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They come in at about 4000 lbs, give or take say 200 lbs depending on configuration and drivetrain.
Switching to an aluminum body would require more extensive retooling than a typical generational changeover. The entire body structure would need to be re-engineered because of the different properties of steel vs aluminum. And likewise, every sheet metal die would need to be replaced because even if you used identically gauged sheet stock (which you can't), and wanted the finished panels to look the same (which might not even be possible), the resultant stampings would
still look different due to (among other things) springback -the tendency of a metal to return to its 'original' shape after stamping. Beyond that, if you are drastically altering the weight then the steering & suspension would need to be altered as well.
Plus building stuff out of aluminum isn't the same as doing it with steel -just with a lighter metal. Welding is harder, riveting is common, and structural adhesives are pretty much essential. So it becomes an substantially harder to have a plant building both steel and aluminum trucks (I think HD vans are built in the plant that is doing the Colorado/Canyon).
All in all ... there is no possible way that GM could change the Colorado to aluminum in a couple years without it being a generational change.