What is that black plastic thing seperating the

[Matt99Z71]

Only the 2500's and up have it. It looks pretty stupid, and if not for that, they look d**n good. I'm assuming its something to do with offseting the bumper height due to the higher riding height of the HD. Still, looks like an afterthought. Can you remove it and jack the bumper up?

[Shawn T]

Only the 2500's and up have it.  It looks pretty stupid, and if not for that, they look d**n good.  I'm assuming its something to do with offseting the bumper height due to the higher riding height of the HD.  Still, looks like an afterthought.  Can you remove it and jack the bumper up?

 

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It is essentially a body lift to clear the Allison Tranny equipped HD's. The Chevrolet's version is the upper bumper cap is two inches higher on the front instead of the half cocked spacer GMC uses. Look at at a 1500 or 2500 Chev and then look at an HD, you will see the difference.

[curly]

I always thought it was a "filler" for the frame difference between the 1500 and the 2500 . My truck is a gas truck (non Allyson) and I have the plastic piece you are talking about. It does look out of place on these trucks though.

[Trouttrooper]

I always thought it was a "filler" for the frame difference between the 1500 and the 2500  . My truck is a gas truck (non Allyson) and I have the plastic piece you are talking about. It does look out of place on these trucks though.

 

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It's a filler between the 2500LD frame and 2500HD/3500 frame. If you have a 2500HD or 3500 it won't matter if you have the ally or not because you will still have the bigger (deeper) frame underneath and that is why they need the "filler" to make up the difference between the bumper and sheetmetal.

 

[Shawn T]

I always thought it was a "filler" for the frame difference between the 1500 and the 2500  . My truck is a gas truck (non Allyson) and I have the plastic piece you are talking about. It does look out of place on these trucks though.

 

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It's a filler between the 2500LD frame and 2500HD/3500 frame. If you have a 2500HD or 3500 it won't matter if you have the ally or not because you will still have the bigger (deeper) frame underneath and that is why they need the "filler" to make up the difference between the bumper and sheetmetal.

 

 

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That is somewhat true, but the frame is identical on the LD and HD from the back of the cab to the front bumper, it only looks wider because the cab mounts are two inches higher making the frame hang from the cab farther. The frame is 2 inches wider aft the cab on HD's. They could of easily added the two inches to the bottom of the frame instead of the top (you see where I'm going with this?). The Allison tranny is the sole reason for adding it to the top of the rear frame. The engineers had to make room for a larger transmission without comprimising the drivetrain hump in the cabs. They essentially killed two birds with one stone.

[Chief-295]

Only the 2500's and up have it.  It looks pretty stupid, and if not for that, they look d**n good.  I'm assuming its something to do with offseting the bumper height due to the higher riding height of the HD.  Still, looks like an afterthought.  Can you remove it and jack the bumper up?

 

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[Chief-295]

According to the paperwork I have, it is part of the snow plow pkg. It creats additional air flow to the rad. My buddy has a truck almost the same as mine, less the plow pkg., and no filler. Just my 2 cents.

[Trouttrooper]

 

 

 

That is somewhat true, but the frame is identical on the LD and HD from the back of the cab to the front bumper, it only looks wider because the cab mounts are two inches higher making the frame hang from the cab farther. The frame is 2 inches wider aft the cab on HD's. They could of easily added the two inches to the bottom of the frame instead of the top (you see where I'm going with this?). The Allison tranny is the sole reason for adding it to the top of the rear frame. The engineers had to make room for a larger transmission without comprimising the drivetrain hump in the cabs. They essentially killed two birds with one stone.

 

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That's true, I guess what I was getting at was on the 2500HD and 3500 it wouldn't matter if you had the 6.0 with the 4L80 or the 8.1/Dmax with the ally, you will still have the "filler" because the frame is the same on those no matter which configuration you get. My work truck is an '05 GMC 2500HD w/ the 6.0, has the filler, and sits just as high off the frame as my personal truck w/ the ally.

 

It really got me staring at the trucks once when I was parked next to a co-worker. We had an '04 GMC 2500 next to a '05 GMC 2500HD trying to figure out why the nose looked just slightly different. Ya, I'm a little slow at times

[Matt99Z71]

Well that'd be great if its only a plow package item. Although I think every 03 and up GMC 2500 i've noticed has it. Just looks outta place thats all. I was just wondering if it can be removed.

[sleepur606]

From everything I've heard from reputable suspension installers, the frame is not the same between the LD and HD trucks. The reason why it's possible to convert a HD 2wd to 4wd is because the frames are the same...but they're different on the LD. Not as much on topic, but a little bit of info.