I stand in awe of the 2012 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 2WD Crew Cab LTZ hooked up to my bass boat. Its bolded, striking exterior complements the elegant interior; however, what will really blow you away is the technology intergraded in the Vortec 5.3L V8 engine. All the mechanical standard equipment makes this truck one that anglers pulling boats are going to love.

For any angler towing a boat it’s important to know how much towing capacity their tow vehicle can pull. The 2012 Nissan Armada Platinum 4X4 V8 Endurance 5.6-liter DOHC 32-value has 317 HP @ 5,200 rpm with 385 LB-FT @ 3,4000 rpm capable of towing up to 9,000 pounds. That’s impressive and means it can pull any bass boat or big center console boat that an angler wants to take to the river, lake, or ocean without any problems. It’s Tow/Haul Mode also keeps it from excessive shifting and easily pulls up steep hills or boat ramps. Of course, the 2012 Nissan Armada Platinum 4X4 comes with the ALL-MODE 4WD that can instantly and continuously adjust the amount of power distributed to each wheel for maximum control on any off road or on road condition. This means the ALL-MODE will automatically switch to 4-wheel drive in off road or slick road conditions then back to 2-wheel drive when 4-wheel drive is not necessary to optimize fuel economy.

There was no testing this full sized pickup truck by driving it on a race track or around town. The Nissan Titan’s testing grounds were boat ramps, up hills and down hills pulling a 20 foot bass boat. It was real life boat towing situations that any angler would put their full size truck through going to the lake.

Dust, dirt, mud, rocks, boulders, brushes, and logs crumble as we crawl forward down the newly formed path. I won’t even think about attempting doing this in my truck. This is not your ordinary path. A team of professionals from Nissan Trucks went out on Medina River Ranch and marked off our course for the driving experience. It wasn’t long into the course before I was driving up steep inclines and sheer drop offs. These were not modest inclines or declines.  These would challenge a nimble mountain goat. Around every bend there was new challenge. Ahead the road had been flooded with water making it a knee deep mud pit. Not slowing up I drive into the thickest, deepest part knowing that we were going to get stuck, but the wheels kept churning somehow gripping tracks in the slippery mud.  The force of the wheels spewed mud everywhere; the windows, hood, grill, bumper, sidewalls, doors are all covered in the chocolate looking concoction. Picking up speed, I crash through a knee deep creek spraying water everywhere. From there it’s down a dried out river bed with pools of water here and there. Rising up from the river bed I make a sharp turn and climb up a hill. Looking around, I couldn’t see the earth in front of the truck. Without solid ground below me I had come to a stop. It was time to either go forward and live the off-road experience in a Nissan truck or back up and go home.