Every major pickup truck maker offers three basic versions of its rigs – basic fleet, luxury family hauler, and rugged off-roader.
Some even succeed in combining luxury and off-road prowess.
Here’s one of them, which combines some serious comfy kit with serious off-road items from none other than American Expedition Vehicles (AEV), which describes itself as “the leading store for high-quality off-road vehicle parts” and also does a pretty rugged-looking Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Bison model, which I have also tested.
So let’s drive.
2026 Sierra 1500 AT4X: American Expedition Vehicles Upgrades
The Sierra was born in 1999 as a more macho variation of Chevrolet’s light-duty pickup truck, built on GM’s GMT800 platform with some simple nose and taillight redesigns. Now into its fourth generation, introduced in 2019, the truck got a substantial GMC-specific redesign outside in 2022, resulting in a more square-jawed face. And now we get the AEV upgrades as a separate version of its Sierra 1500 AT4X model, which already gets some off-road kit.
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Big Red’s stacked vertical face looks ready to shred some mud, with a tall black barred grille under a decorative faux hood scoop, side intakes over a body-color and black bumper with tow hooks and inset fog lights.
There’s a prominent AEV-upgrade boron steel skid plate, one of five under this truck. C-shaped LED DRLs frame projector headlights.
Those are AEV stamped steel front and rear bumpers with front winch capability are shaped to improve approach and departure angles off road. There’s AEV badging on bumpers. Off-road rocker panel protectors help shield the sills and frame rails, while we did not have the optional bolt-on step assist, handy when not off-roading.
Black cladding frames AEV racing-inspired Salta wheels with 12-spoke design and recessed valve stems wearing 33-inch off-road Goodyear Wrangler rubber. It includes offroad-capable Multimatic DSSV spool valve dampers easily visible through lots of fender-to-tread clearance – a 2-inch factory lift. There are no running boards here, so its its 11.5-inch center ground clearance is preserved.
In back, GM’s trick Multipro tailgate, done in contrasting black, has an integrated step.
The whole rig is almost 232-inches long and stands 6-foot, 5-inches tall at the crew cab roof.
2026 Sierra 1500 AT4X Interior: Worth The Climb
With no running board, you grab the leather-wrapped grab handles, or the steering wheels, and pull yourself up into black leather seats with white piping, plus AEV buffalo-embroidered head restraints over AT4X accents, with deep rubber all-weather floor liners.
You sit very tall in these massage, heated/cooled seats, with memory presets for the driver. The stitched leatherette-topped dashboard design, with thick red stitching on door armrests and steering wheel, is refreshingly different than its sister Chevrolet Silverado. Some of the leather in here has a woodgrain effect – cool – and seats front and rear get that piping. That said, there’s basic black plastic in the lower door and dash trim, with some basic GM switches and buttons here and there.
The paddle shifters behind the wheel are small, and only work if you slap the center console electronic shifter into Manual mode. They are joined by intuitive audio controls. I appreciated the steering wheel heat button up front on some frosty Florida mornings.
The 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster is clear and concise, with a basic 140-mph speedometer and 6,000 rpm tach, or other designs that include simple digital speed, or a simpler speedo and tach. All come with choices in information, including off-road angle and drive status in the middle, or customizable insets like a compass. There’s a big head-up display as well.
The dash center is a wide 13.4-inch touchscreen with navigation, audio, seat heat/cool and other menus including HD Radio, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. It has a real volume knob, while voice command handles navigation, audio, phone and more. Underneath there’s a big engine start/stop button, dual-zone climate control with big temperature knobs, and nine buttons to handle differential lock, power tailgate, hill descent control and more.
The wide center console gets a cellphone recharger slot, plus lots of storage space, usable cupholders, trailer brake bias control and a deep center armrest storage area with more USB ports. The rearview mirror can be switched to a widescreen rear camera view, while the center display can access a gander at the cargo bed, trailer hitch or front/side/top-down and more views.
Seat massage settings are adjustable via a knob on the bottom cushion, displayed on the center screen, although you can not actually adjust them from the screen. Controls for headlights, driving modes and 2- and 4-wheel-drive settings are down low on the left of the steering wheel, which are not easy to see.
Again, it’s a climb into the rear bench seat, but there’s lots of head and leg room, a drop-down center armrest, a/c vents, outboard seat heaters, and more USB ports. Under the split flip-up seat bottoms are storage areas, plus more inside the seatbacks, along with a power rear window.
That 6-foot-long bed has lots of room (2,286-lb. cargo capacity) and tie-downs, while its Multi-Pro, meaning the upper segment that drops independently has a step for easier loading of small stuff, or using a built-in waterproof Bluetooth speaker system underneath for tailgating.
This is an imposing rig, but there’s a high level of tech as well as luxury for passengers.
2026 Sierra 1500 AT4X: Ready For Off-Road Adventures
OK, no matter how much off-road gear is woven into this Sierra’s DNA, some folks just may not do worse than a sandy parking lot. For those who do really take it off-road, it includes front and rear e-locking differentials, all that ground clearance, 35-inch mud-terrain tires, 2-inch suspension lift, Multimatic DSSV dampers, specific front upper and lower control arms and steering knuckles, larger steel transfer case and other skid plates.
