2018 Chevy Colorado ZR2 build and adventures.

[tomtaylz]

So since I am starting to build out my Chevy Colorado more and more this last year, I thought I'd start a thread detailing my journey.

Feel free to follow along on instagram @SearchSeekExplore

I bought the truck used from an ExPo posting! It had already some good upgrades and I felt I bought it for a very fair price. I had previously owned a couple of older Jeeps, a 2000 TJ and 2005 LJ.

SOLD: 2018 Chevrolet ZR2 (TURBO-DIESEL) - $36,550 - 18K miles - San Jose, CA

***************** S O L D ******************* This ZR2 has been completely outfitted with functional high-end accessories to be 100% ready for overlanding. Leveling spacers up front from Rough Country. Timbren SES bump stops in rear. SuperModulation skid plates underneath, plus 589Fab HD shock...

expeditionportal.com

For the first year or so, I wanted to keep it stock and figure out what I needed to get the most utility. It's more of a weekend warrior with scattered long trips mixed in. I'm hoping to make longer trips a more frequent event but sometimes life gets in the way.

A couple of pictures when I first purchased the truck:




I went on several camping trips in the first few months. You can see my adventures in Death Valley detailed in this thread:

Trip Report: Death Valley Christmas

Hello! I am fairly new here. I actually ended up buying my rig from the classifieds of this forum and looked at @turbodb's excellently documented trips to provide guidance in planning my trip. Follow along on instagram at @SearchSeekExplore Death Valley Trip: For Christmas, my family lives in...

expeditionportal.com

as well as several wheeling trips.


Starting in the new year I knew I wanted to start doing some less impactful mods. A fridge, and power setup came to mind.
I wanted to keep things simple for electrical, I figured something I could understand would help me out if I needed to fix something on the road and while I know the basics of electrical, I am not an expert. I also wanted something where I could charge my laptop or other AC devices while on the road, especially now with the pandemic, but also before, its fairly easy for me to work remote as long as I have a LTE signal.

I settled on the Goal Zero 1400. Yes its expensive, but it also is simple and I can make cables to power most of my needs. Had I known the 1500X was coming out a few months later I would have waited for that but that's life. I got the car kit also to charge the goal zero as I drive. With the Colorado it has a variable alternator, so I need to have my lights on to have enough voltage to charge the goal zero, but not the biggest deal in the world.

For the fridge, I really wanted a dual zone, I think more for the flexibility more than anything. I purchased the Dometic CFX3 75DZ. It's a massive fridge. Looking back, I don't really use the dual zone and wonder if I could have gotten away with a smaller fridge, more on that later, but the fridge does what it's supposed to do and is not bad on power. No complaints with it at all.





The snug top which came on the truck when I purchased it was certainly nice, but I would have chosen something slightly different if I was buying new. Knowing I eventually wanted a roof top tent, I wanted to be cautious about weight. I also realized that with the fixed side windows, and such a big fridge, getting to items often included climbing in the truck. I needed windoors! I decided to look at more metal options to keep the price down. Alucab seemed like a good option which I could get fairly quick combined with being very light for its strength. I also liked the inside T channels which make mounting all sorts of things very helpful.

After selling my topper it was weird seeing my truck in it's original form!


Waiting on the Alucab which had its covid delays, I took a 5 day trip exploring fire and forest roads in Southern Oregon.





As nice as it was to have this minimalist look, I missed having a topper for various reasons, and had to be a lot more strategic on my packing and trying to keep dust out. After a couple of months the Alucab arrived, in this time I had already ordered a Roof Top Tent (more on that later).



The new alucabs had interior lights already installed which was a nice surprised and I quickly hooked up that, and the third brake light to my old topper wiring. The side openings really help me manage and access my fridge, and gear a lot better. On the T channels I quickly used the gpfactor maxtrax mounts and mounted them to the ceiling. Nice, organized and out of the way. Since this photo I also mounted a shovel and a fire extinguisher around the T channels.

 

[tomtaylz]

I had to fairly quickly head up to Oregon to pick up my roof top tent. I had ordered the Bush Company Alpha and awning from CVT. At this time, Oregon had pretty bad fires and was smokey as anything. What originally I had planned for a nice trip with the new to me tent, turned into a quick out and back.



The tent and awning are real nice. It was my first roof top tent, having had many ground tents. I am very impressed with the craftsmanship, quality and thoughtfulness of the tent. Having his/hers electric inside was nice too, I was able to create a cable from my goal zero to connect to the underside of the tent. In the future I would install a sirocco fan for the tent also. Having the double canvas keeps the tent well insulated and I have had it down to freezing and stayed warm so far. The setup speed is as quick as it can be and it should greatly improve trips where I am changing sites everyday. All the storage in the tent is very nice as well.

