A document recently sent to Chevrolet Dealers lists a curious update to the 2021 Silverado 1500 lineup that the company has yet to announce.

>>Read our Full Report on “What’s new” for the 2021 Silverado and 2021 Sierra

A Consensus Report To Dealers Gives Us New Clues

The August Consensus Report, which details model changes, ordering constraints, and brand updates, is sent to dealers almost every month.  We say almost, because our source notes the monthly reports have been spotty since the pandemic began. However, this month, the report has a full page dedicated to changes that are coming to the Silverado 1500 in model year 2021.

Most of the bullet points have been previously listed in other GM information portals for weeks. We reported on 2021 Silverado Updates In July and 2021 Silverado HD updates in June.

Silverado's 2.7L Turbo & 3.0L Diesel Engines Will Get "Max Towing Enhancements" For 2021

But the one-pager also lists two bullet points that we’ve yet to see and one that we are not sure what to make of.

  • Trailering Tech Enhancements
  • 2.7L Turbo and 3.0L Diesel Max Towing Enhancements

2021 Silverado Trailering Tech Enhancements

This minor point may be very easily explained. Chevy is making some changes to the backup and trailering camera system in the 2021 Silverado HD. Since the HD and 1500 models share a large part of their interiors and electronics, we can assume the 1500 will have the same changes, despite not yet being officially announced.

For example, these changes include but are not limited to where the backup camera in a truck will display. For WT, Custom, LT, & RST trim levels, backup camera displays will be found in the rear view mirror. LTZ and High Country trims will show backup cameras in the infotainment system screen. Prior to 2021, all backup camera views were displayed in the infotainment screen.

But this might not be the entire story behind the “Trailering Tech Enhancements” either. We’ll need to wait and find out the full story.

Silverado's 2.7L Turbo & 3.0L Diesel Engines Will Get "Max Towing Enhancements" For 2021

2.7L Turbo & 3.0L Diesel Max Towing Enhancements

This bullet point is the most confusing, as Chevrolet has not announced any change up in engine power or towing capability for 2021. But, as chance would have it, Chevy has also not released towing charts for the new model year either. Curious.

So is a 2.7L and 3.0L towing spec change in the cards? How would that happen?

Our source did some digging into GM’s parts system and found out that there are now two versions of the 3.0L Duramax’s cooling system inside GM’s parts inventory. One with active aero shutters and one without. As of 2020, you could not delete the active shutters for those models, so this is something new.

In theory, Chevrolet could add a new max towing package for the 2.7L and 3.0L engines that does not include the active shutters- there-by increasing air flow and engine cooling. That most likely wouldn’t be enough to quality as an “max towing enhancement” however.

MuscleCarsAndTrucks.com reported last year that GM was looking to enhance the towing of the 3.0L Duramax. Is this that endeavour coming to fruition?

So, what’s the story/rumor/speculation here?

The real “story” if there is one here, might be that Chevrolet is making small changes to it’s smallest two truck engines for 2021 to increase towing capacity. How they’ll do it and when we’ll find out more is up in the air.

Stay tuned to GM-Trucks.com for more stories like this one.