Three of the six 2026 Colorado trims are built to leave pavement, and they are not three versions of the same idea. The Trail Boss is a two-inch lift, 32-inch all-terrain tires and a two-speed transfer case for $1,200 more MSRP than a four-wheel-drive LT. The Z71 takes the same tires and drivetrain at standard ride height and spends the money on lighting and cabin instead. The ZR2 is a different truck below the floor: a three-inch lift, Multimatic DSSV spool-valve dampers, two locking differentials, 33-inch mud-terrains and 10.7 inches of ground clearance.

The complication around here is that the nearest legal trail ground is an hour of highway away, so whatever you buy has to be a highway truck first. That is what this page sorts out, and it is the reason the DSSV dampers matter more than the tire size for most buyers. Outten Chevrolet of Allentown stocks Trail Boss heavily for buyers from Bethlehem, Nazareth, Whitehall, Easton, Emmaus and Slatington, which is what this market actually buys.

Off-Road Hardware by Trim

The hardware divides on one line, and it is not the badge: it is whether the truck has a low range.

Trail Boss

A two-inch factory-installed lift, 18-inch wheels on 32-inch all-terrain tires, and a two-speed automatic transfer case with a transfer case shield. Four selectable drive modes with an off-road performance display. Four-wheel drive is standard; there is no rear-wheel-drive Trail Boss. Twenty-inch Trail Boss wheels are available, and so is an Off Road Lighting Package at $750 and an Off-Road Recovery Kit at $650, both option MSRPs.

Z71

The same 32-inch all-terrain tires on 18-inch wheels and the same two-speed transfer case, at standard ride height rather than lifted. What the Z71 adds instead is LED headlamps, taillamps and fog lamps and a Jet Black interior with Adrenaline Red accents, with the same four drive modes and off-road display. It is the trim for someone who wants the tires and the drivetrain and would rather have the lighting than the lift.

ZR2

A three-inch factory-installed lift with high-performance suspension and an ultra-wide stance, Multimatic DSSV spool-valve dampers, front and rear electronic locking differentials, 17-inch wheels on 33-inch mud-terrain tires, full skid plates and rocker protection, and five selectable drive modes including Baja. Chevrolet describes the available underbody cameras on this trim as a segment first. The off-road performance display monitors driving performance in real time.

ZR2 Bison

An AEV edition of the ZR2 rather than a seventh trim, created in collaboration with American Expedition Vehicles. It adds front and rear jounce control dampers, 35-inch mud-terrain tires, 12.2 inches of ground clearance and five Boron steel skid plates. It leads its class on ground clearance, breakover angle and underbody protection, and the angle table below shows where that lands against the standard ZR2.

Ground Clearance and Angles by Trim

Trim	Lift	Ground clearance	Tires
Trail Boss	2-inch factory lift	9.5 in	32-inch all-terrain
Z71	Standard ride height	Not published by Chevrolet	32-inch all-terrain
ZR2	3-inch factory lift	10.7 in	33-inch mud-terrain
ZR2 Bison	Up to 4.5-inch lift	12.2 in	35-inch mud-terrain

Approach, departure and breakover

Angle	ZR2	ZR2 Bison	What it decides
Approach	38.6 degrees	38.2 degrees	How steep an obstacle you can climb onto before the front bumper touches.
Departure	25.2 degrees	26 degrees	How steep a drop you can come off without dragging the rear bumper.
Breakover	24.8 degrees	26.9 degrees	How sharp a crest you can cross without beaching on the wheelbase.

One number here is worth a warning. The Bison out-angles the ZR2 on departure and breakover but is slightly tighter on approach, because the AEV front bumper sits differently. Third-party spec pages very often print the Bison's 38.2, 26 and 26.9 against a standard ZR2, which is wrong in all three places. The figures above are Chevrolet's own, from its newsroom spec table. The published angles cover the ZR2 and the ZR2 Bison at all.

Tires and Wheels for the Trail

Trim	Wheel	Tire	What it costs you
Trail Boss	18 x 8.5, 20-inch available	265/65R18, 32-inch all-terrain	EPA 17 city / 22 highway / 19 combined
Trail Boss with the mud-terrain option	18 x 8.5	32-inch mud-terrain, $695 MSRP	EPA 17 / 20 / 18
Z71	18 x 8.5, 20-inch available	265/65R18, 32-inch all-terrain	EPA 17 / 22 / 19
ZR2	17 x 8	LT285/70R17, 33-inch mud-terrain	EPA 17 / 17 / 17
ZR2 Bison	17-inch	35-inch mud-terrain	EPA 16 / 16 / 16

EPA estimates, published at fueleconomy.gov. That column is the honest cost of tire choice, and it is the one thing worth thinking about before you option mud-terrains onto a truck that commutes. Freeze and thaw cycle through this region all late winter, and a 17-inch wheel with more sidewall survives that better than a 20.