I also purchased the 270 XT awning, one of my favorite items I've had on a vehicle. CVT only stock drivers side (passenger was my first choice) but it is great for protection from the elements. Recently during a rainy trip, having a large dry working space was essential.





I wanted to clean up the mounting of the tent, I was very appreciative of CVT mounting the tent, there is no way I would have been able to do it solo, but it didn't look the best and the awning was hanging down a bit low making my rear door make contact to the awning.

Luckily, I could flip the awning brackets up. This was a fairly simple procedure, but did include bending the spring rod for the tent awning to clear the awning. I think it also improved the looks of the tent. I also switched the mounting from the more clamp style brackets to The Bush Companys Z rails. With the clamp style brackets, the tent had to sit pretty off center as the extrusions on the bottom of the tent and the alucab were very similar. These rails work really nice with the alucab low profile load bars. The load bars have a T-Channel on the top allowing me to connect one side of the Z bars, and then I connect the tent T channel to the other side, I can move them wherever I want along the channels and it cleans up the whole look. I was also able to cut down the load bars to be more narrow, also improving the look.

Before:


After:





Shortly after getting the tent, and struggling to find an area to get out of the smoke, Southern Utah seemed like a decent bet. We ended up traveling to St George, working remote for several days before heading to Zion for a few nights, racking up four nights in the new setup.







A couple of things to note, I really needed to upgrade the rear springs as the added weight was noticeable, the backend felt more bouncy, especially with the bikes, and I wanted to add a bit of cushion to the roof top tent. I quickly added a 1" sleep on latex mattress topper. It helps a lot make the tent more comfortable! I have considered a Exped megamat which seems to be quite popular but wanting to take the pups on more trips I am holding off for now.

 

[tomtaylz]

Upgrading the leaf springs to the OME heavy duty springs was a quick change which returned the ride to a stock feel.

Before:



After: (the bump stops went back on when we had completed the other side)




During this time I had also taken a couple of weekend trips to Yosemite, I'm a sucker for the national parks.







Fairly recently, I attached the solar panel to the roof top tent using structural adhesive. I was also able to make a cable which nicely plugged into the goal zero. Having the solar is a nice safety net when I am in the same place for several days.

 

[tomtaylz]

On my grand scheme of where I want to take this truck, I knew I needed better recovery. Having a winch, especially on solo trips was a must and more armor up front was an added bonus. I had quickly settled on the CBI offroad full bumper in aluminum. I had good luck on my jeeps using aluminum which is designed appropriately, and the weight savings on my fairly heavy build made sense.

I finally got everything together and started cutting







Unfortunately, the winch with the solenoid was a bit too large to fit without a uncomfortable amount of cutting. It also would have been hard to reach the plugin spot for the remote, which I prefer over wireless. I decided to install the bumper winch-less for now and relocate the solenoid under the hood in the future. One of the lights also did not work which was a bit of a bummer. But BajaDesigns got me sorted with a set of replacements.



I do feel the little bit more weight with the bumper, I will likely need to update the front springs especially when the winch is in. I also learned you can rotate the clutch, so I rotated the clutch to face forward which should make life simpler in the future also. My license plate will likely not work in its current form, so I'll fight that battle when I get there.

Nothing is hooked up for electrical just yet. My plan is to get a spod with a power tray and wire everything through that. The winch will be directly to the battery, and I have a dual arb which I've had for years I'll be installing in 589 compressor mount. I had turned it into a mobile until with alligator clamps for my most recent trips until I decided where I wanted to put it.

This past week, I did a quick weekday getaway to Mt Diablo. Which turned out to be a test of all my gear in the rain.

The sun came out just as I was packing up:


The awning was very helpful ensuring I could still cook in the rain, and had a place to hang out/work. In January, the bush company should have walls for the awning. I am hopeful then I can heat this area which should make being outside and working out of my truck a lot more pleasant as I look into longer trips on the road next year






So in the future is electrical and a little bit of front suspension work/armor and I am largely done phase one of my build. Phase two still holds some question marks. I want to carry a larger amount of propane than just the little green bottles. With fire bans coming earlier and earlier (I haven't had a wood fire all year) and a decent need sometimes for heating, It would be nice to have a 11# tank to use with my little buddy heater as well as potentially a propane fire ring. I just am unsure if I'll have enough room in the bed for a fairly bulky item. Between my spare and the big fridge, I do not have the most room in the bed currently. I am still curious what to do for the rear bumper too. Originally I had planned to keep it simple and get a bison rear bumper for the additional protection and recovery and call it a day. Although I am definitely considering other options too.

