The Silverado EV’s job continued through lunch. Its owner says the truck kept the crew cool during breaks, hauled equipment through 100-mile workdays, and charged at home between a late arrival and an early start. A gasoline Ford F-250 had lost its regular assignment. So had a Hyundai Ioniq 6.
In a July 19, 2025, Silverado EV discussion, the owner, described a 2024 3WT taking over two job descriptions:
“This truck replaced an Ioniq 6 EV and an f250 gas. Will be used for estimates, errands, and site visits like the Ioniq and service calls/equipment moves like the F250.”
A Cummins-powered F-750 stayed for remote work and dump-truck duties. That arrangement gave the Chevrolet a substantial daily assignment without requiring it to do everything in the yard. Later posts describe how the towing and charging worked, along with heavier loads that pushed beyond the truck’s advertised limit. Both parts deserve attention.
A $46,000 Truck With Two Job Descriptions
The purchase began with patience
The purchase began with patience. In an earlier June comment, the owner was considering a 4WT for loads often near 10,000 pounds or a 3WT with “capacity over range.” In a July buying comment, the owner said a used 3WT was arriving from Carvana with roughly 6,000 miles for $46,000. This was the combination of range, capacity, and price the owner had been waiting for. The same truck would move landscape equipment and the kids.
The Ioniq 6 had been a “comfortable placeholder,” the owner explained in another July comment. Electric driving was already part of the routine. What the sedan lacked was the ability to bring the equipment along. The Silverado offered a way to stop dividing the day’s work between a car and a truck.
Choosing the 3WT also meant resisting the simplest showroom comparison: buy the version with the most range. Chevrolet’s published specifications give the 2024 3WT an EPA-estimated 393 miles, against 450 for the 4WT. Yet Chevrolet listed the 4WT at up to 10,000 pounds of towing, while GM’s fleet guide listed up to 12,500 pounds for the 2024 3WT-1FL. More advertised range did not bring a higher tow rating.
A buyer regularly moving equipment has good reason
A buyer regularly moving equipment has good reason to care about that tradeoff. Extra unloaded miles are of limited use if the trailer is outside the chosen truck’s capacity. The owner’s early comments show the load entering the buying decision before the celebratory first tow. That is the right order.
The used price belongs in the decision, too. This owner was weighing a $46,000 purchase against vehicles already doing useful work, rather than comparing two new-truck window stickers. It is a reported purchase figure, not an itemized out-the-door total. Taxes, fees, financing, and whatever happened financially to the outgoing vehicles would still affect the bill.
There is a tradeoff in the other direction: the Silverado now carries its pickup size through the light errands once handled by the sedan. Combining jobs is attractive when it eliminates enough vehicle switching, ownership expense, or idle equipment to justify that compromise. Merely reducing the number of vehicles says little about the cost of running the remaining one.
The July work report described a trailer
The July work report described a trailer and load totaling 10,375 pounds, with 1,050 pounds at the tongue. The route included 70-mph interstate driving, rolling two-lane roads at 60 mph, and gravel at what the owner called an appropriate speed. The assessment was enthusiastic without pretending the load came free: “Sucking down the kWh for sure but w no complaints or wiggles.”
An August 2025 comment described the truck’s daily routine:
“I’m moving 10k# 100 mi daily and L2 charging at home at 48A, from late arrival until early departure. Hills, highway, city.”
The owner said arrival battery levels were rarely below 40%, including days when the truck kept the crew cool at lunch and during breaks. That is a welcome kind of reserve. Air conditioning is part of making a work vehicle livable, and a crew should not have to treat every comfortable minute as a threat to the trip home.
Home charging was already part of the household’s equipment. Another July comment described a dual 48-amp setup working well and plans to add an 80-amp charger at another site. The August account specifically credits 48-amp home charging; it does not establish when the additional installation began operating. This owner had somewhere to plug in before asking the pickup to take over.
That preparation matters as much as the battery’s
That preparation matters as much as the battery’s size. The useful test of a work EV continues after the driver parks: can it recover enough charge before the next departure? A late finish and an early start shorten that opportunity. Several demanding days in a row can expose a shortfall that a single successful trip conceals. The owner’s posts describe a workable routine, but do not give charging hours or departure percentages for a full week.
A separate F-150 Lightning owner’s report of almost 50,000 miles without daytime charging points to the same practical advantage. Recharging while the truck would otherwise be parked keeps a refueling task out of the working day. For a crew, that can be more useful than a spectacular fast-charging claim that still requires finding a suitable stop.
Virginia road crews who tried a Ford F-150 Lightning in Scottsville had a harder assignment, including occasional 200-mile shifts without convenient fast charging. They recommended considering a longer-range version. The difference is in the work schedule: this Silverado owner reported a 100-mile day that ended at a known plug, while those crews had longer shifts to cover.
Trailer access adds another wrinkle
Trailer access adds another wrinkle. A Silverado EV owner reported unhitching nine times in three days while moving an Airstream. A charging stop for that driver could also mean finding somewhere to leave the trailer and reconnecting it afterward. Returning to a suitable home charger can remove that whole chore. Businesses comparing pickups should count time spent managing the combination, as well as time connected to a cable.
The Trailer Changed More Than the Weight
In the July post, the owner compared two 60-mile trips. Pulling the roughly 3,250-pound empty trailer used 75 miles of displayed unloaded range. With a load around 10,000 pounds, the reported change was 118 miles. At each destination, the owner removed the trailer and drove a couple of miles to let the truck recalculate its unloaded estimate.
The extra effort makes the comparison easy to follow, but the result is still a change in a forecast. It cannot establish electricity consumption or cost per mile. A reader in the original discussion raised that same concern about the display recalibrating. The useful next measurement would be actual energy use over the trip, with distance and conditions recorded alongside it.
