Jeff's ZR2.
2021 Long Bed + SET Tray / Canopy.

Jeff came to us through Ralf at Summit Expedition Trucks. He had a 2021 Chevy ZR2 long bed in desert tan and a clear vision — convert the factory bed to a flatbed-and-canopy overland platform with a full kitchen, a real power system, and enough storage to live out of for weeks at a time. The ZR2 trim was a smart starting point — factory front and rear lockers, factory off-road suspension — but Jeff also wanted the truck to actually drive well loaded, and that meant rebuilding the suspension in stages to match what the new platform was asking of it. The build ran in two phases over the course of 2025.

Phase one was the platform itself. The factory bed, tailgate, and factory ZR2 wheels came off (sold downstream to a parts buyer), and the back half of the truck got rebuilt around a Summit Expedition Trucks 6.5-foot mid-size tray with a SET canopy on top — 70 inches wide by 60 inches long, with gull-wing side doors and a blank electrical panel pre-cut for our wiring. The whole package got powder-coated black with color-matched tool-box lids and canopy door to tie into the desert-tan factory paint. The tray has the usual SET goodies — front and rear under-tray tool boxes, a 33-inch fender pair sized for the 33s, a 48-inch under-tray pull-out drawer for general storage, a 12.5-gallon water tank under the tray (gravity-fed for now, pump-ready), a 32-inch standard headboard, and a starboard-side spare tire carrier sized for the 32-inch-tall spare. On top of the canopy sits a pair of SET Quick Pitch load bars — Kabari awning brackets bolt straight to them for an easy awning install, and they're sized to mount a rooftop tent down the line if Jeff wants to add one. Before the SET install went on, we welded in a 589 Fab weld-on frame support (the rear frame on the 2nd gen Colorados is a known weak point under load) and a 589 Fab rear shock relocation kit to give the rear shocks more travel for the loaded weight. New Alcan custom leaf springs went in at the same time — built for 1,500 pounds over stock with 1 inch of rear lift — and we replaced the original front leaf-spring bolt with an OME unit while we were in there.

The inside of the canopy is where this build really earns its keep. On the driver side is the power system: a REDARC TVMS Rogue setup with a Manager Alpha 50R charger (50A solar input plus DC-to-DC off the alternator), a 2,000W REDARC pure-sine-wave inverter, and a pair of Expion 12V 100Ah lithium batteries — 200 Ah of usable storage. The Rogue runs the whole show with a screen on the driver side and a secondary RedVision display on the kitchen side — state of charge, time-to-empty, time-to-full, and switching for the fridge, the door lights, the interior lights, and the rear canopy light. A bank of Powerwerx panel-mount USB-A, USB-C QC4.0, and 12V outlets feeds device charging on both sides. On the kitchen side, a Dometic NRX 80C upright fridge sits in a custom SET fridge cage so gear doesn't bump into it on rough roads, with a pull-out pantry, a single drawer with a slide-out tabletop, and additional toolbox storage in front of and behind the rear tire. A pair of Baja Designs Kingpin V-Series 40-inch red/white lights mount to the underside of each gull-wing door — switch from white for setup to red to preserve night vision — and a Baja Designs Squadron Sport black angle-mount lights up the rear of the canopy. Jeff brought his existing Power Tank with him; we pulled it off its bed mount and relocated it onto the SET rear wall next to the spare. External solar input ports on the rear and roof of the canopy let him plug in a folding panel when parked, and the whole canopy is removable with four vertical bolts down into the tray — leg slots are built in so he can lift it off and run the truck as a flatbed-only when he wants to.

Phase two, a couple of months after the platform was on, was the suspension rebuild. ADS Direct Fit 2.5-inch adjustable reservoir race coilovers up front and ADS 2.5-inch adjustable piggyback race shocks out back replaced the factory Multimatics — same physical fitment, but a much wider performance envelope under load. ICON tubular upper control arms with Delta Joints went on at the same time to keep alignment dialed at the new ride height. Same wheel size as factory — 17-inch Nomad Sahara Copperheads in 8.5-inch width with zero offset, wrapped in 33×10.50R17 Kenda Klever R/T tires. Five of them, full-size matching spare on the SET carrier. The wheel-and-tire choice was an aesthetic call — same size, same overall diameter as the factory ZR2 setup, just a wheel and tire combo that looks the way Jeff wanted the truck to look. Built to do its job.