What’s The Exact Bolt Pattern For Chevy Silverado? [ We Answered ]

The Silverado is a 100 percent American pickup truck, through and through. The truck has been the best-selling full-size pickup in the U.S. since 1995 when Chevrolet introduced it. The Silverado has been the brand’s best-selling vehicle every year since 1998.

What is the Bolt Pattern for Chevy Silverado?

Bolt Pattern for Chevy Silverado refers to the design given to the bolt that acts as the locking mechanism. There are two bolt patterns: regular and diagonal.

What Exactly Is a Bolt Pattern?

Bolt patterns refer to the arrangement of studs and slots used to screw together the panels of a bolt lock. Standard bolt pattern designs include 4, 6, 8, and 10-lug.

The 4-lug pattern is the most common and was used until the 1960s but is being replaced by other designs. A 4-lug pattern contains four holes that line up with the same number on an adjacent stud, while a 6-lug pattern contains six holes that line up with the same number on an adjacent stud. The 8- and 10-lug patterns differ only in the pattern of holes that line up with the studs.

Bolt patterns are crucial because they determine the fit of the wheel (almost always an alloy) and the matching of the hub to hub and rim to rim. The bolt pattern is on the “tire side” of the car. It refers to a circle with three main points: two outer bolts and a center bolt. The distance from each point to the centre is the bolt pattern.

Some carmakers have used more than one bolt pattern for a particular vehicle. (I’m thinking of the Ford “J” cars of the 1960s and early 1970s, for example, which came with three and four-bolt patterns depending on whether you got the “big” or the “small” six-cylinder engine.)

How Does a Chevy Silverado Bolt Pattern Work?

A vehicle’s bolt pattern refers to how the front and rear wheels line up. Many Chevy Silverado owners use the bolt pattern as a convenient shorthand for describing the vehicle’s size since it’s easy to count the number of spokes on the front and rear wheels.

You might think that wouldn’t be necessary since all the wheels are the same size, but the Silverado comes in-cab and crew cab versions, and these measurements will differ slightly.

How Bolt Pattern is Measured

Ever wonder what the difference between 7/8″ and 1/2″ is? Perhaps you have ever wondered what the bolt pattern means on your tire or why a size ten shoe doesn’t necessarily fit a size 10 foot.

If you have an even number of lugs and lugs precisely the exact size, you can measure centre-to-centre on the lugs. If there are an odd number of lugs, measure the size of the diameter from the centre of each lug to the outer edge of the hole.

It isn’t apparent, so let me explain. Measuring lug sizes is a lot like measuring rings. If you want to know your ring size, you put your finger where the ring goes and then look at the chart to see where the ring would be on your finger. For lug sizes, you measure the part of the wheel that the lugs are in.

Types of Chevy Silverado Bolt Patterns

Chevy’s Silverado line of trucks has been around for a long time, and Chevy has used the same body style and naming scheme for over 20 years now. But truck buyers aren’t loyal to one brand, and truck lovers are constantly gunning for the next best truck.

Chevy, ever the innovator, released the third generation of their Silverado line-up in 2017, which, in my opinion, was the best Silverado so far.

Many drivers know only the standard 4-bolt pattern. However, a wide range of bolt patterns is available. Generally, the 4-bolt pattern is the most common, but some vehicles may have 5-, 6-, or 8-bolt patterns. Several factors influence the availability of different patterns. For example, some vehicles have bolt patterns designed for one type of tire or wheel only.

Let’s look at the different types of Chevy Silverado bolt patterns.

Four-Bolt Pattern

The Chevy 4-bolt pattern is the popular industry standard for the most common bolt pattern. GM was the first to develop it, and the name stuck. It’s also called the 4 x 4 bolt pattern. The 4-bolt pattern on GM cars, trucks, and many other makes and models, including the Chevy Silverado.

Five-Bolt Pattern

A 5-bolt pattern is one with five lugs meant to mount five different-sized bolt circles, allowing a single wheel mounting on any vehicle with a 5-lug bolt pattern. In other words, the bolt circle’s diameter is the same as the number of bolt holes, so it has a diameter of 5.

It is different from the standard four-bolt pattern with four lugs and a larger bolt circle with 4, requiring a different-sized wheel to fit the smaller diameter bolt circle. The 5-lug design was developed in 1964 to allow the mounting of 5 different-sized bolt circles.

Six-Bolt Pattern

The six-bolt pattern is a size created for trucks and other high-performance vehicles; this pattern gives the wheel more strength and stability. The six-bolt pattern has been around since the 1940s, and while the basic design has stayed the same, the materials used to make it have changed. These days, the six-bolt pattern is made out of cast aluminum.

While these are the different types of bolt patterns, it’s important to note that Chevy Silverado uses the four-bolt pattern only. The other bolt patterns are generally used on full-size, heavy-duty trucks.

Re-cap

Bolt patterns (consisting of a sequence of geometric curves) are nothing new to Chevrolet owners. Bolt Pattern Overdrive (BPO), which debuted in 2015, is a 15- to 20-percent increase in torque.

While most of us get much more torque from the 5.3-liter V-8 engine, a few feel the additional boost is worth the added gas expense.