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Video: Off-Roading in the 2024 GMC Sierra HD AT4X AEV Edition

03:50 min
By Cars.com Editors
October 22, 2023

About the video

Road Test Editor Brian Normile traveled to Montana to sample a variety of GMC’s AT4X and AT4X AEV Edition off-road pickup trucks. In this video, he drives the biggest of the family: the Sierra HD AT4X AEV Edition.

Transcript

I'm here in Montana driving the 2024 GMC Sierra HD AT4X AEV edition. That's a mouthful. It gets a ton of off-road upgrades. Steel AEV bumpers, front and rear, 35 inch mud terrain tires, Multimatic DSSV dampers, ground clearance up to 11.8 inches.
But unlike the other AT4X AEV trucks in GMC's lineup, think of the HD as more of a tweener. It will do both off-road stuff and still heavy duty pickup stuff. You can tow up to 18,400 pounds with one of these. Can't wait to get behind the wheel and see how it does off road. So let's check it out. So we're here in the 2024 Sierra HD AT4X AEV edition. About to do. In some ways, it impresses. In other ways, this is just, it's too big of a truck. The trails we've been using have been cut for this truck and you're still getting very close to scrub on the sides. It's just a very, very large vehicle. Now, GMC knows this and they haven't positioned it as primarily an off-roader. It can do that but still the key consideration for an HD truck is towing. Even with this being the AEV edition, you can still tow up to 18,400 pounds, which, with this truck, would get you to the trail head and then possibly beyond, given the 11.8 inches of ground clearance and depending on what you're towing. But overall, it's very, very comfortable inside. It's a little bit less comfortable when you're moving because again, this is an HD truck. So the springs are very, very stiff to help you with towing and hauling. The side effect of that is that it's a very bouncy ride when you're off road. Comfortable in this truck also means luxury and GMC isn't the most luxurious truck. They're getting a lot closer to Ram. The surfaces here are all very nice, great leather. I have massaging seats. It's very weird to go off-roading while getting a massage, but it feels great. The tech is excellent. It's not quite as advanced as what we saw in, say, the Canyon, or the light duty Sierra 1500. Really only have normal and off-road mode. There's not a whole lot of differentiation there. The camera views are a little bit less advanced. There's no underbody camera. And again, that's because primarily you're gonna be wanting to use this as a tow vehicle that looks really, really cool. That's the point of this truck and you're gonna pay for it too. You're looking at close to $90,000 for one of these, new off the lot right now. Also worth noting, this is available with the 6.6 liter Duramax turbo diesel engine, which is fantastic. All that low end torque. You have almost a thousand pounds feet of torque at your disposal, which is really, really helpful when you're trying to get this colossal truck up a steep loose hill. I really enjoyed off-roading with this. It is not what I would choose to go off-roading unless I had to. So we just got done off-roading in the Sierra HD AT4X AEV and while it's very impressive at what it's capable of doing off road for something of that size, it's just not my cup of tea. It's too big. A little bit too concerning, a little bit too hard to see over the front. This the Sierra HD AT4X, not the AEV edition here hooked up to a trailer. This is what it's really made to do. Look cool and tow. For my full review of the Sierra HD AT4X AEV and the other AT4X models I've been driving, you can find them all on cars.com.