Chevrolet Kodiak
The Chevrolet Kodiak and GMC TopKick are a range of medium duty trucks that were produced by the Chevrolet and GMC divisions of General Motors from 1980 to 2009. Introduced as a variant of the medium-duty C/K truck line, three generations were produced. Slotted between the C/K trucks and the GMC Brigadier Class 8 conventional, the Kodiak/TopKick were developed as a basis for vocationally oriented trucks, including cargo haulers, dump trucks, and similar vehicles; on later generations, both cutaway and cowled-chassis variants were produced for bus use. Following years of declining market share, General Motors (in line with Ford Motor Company) sought to exit heavy-truck manufacturing. After struggling to enter joint ventures or sell the rights to its product line, the company ended production of the Kodiak and TopKick in 2009. The final medium-duty truck, a GMC TopKick 5500, rolled out of Flint Truck Assembly on July 31, 2009. For the 2019 model year, after a ten-year hiatus, General Motors re-entered the conventional medium-duty truck segment. Developed in a joint venture with Navistar International, the Chevrolet Silverado 4500/5500 is a Class 4-6 vehicle. Slightly smaller than the Kodiak/Topkick, the Silverado 4500/5500 is marketed exclusively as a Chevrolet (with no GMC counterpart). First generation (1981–1989) For 1981, General Motors introduced the Chevrolet Kodiak and GMC TopKick (after-Chevrolet Series C Classic Six, Chevrolet Series H, Chevrolet Series F, Chevrolet Series FA, Chevrolet Series FB, Chevrolet Superior, Chevrolet Series AA Capitol, Chevrolet Series AB National, Chevrolet Series AC International, Chevrolet Series AD Universal, Chevrolet Series AE Independence, Chevrolet Series BA Confederate, 1935-1937 Chevrolet/GMC COE, Chevrolet/GMC COE (1937-1939), Chevrolet/GMC COE (1939-1941), Chevrolet/GMC COE (1941-1947), Chevrolet Advance Design/GMC New Design COE, Chevrolet Task Force/GMC Blue Chip LCF-Series (1954-1956), Chevrolet Task Force/GMC Blue Chip LCF-Series (1957-1960), Chevrolet/GMC Series 50/60/70/80 Short Conventional (1960-1966) & Chevrolet/GMC C-Series Medium-Duty (1967–1972)) as a variant of the medium-duty C/K trucks. A Class 7 truck, the Kodiak was developed to use the Caterpillar 3208 V8 diesel (sourced from the larger Chevrolet Bruin/GMC Brigadier). To accommodate the larger engine (which used a larger radiator), the cab was mounted several inches higher, allowing for a higher hoodline (repositioning the headlamps between the grille and bumper); the hood length was shortened, reducing the BBC length from 98 to 92 inches. In line with the Bruin/Brigadier, the Kodiak was offered with both single and tandem-axle drive configurations; both straight truck and semitractor configurations were produced. Officially designated as the Chevrolet C70 (or GMC C7000), the Kodiak name followed the Chevrolet "frontier beast" naming tradition for its heavy conventionals (Chevrolet Bison and Chevrolet Bruin) while the GMC TopKick was a military slang term (following GMC Brigadier and GMC General). Following the retirement of Chevrolet from the Class 8 truck segment after 1981, the Class 7 Kodiak became the largest truck offered by Chevrolet, while the TopKick remained slotted below the Brigadier. . Second generation (1990–2002) For 1990, the second generation of the Kodiak/TopKick were introduced, shifting to the GMT530 architecture. The new chassis consolidated all GM medium-duty