Just bought a 95 2500

texanmutt · April 16, 2004

I am new to the board and i just bought a 1995 chevy 2500 4x4 with a 5.7 liter. I just have a few questions. How can a tell if i have a heavy duty or light duty? What comes in the tow package and how do i know if i have it ?

Thanks in advance.

intruder217 · April 17, 2004

All the options are listed by RPO code on a sticker in the glove box. Do a search for RPO codes and match up the codes to see what option the truck was built with.

Elwood 2000 · April 17, 2004

On the 2500's, the light duty trucks had 6 lug wheels. The heavy duty trucks had 8 lug wheels and a full floater 14 bolt rear end. "Typically" the heavy duty 4x4 trucks had wheel flares too.

99-2door · April 17, 2004

The 2500HDs have semi-floater 14 bolt rears. The single wheel 3500s have full floater 14 bolt rears.

citydriver · April 17, 2004

In '95 ' I beleive the suspension depended on how the truck was ordered from the factory,if I remember correctly,there wasnt an actual "HD" class like they have 2day...intruder217 is correct,a RPO Code check will tell you what the truck came off of the assy.line w/.......The 6 or 8 lug check doesnt always work cause my '95 has the heavy rear end and its a k1500 (14bolt semi-floater)....towing package basically came w/ external tranny cooler and wiring package,but no hitch...... anyhow,RPO's r the only way to check

PS...welcome to the site

texanmutt · April 18, 2004

Thanks for the replies , yall. I took a deeper look at the truck a found a few things. The hitch has a gm part # on it. I do have a gm tranny cooler. In the tail light wiring harness has a blue and red wire hooked up to a jury rigged 7 pin connector ( im guessing that the connector aint stock) and under the hood a jury rigged brake controller is spliced to a blue wire. I thought that with the towing package that the controller is supposed to be hooked up to a connector by the brake pedal, unless it was cut off. About the hd thing. My truck has 8 lug wheels and i guess it looks like i have fender flares, but i didnt see the rpo code for the heavy duty chassis. I got the code from the list on this site, but that was for a 99. Did they change the codes at all?

99-2door · April 18, 2004

In '95 ' I beleive the suspension depended on how the truck was ordered from the factory,if I remember correctly,there wasnt an actual "HD" class like they have 2day... .......The 6 or 8 lug check doesnt always work cause my '95 has the heavy rear end and its a k1500 (14bolt semi-floater)....

They did have an HD class in the older body style, but they didn't have badges that said that on the door like they do now. Yes, there was a 6-lug 14-bolt but all the 2500HDs had 8-lug 14-bolt rears. The single wheel 3500s had the full floater rears.

robsawatsky · April 18, 2004

The easiest way is to look at the GVWR sticker on your driver's door side. 8600 lbs GVWR is heavy duty. 7200 lbs (or thereabouts) is light duty.

The heavy duty version has thicker and taller frame, heavier suspension components, larger brakes and stronger axles. The # of lugs and full vs partial floater axle is a bit confusing since the variations changed over the years and also varied with engine.

texanmutt · April 19, 2004

What exactly is a floating rear end? I've heard of open, posi and lockers, but i havent heard of floaters. Must be some kinda of truck thing or maybe a different name for somthing i have heard. I'm kinda new to this truck thing. I did have a 2wd nissan frontier years ago, but that little pos don't count.

robsawatsky · April 19, 2004

A full-floater axle is supported by bearings at both ends of each axle shaft. A semi-floater by only one set. The full-floater advantage is that all the weight is isolated from the axle shafts by bearings so that the load is not carried on the axle only the twisting force of the drivetrain is borne by the axle. In a semi-floater the load will also be carried by the axle.