Here are the Payloads for All of the Sierra 1500’s Configurations

September 10th, 2025 by

​​The Sierra 1500 model line can wear many hats. In crew cab form, it can be a spacious family vehicle. In Denali trim, it becomes luxury transportation. It can tow your RV, boat, or motorized land or sea toys. The AT4 and its variants can be the motorized toy, capable of plowing through mud bogs, jumping dunes, or overlanding across public lands to track the migration of some obscure mammal or similar activities. However, no matter what they do, a wide-open box at the back is ready to carry things, which is the primary purpose of the vehicle’s body style. No matter what they can be, pickups were designed to carry stuff. How much stuff? That’s what this Ewing GMC post is all about. 

GMC Sierra 1500 Denali Exterior

How much stuff can be defined in terms of size, where you can basically measure or just eyeball whether something will fit in the bed or not.  However, for pickup trucks, the primary metric is payload, or the cargo’s total mass.  How much payload can a Sierra 1500 carry?  There are 43 answers, and we are about to give you all of them.   

GMC Sierra 1500 Rear View

But first, we indulge in a bit of counterintuitiveness, because the bigger and brawnier the model, the smaller the payload. Even more surprisingly, the larger the engine, the smaller the payload. Finally, in line with this trend, 2WD models have higher payloads than 4WD models. It all comes down to vehicle weight. The heavier the vehicle, the less it can carry. Thus, the highest payload of 2,230 pounds is assigned to a Regular Cab, standard bed 2WD truck with the base 2.7-liter turbo inline-4. Conversely, the smallest payload of 1,350 pounds is on the Crew Cab, AT4X with its standard 4WD powered by the 6.2-liter V8. The GM-focused site GM Authority has helpfully gathered all the figures in between, which are as follows. 

Payload (lb.) 
Configuration  Drivetrain  2.7L Turbo I-4  5.3L V8  6.2L V8  3.0L Turbo-Diesel I-6  
      L3B  L84   L87  LZ0 
Regular Cab Standard Bed  2WD  2230  2150  –  – 
Regular Cab Standard Bed  4WD  2110  2030  –  – 
Regular Cab Long Bed  2WD  2230  2120  –  – 
Regular Cab Long Bed  4WD  2090  1970  –  – 
Double Cab Standard Bed  2WD  2020  1890  –  1760 
Double Cab Standard Bed  4WD  2010  1890  –  1720 
Double Cab Standard Bed with NHT*  2WD  –  2040  –  1880 
Double Cab Standard Bed with NHT*  4WD  –  2030  –  1870 
Crew Cab Short Bed  2WD  2000  1980  –  1840 
Crew Cab Short Bed with NHT*  2WD  –  2020  –  1860 
Crew Cab Short Bed  4WD  1980  1960  1710  1790 
Crew Cab Short Bed with NHT*  4WD  –  2000  1870  1850 
Crew Cab Short Bed Lifted  4WD  –  –  1660  1670 
Crew Cab Short Bed AT4X  4WD  –  –  1350  1380 
Crew Cab Standard Bed  4WD  1930  1916  1660  1740 
Crew Cab Standard Bed with NHT*  4WD  –  1950  1830  1800 
Crew Cab Standard Bed Lifted  4WD  –  –  1610  1620 

* With Optional Max Trailering Package (code: NHT) 

GMC Sierra Denali CarbonPro Rear View

Finally, it must be acknowledged that most of the time, we pay little attention to the weight of what we put in the bed. Still, if you are approaching any of the figures above, you’ll probably feel it in your back, because one thing the Sierra 1500 can’t do yet is load itself. If you have additional questions about the payload of the Sierra 1500 you are interested in, don’t hesitate to ask one of the Ewing GMC sales professionals, and then visit Ewing GMC, where we have one of the largest selections of Sierra 1500 models you will find anywhere. 

Posted in Buick, comparisons, Informative, Performance, Sierra 1500