Water Fording and Crawl Ratio

What decides a water crossing or a slow technical climb on this truck is the hardware, and that is spelled out below.

Every Trail Boss, Z71 and ZR2 carries a two-speed transfer case, and the low range is what turns a steep, loose or ledged climb into a controlled one rather than a momentum problem. On the ZR2 that is joined by front and rear electronic locking differentials, which put torque to a wheel that still has grip when the others do not, and by Terrain mode, which will apply the brakes for you on a climb. Underbody protection is full skid plates and rocker protection on the ZR2, and five Boron steel skid plates on the Bison. For a depth figure on a specific truck, the owner's manual is the place it will be if it exists at all.

Trail Tech

The Colorado offers up to five selectable drive modes: Normal, Tow/Haul where the truck is equipped for it, Off-Road for loose surfaces like gravel, mud and deep snow, Terrain for steep climbs and crawling, and Baja, fitted to the ZR2 alone. Trail Boss and Z71 get four of them plus the off-road performance display; the ZR2 gets all five.

Up to ten camera views are available across the lineup, and the ZR2's underbody cameras let you see the terrain beneath the truck, which Chevrolet describes as a segment first. It is the single most useful piece of trail equipment on the options list, because the thing you cannot see is always the thing you hit. The 11.3-inch touchscreen and 11-inch digital driver display that carry all of it are standard on every trim, including the Work Truck.

Getting there is half the decision. From Emmaus or Easton the run west is a long highway stretch before any of it turns interesting, so ride quality on pavement matters more than people expect. From Slatington and Whitehall you are climbing within twenty minutes, and from Nazareth or Bethlehem the trip splits either way depending on which park you pick.

Where to Wheel Near the Lehigh Valley

Rausch Creek Off-Road Park, Tremont, roughly sixty miles west off Interstate 81 at the Tower City exit, is the destination this truck was built for. It is open to the public Friday through Sunday, with weekday running by advance notice and a two-vehicle minimum, across about three thousand acres of easy through hard trails, rock crawls and hill climbs. The detail that matters for a Colorado owner: Rausch Creek admits Jeeps and full-size 4x4 trucks only. No dirt bikes, no quads, no side-by-sides. It is a legal, paid, full-size-truck park, which is exactly what a ZR2 or a Trail Boss needs and what most of this region does not have.

The Anthracite Outdoor Adventure Area at Coal Township is the other legal option, about sixty-five miles northwest. Permit tiers and which trails are designated for full-size 4x4s change by season, so check the park before you plan a run rather than after.

What is not an option, and it matters: state game lands, PennDOT right-of-way, gas-line and power-line cuts, and the abandoned strip-mine ground north of here are not open riding. Running them is illegal and it is how access gets closed for everyone. The two parks above are the legal ground within a morning's drive.

Both are an hour or more of highway each way, which is the whole reason the ZR2's Multimatic DSSV dampers earn their money here. A truck you have to endure on I-78 to reach a trail twice a month is the wrong truck; the DSSV setup is the one that is genuinely comfortable on the way out.

Which Colorado for Which Terrain

Where you actually go	The build	Why
Snow, gravel lanes, a rutted job site, a boat ramp	Trail Boss	Low range, a 2-inch lift and all-terrains cover all of it, and it still tows 7,700 lbs, properly equipped.
The same, but the truck lives on pavement and you want it to look and light the part	Z71	Same tires and transfer case, LED lighting, standard ride height, a more settled highway ride.
Rausch Creek most months, on the intermediate and hard trails	ZR2	DSSV dampers, two locking differentials, 10.7 inches of clearance, Baja mode, underbody cameras.
Hard trails plus long highway runs to reach them, with armour that does not need adding	ZR2 Bison	35-inch tires, 12.2 inches of clearance, five Boron steel skid plates, jounce control dampers, AEV bumpers.

The honest dividing line is the transfer case, not the badge. The Trail Boss is where low range starts, and it is the trim built for the buyer who wants it; the LT and the Custom are built for the buyer whose week happens on pavement, and they do that job well. See which off-road Colorados are on the ground — the lot runs heavily to Trail Boss.

Colorado Off-Road FAQs

More on the 2026 Colorado