A few things I am considering:

1. could move water to this https://www.frontrunneroutfitters.com/en/us/water-solutions/front-runner-footwell-water-tank.html

seems like a logical spot, with a good place to hold a fair amount of weight

2. Get a size smaller fridge, i'd loose dual zone but they have one that makes ice cubes.

3. Probably eventually i'd get a roof rack over the cab, I was thinking putting rotopax up there when I need to carry extra fuel but don't want to put too much

4. I could get something like this for my spare currently in the bed https://www.rigdsupply.com/products/rigd-ultraswing-hitch-carrier-multi-fit or something like the relentless high clearance bumper/swing out which I like but sure is heavy.

I recognize it’s a lot of weight in a bad spot, and a swig out comes with its own disadvantages and I question carrying bikes with a swing out, but it’d sure give me a lot of space from the bed.

When these tires wear out I'll likely move to 33s and new wheels too, and deal with the trimming that comes with that.

 

[Pacific Northwest yetti]

Thank you for posting, and great job thus far!

I do love the ZR2,

I look forward to following along.

 

[YetiX]

Looking amazing so far. I love that color, if they'd had that color when I bought my Colorado I would have gone with the green instead of black.

 

[tomtaylz]

Looking amazing so far. I love that color, if they'd had that color when I bought my Colorado I would have gone with the green instead of black.

Yeah it changes quite a bit on different lights. My only minor gripe with it is that it's quite hard to photograph, a lot of the times it just looks black

-------

I ordered a spod system over the sales this week. I also have a dual arb compressor I'll be mounting under the hood. I had turned the compressor into a mobile unit mounting it in a tubberwear box with alligator clips until I figured out where I wanted to put it. On my previous Jeeps it had been under the hood and was convenient enough and I picked up a 589 mount. Looking forward to the simplicity of the spod, I'll likely also be adding lights under the tent to light up the sides of the vehicle better, as well as in the rear bumper in the future.

Exploring my options I listed above I think it might be some eventual combination of all four.

I'm waiting until Sherpa racks come out with a Colorado rack as I've heard a lot of people saying only good things about them recently.

I'm looking pretty heavily at Relentless Fabrications rear swing out in non high clearance form. For my type of wheeling I'm not sure I can justify the 40lbs of added steal on the high clearance version. The bonus here is I could probably mount the propane right to the side designed for Rotopax, but I am very skeptical if a swing out is right for me.

I'm going to do some measurements for a slightly smaller fridge today (75 to about 55) to see how it would look in the bed.

 

[tomtaylz]

Installed the winch with the AEV relocation kit. We relocated the control pack to under the hood, as in the enclosed bumper there was no way to access it. Looks pretty clean and glad to be able to use the hardwired remote.

I decided to order a National Luna which came real quick, two day free shipping from Equipt Outfitters and it was packaged really well. I returned the dometic. The lunas DC cable came with what I believe is called a hella plug. I switched it out to an anderson, matching the other side which plays more nicely with my goal zero and it’s running.

I also spent a fair amount of time cleaning up the wiring on the tent. I have cables from the tent itself, and from the solar, and due to just when I installed them they went to the different sides of the bed. I also had used a fair bit of black duct tape which actually held up well but maybe didn’t look the best.

I got some small tabs I could zip tie the cable to and put on the tent rails. I also kept the two cables together making everything a lot cleaner. I still use tape alone the canopy as I don’t want to drill to attach the wires.

 

[tomtaylz]

I don’t necessarily trust myself to do a clean wiring job, and I wanted a good foundation to add things to in the future, so I exported the job. I’m pretty pumped how things turned out. And the sPod system is really cool, I can control it from my phone which will be nice for the side camp lights when using the tent.



Only thing left to do is I need to relocate the air compressor input, it’s under the coolant tank right now but it should be easy enough to attach it to the side of the engine bay.

 

[D. Tuttle]

On my grand scheme of where I want to take this truck, I knew I needed better recovery. Having a winch, especially on solo trips was a must and more armor up front was an added bonus. I had quickly settled on the CBI offroad full bumper in aluminum. I had good luck on my jeeps using aluminum which is designed appropriately, and the weight savings on my fairly heavy build made sense.

I finally got everything together and started cutting

View attachment 626228

View attachment 626229

View attachment 626231

Unfortunately, the winch with the solenoid was a bit too large to fit without a uncomfortable amount of cutting. It also would have been hard to reach the plugin spot for the remote, which I prefer over wireless. I decided to install the bumper winch-less for now and relocate the solenoid under the hood in the future. One of the lights also did not work which was a bit of a bummer. But BajaDesigns got me sorted with a set of replacements.

View attachment 626245

I do feel the little bit more weight with the bumper, I will likely need to update the front springs especially when the winch is in. I also learned you can rotate the clutch, so I rotated the clutch to face forward which should make life simpler in the future also. My license plate will likely not work in its current form, so I'll fight that battle when I get there.

