1997 GMC Sierra K2500 Sl review from North America

A few miscellaneous lights here and there. The truck is very rugged and I expect it to mechanically be very solid. Clutch is a bit weak from me driving it like it's a camaro when I first got it, but its also around 6400lbs or so. Stock clutches are a weak point on heavy trucks for a reason ;)

Excellent vehicle. I learned to drive in my fathers 94 k1500 stepside with a v6 and 5 speed and I always wanted one of my own since. Now I own 3 (Rolled the 94, bought a 2wd and using the cab off that for the 4x4 and making a choptop jobber outta the rolled cab on the 2wd). The are very reliable trucks. My 97 is truly an excellent vehicle and for anyone that can live with a 3/4 ton, I would highly reccomend it. It handles very well for such a big vehicle. It is the Heavy duty package (8600 gvrw), so it rides a little rough. The truck itself is pretty beefy and performs well both off and on-road (though I plan on a sfa swap in the front somtime in thefuture for the ultimate word in bombproof). The real gem here is the l31 350 and nv4500. I have the heavy duty package, and consequently 3" dual exhaust stock... Just had to hack the muffler off and put flowmasters on. The motor is very powerful, and even stock I would say seat of pants I'm making about 275 horse with the exhaust mods. These motors are very easy to wake up (old dog with fancy new tricks) and can run with anything new. The nv4500 5 speed is almost perfect. The granny low is great for crawling around... And its got a pretty high overdrive. The truck has an open differential and it can pitch sideways in 3rd gear around corners and in dirt forget about it unless you know how to handle the beast. Very fast vehicle and it has outran many other trucks (similar year halftons, some newer diesels, etc). The truck handles work like nothing. I have loaded it with a yard of sand and the sag was minimal... and it road like a damn caddillac. Did I mention its rated to tow 10,000lbs? Though I would swap out the gears for a little lower (I have 3.42's) and do a few engine mods to breathe a bit better. Smallblocks don't handle huge loads like the diesels and big blocks, but if properly equipped they aren't bad at all.

A few drawbacks? I really like the newer dash, but it's a little creaky. The doors on all the GMT-400 (88-2000) vehicles are a little rattly. My biggest beef is that Gm killed the Solid front axles. While IFS is pretty good (I have abused it pretty hard on the 94 and 97), It doesn't flex... and it just isn't quite as strong as the beefier solid axles. The Halfton Ifs is fairly close to a dana 44/10 bolt front. 3/4 ton Is about a dana 50 strengthwise, and the 1 ton is close to a dana 60. This can be addressed with a sfa swap if you use huge tires and pound on it. Anything under 35's and Ifs is fine.. Your gonna want a 3/4 or 1 ton for anything more if your gonna stick with Ifs. At extreme articulation limits the cv joints themselves tend to blow out with a little too much throttle and traction. Also, the Steering is a little wimpy for heavy offroading and if you really load them down way past the limits the tierods actually visibly stress.

The few problems this truck has can be addressed pretty easily with a little shop time, if you're not content with it stock. I like modifications, and considering this series Gm has been around awile all the issues can be appropriately dealt with for a decent backyard wrenchhead. The good FAR outweighs the few gripes I have.