That lifted suspension and knobby rubber could have harshened the ride on and off road, but this rig was quite refined on the highway – and darn nice over some lumpy, hillock-filled fields and weedy, potholed old Navy base back lots. Traction in 4-wheel-drive high and off-road drive mode was solid, with no slip over grass. The ground clearance and clipped AEV bumpers gave a great approach angle, allowing an easy traverse of grassy old Navy drainage ditches. In 4-wheel-drive low, dirt and grass fields presented no challenge, while a mid-field swale was shrugged off too – down, through and up with no harsh suspension rebound and great ground clearance. We saw some steep angles going up and along some shallow hills, and the Sierra stayed planted.
But what about daily commuting?
There’s an available 3-liter Duramax diesel with 305-hp, 495 lb-ft torque and tow 8,800-lbs. We had the 6.2-liter with 420 hp and 460 lb-ft of torque at 4,100 rpm, running through a 10-speed automatic transmission, and rear-wheel-/all-wheel-/4-wheel-drive high or low with Normal, Sport, Off-Road and Terrain drive modes – they adjust transmission shift points, throttle and StabiliTrak.
Driven mostly in Normal mode and rear-wheel-drive on the highway with cruise control, we barely scratched 15 mpg, and saw as low as 11 mpg after some dirt-dogging, even with auto-shut off at stops, which was fairly transparent on restart from a stoplight.
The V-8 gave quick throttle response and precise upshifts in Normal mode en route to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds/5.8 in Normal/all-wheel-drive Auto. It gave a nice exhaust note thanks to its active system, and minimal road noise, mostly from the tires.
Set in Sport mode/rear-wheel-drive, we got some wheelspin en route to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds, while 4-wheel-drive Auto saw great traction off line en route to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds. This rig can tow up to 9,000-lbs. – better exhaust rumble in Sport. The truck was entertaining to drive, with great passing power – slap the gearshift aft for Manual mode, and the tiny paddle shifters worked well.
To compare, a test I did back in a 2021 GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Crew Cab 4×4 saw 60 mph in 5.7 seconds in 2-wheel-drive in Normal mode, while switching to Sport and all-wheel-drive auto made for a quick launch to 60 mph in 5.4 seconds with rapid shifts in the power band – it averaged about 16 mpg, with only some tire and light wind noise at highway speed.
Under the skin lives independent coil-over-shocks up front, and a solid axle with semi-elliptic/variable-rate/two-stage multi-leaf springs in back. Both get two-speed transfer cases for four-wheel-drive with high and low range and locking differentials. The result is a firm ride, but with decent buffering over sharper bumps – nothing rattling. Unladened, it swallowed speedbumps with no tail hop.
It was fairly agile for a 5,890-lb. truck, tackling turns well with some body roll, power shifting front and rear in 4-wheel-drive auto to help it get through. Go to rear-wheel-drive only and I could power squeak the rear rubber coming out of a corner, but it’s easy to handle – for a truck. The suspension didn’t get upset by a bump mid-turn. The disc brakes had a nice bite high on the pedal, responsive and controllable with no fade after repeated hard use, hauling its weight down from 60 mph. Pedal engagement was high up, with progressive bite and no drama. And again, steering was precise and well-weighted in Sport mode, with a decent turning radius.
For safety, the Sierra includes front and rear park assist, lane-change alert with blind zone and rear cross traffic warnings via seat buzzers. There’s lane-keep assist that gently nudged steering to stay between the lines, auto-high beams and adaptive cruise control with full start/stop/resume.
A base rear-wheel-drive GMC Sierra 1500 Regular Cab starts at $40,495. Our 1500 AT4X AEV started at $79,400. The AT4X AEV Edition option is $6,910, with skid plates, bumpers, wheels and all the other AEV stuff; the 6.2-liter V-8 is $1,500; Volcanic Red Tintcoat was $645; and active exhaust $395, for a total MSRP of $89,945.
Bottom line: Great power, ride and good handling for a serious off-roader, eager to get dirty and stay outta trouble, with decent tech and plush interior too.
2026 GMC Sierra 1500 Crew Cab AT4X AEV
Vehicle type – full-size 5-passenger crew cab all-wheel-drive pickup
Base price – $79,400 ($89,945 as tested)
Engine type –OHV 16-valve alloy V-8
Displacement – 6.2 liter
Horsepower (net) – 420 @ 5,600 rpm
Torque – 460 @ 4,100 rpm
Transmission – 10-speed automatic transmission
Wheelbase – 158.9 inches
Overall length – 252 inches
Overall width – 81.9 inches w/mirrors
Height – 82.7 inches
Front headroom – 43 inches
Front leg room – 44.5 inches
Rear headroom – 40.1 inches
Rear legroom – 43.4 inches
Cargo bed – 6-foot/71.7 cu. ft. volume
Payload/towing – up to 1,050 pounds/8,900 pounds
Weight – 5,890 lbs.
Fuel capacity – 24 gallons
Fuel mileage – 14 mpg city/16 mpg highway