Nothing is hooked up for electrical just yet. My plan is to get a spod with a power tray and wire everything through that. The winch will be directly to the battery, and I have a dual arb which I've had for years I'll be installing in 589 compressor mount. I had turned it into a mobile until with alligator clamps for my most recent trips until I decided where I wanted to put it.

This past week, I did a quick weekday getaway to Mt Diablo. Which turned out to be a test of all my gear in the rain.

The sun came out just as I was packing up:
View attachment 626257

The awning was very helpful ensuring I could still cook in the rain, and had a place to hang out/work. In January, the bush company should have walls for the awning. I am hopeful then I can heat this area which should make being outside and working out of my truck a lot more pleasant as I look into longer trips on the road next year

View attachment 626258

View attachment 626269


So in the future is electrical and a little bit of front suspension work/armor and I am largely done phase one of my build. Phase two still holds some question marks. I want to carry a larger amount of propane than just the little green bottles. With fire bans coming earlier and earlier (I haven't had a wood fire all year) and a decent need sometimes for heating, It would be nice to have a 11# tank to use with my little buddy heater as well as potentially a propane fire ring. I just am unsure if I'll have enough room in the bed for a fairly bulky item. Between my spare and the big fridge, I do not have the most room in the bed currently. I am still curious what to do for the rear bumper too. Originally I had planned to keep it simple and get a bison rear bumper for the additional protection and recovery and call it a day. Although I am definitely considering other options too.

A few things I am considering:

1. could move water to this https://www.frontrunneroutfitters.com/en/us/water-solutions/front-runner-footwell-water-tank.html

seems like a logical spot, with a good place to hold a fair amount of weight

2. Get a size smaller fridge, i'd loose dual zone but they have one that makes ice cubes.

3. Probably eventually i'd get a roof rack over the cab, I was thinking putting rotopax up there when I need to carry extra fuel but don't want to put too much

4. I could get something like this for my spare currently in the bed https://www.rigdsupply.com/products/rigd-ultraswing-hitch-carrier-multi-fit or something like the relentless high clearance bumper/swing out which I like but sure is heavy.

I recognize it’s a lot of weight in a bad spot, and a swig out comes with its own disadvantages and I question carrying bikes with a swing out, but it’d sure give me a lot of space from the bed.

When these tires wear out I'll likely move to 33s and new wheels too, and deal with the trimming that comes with that.

Click to expand...

I love your Alu Cab set-up. Im looking to do a similar bumper and a Superpacific SBX1 Shell on my 2019 ZR2. What did you replace your factory 8" antenna with?
For power I decided to fund a new project Zero Breeze Elechive 2200 similar to the yeti 1500..

 

[spectre6000]

I generally do not care for all the black covers in engine compartments; I like to see my machines' workin's. That's a pretty sano setup though...

Those awning booms look especially sturdy. Any more information there?

 

[Thegiantpeaches]

any more details on your custom spod mount in the engine bay?

 

[tomtaylz]

any more details on your custom spod mount in the engine bay?

It’s just a blank power tray designed for the Colorado which was then cut up to mount the sPod neatly. https://www.powertrays.com/collecti...cts/blank-powertray-chevy-colorado-12-current

I love your Alu Cab set-up. Im looking to do a similar bumper and a Superpacific SBX1 Shell on my 2019 ZR2. What did you replace your factory 8" antenna with?
For power I decided to fund a new project Zero Breeze Elechive 2200 similar to the yeti 1500..

Thank you! I just unscrewed the antenna. I could probably fit a stubby under there but honestly i’ve only used radio a handful of times. Sounds like you’ll have a nice setup

I generally do not care for all the black covers in engine compartments; I like to see my machines' workin's. That's a pretty sano setup though...

Those awning booms look especially sturdy. Any more information there?

Thank you! The 270 awning is the bush company XT awning. It sure is sturdy, I don’t predict any issues there.

 

[tomtaylz]

Finally finished a few outlying tasks around the truck. I ordered a molle panel for the bed side and attached my first aid kit to it, it’s on a quick release so super convenient. Eventually it’ll be moving a bit, I had planned on putting the spare back underneath but I found out the previous owner had removed the spare tire hoist among other things. I’ll just have to wait for my new bumper.

I have a propane mount and 6# tank coming, the idea is to attach it somewhere along the panel also. I may need to move the ladder (the object to the left of the first aid kit) but i’ll figure that out when the time comes.

The shifter in the truck is one of those things which has always bothered me. It’s just large and ugly looking end doesn’t really fit the truck at all. I purchased a shifter from a chevy blazer, reusing the current boot just changing the electrical. I like the way it turned out.

Before:

After:

I may try to swap in a heated steering wheel next. I need to do a bit more research.

 

[Montynv]

Check the Colorado/Canyon forums, there is a write up in the how to section.