Is this a can of worms?

Water-Bug wrote:
I had a 1990 Chevy 2500 std cab, 8' bed, 2wd, 350cid, 5 speed manual. Today it would be a 1500. It only had 5 lug wheels. Fact is, it was a 1500 short bed extended cab chasis that had a little extra hauling capacity, because it had a regular cab on it, so they badged it a 2500.

Part of this issue is when that body style came out, GM changed the badging/gvwr for a couple of years, then went back to more or less as it is today, and before that. In 88, you couldnot get a K3500 dually, on a SW! IIRC the same in 89. It was 90 before you could get a dualy not in the older 80's body style. The 3500 was a typical 8600gvwr 2500 as most of us would call it. In 89, they came out with a 8600 2500, that had the 350 in it. you had to get a 3500 to get the 454! Other than badging, BOTH were identical!

1500's at the time had a 6000 or 6600 gvwr. 2500's had the 7200 gvwr. Later the 7200 became a ld2500 as the 8600 2500 came back, the 3500 sw became a 9200 gvwr, and a dually with a 10 or 10.5K gvwr came out!

Lots of playing with gvwr's and badging thru the years. Hence why it is usualy better to look at the gvwr/axle ratings than the badging!

Marty