The excavator added a more intriguing observation
The excavator added a more intriguing observation. The owner thought it traveled more efficiently with the boom facing forward than with the flat cab wall facing the wind. In a reply, the owner also expected an enclosed trailer to take a bigger bite out of range than the low equipment trailer and narrow excavator. Other readers disagreed about which shape would fare better.
That disagreement is a reason to compare the actual trailers. A weight figure tells us little about the shape moving through the air, and the post contains no controlled test separating orientation from wind, speed, terrain, or the display’s recalculation. The machine must also be positioned for proper balance and securement. An apparent range improvement is no bargain if the loading arrangement compromises those.
Good Handling Does Not Raise the Tow Rating
The owner’s September 6, 2025, comment about oversized towing loads is harder to accept at face value. It describes 11,000 to 13,000 pounds on most days and 14,750 pounds several times over short distances with significant terrain. The owner praised the balanced, low-profile load and argued that an occasional tow above the manufacturer’s maximum would not hurt the truck.
The reported 14,750 pounds is beyond even
The reported 14,750 pounds is beyond even the advertised 12,500-pound ceiling for the 2024 3WT-1FL, as is the upper end of that daily range. A short journey and agreeable handling do not make an overloaded combination acceptable. A smooth tow is a driving impression; a weight rating is an operating limit.
The distinction also matters below the maximum trailer figure. Chevrolet’s 2024 owner’s manual says tongue weight contributes to the truck’s loaded weight, along with occupants, cargo, and equipment. The original report’s 1,050 pounds at the hitch therefore has to share the carrying allowance with the people and tools. The pickup can run out of room under a weight limit while there is still an empty seat in the cab.
A Suburban owner who reported just 20 pounds below the SUV’s loaded-weight limit praised the engine’s power while confronting exactly that problem. Strong acceleration cannot tell the driver how much capacity remains. This Silverado owner’s specific labels and loaded scale weights were not supplied, so the original 10,375-pound tow cannot be certified against every vehicle and axle limit from the post alone.
Towing ratings deserve more respect than the familiar
Towing ratings deserve more respect than the familiar reassurance that a truck handled something once. The same owner can give a useful account of daily electric towing and make an unsound judgment about exceeding the limit. Accepting the useful details does not require accepting that judgment.
The owner was more selective about other difficult loads. The September comment says high-profile or poorly balanced combinations sometimes went to the F-750 or a rented Ram dually. The original discussion had already reserved the diesel truck for remote range and dump work. Those assignments explain why it remained available.
There is nothing contradictory about an electric pickup working beside a diesel dump truck. Different machines get different assignments. The Silverado’s useful contribution was taking over work from the Ioniq 6 and gas F-250. Requiring it to replace the F-750 as well would ignore the owner’s actual plan.
That existing larger truck is an advantage another
That existing larger truck is an advantage another buyer may not have. Someone buying a single vehicle needs it to cover the assignments that cannot be postponed or reassigned. Someone with several vehicles can put each one where it makes the most sense. Buying a backup solely to accommodate the electric pickup would add an expense this account does not price.
Even two compatible job descriptions can collide on the calendar. An estimate on one side of town and an equipment move on the other can happen at the same time. One pickup cannot serve two drivers in two places. The owner says the Silverado replaced the sedan and F-250, but the posts do not show how often the old vehicles had been needed simultaneously.
Nor do they establish a financial win. The available material lacks matched electricity bills, F-250 fuel logs, maintenance totals, insurance changes, resale receipts, and charging-time records. The potential is easy to understand: retire vehicles and remove recurring expenses. Whether enough of those expenses disappeared to outweigh the purchase and running costs remains unanswered.
Before Selling the Second Vehicle
- Try the longest consecutive stretch of normal work, not just a demonstration tow. Record departure and arrival battery percentages and the hours actually available to charge. Include the extra service call that pushes dinner back.
- Visit the scales with the usual crew, tools, trailer, and hitch equipment aboard. Compare the vehicle, axle, and trailer weights with the applicable labels. Empty seats and spare bed space do not tell you what capacity remains.
- Check a month’s schedule for overlapping jobs, then price the remaining exceptions. Include a rental or substitute when the pickup needs service, as well as the remote or awkward load that goes to another truck.
The owner’s August verdict was concise: My f250
The owner’s August verdict was concise: “My f250 lost its job to this 24 3WT. My f750, not so much.” That division of labor is the most convincing part of the account. The electric pickup reportedly took on the errands, site visits, and equipment moves that had occupied two vehicles, with overnight charging supporting the routine.
It deserves credit for that work. The heavier September loads deserve criticism. A useful electric work truck has to be ready again tomorrow, with enough charge for the route and enough rated capacity for the load. In this owner’s case, the daily routine offers a credible reason to consider the Silverado. The 14,750-pound tow calls for a different truck with the rating to match.
Noah Washington is a young automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia, covering sports cars, luxury vehicles, electric vehicles, and the ownership realities behind them. His reporting for Torque News connects engineering and design with what drivers experience, from towing and charging to reliability and the character that makes a car worth caring about.
His work includes interviews withJaguar F-TYPE designer Matt
His work includes interviews withJaguar F-TYPE designer Matt Beaven andformer Lucid Gravity chief engineer Zach Walker, plus firsthand reviews of theNissan Z Nismo andMitsubishi Mirage G4.
A BMW E36 M3 owner and former Miata owner, Noah has written for TopSpeed, HotCars, and Cointelegraph. He is a member of the Southeast Region Automotive Media Association (SERAMA) and theInternational Motor Press Association (IMPA). His favorite car remains the Fiat 500 Abarth.
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