If the Cash Money Records guys had a construction business, this is probably what they’d drive.
“Whass’up, Fresh? It’s our turn, baby!” If you can remember cranking the Big Tymers through car speakers you bought at Best Buy, I bet this Chevy dump truck wearing a Cadillac Escalade front clip will stoke some flickers of nostalgia for you. I know there’s really not much to it, but my colleagues and I just went nuts over this thing when we stumbled on it online.
To set the mood … If you haven’t heard it in a while, you’re welcome:
What we’re talking about here is a 2001 Chevy Silverado 3500 dually with a dump bed. It’s actually for sale in New York right now—I got in touch with the seller via direct message, and if they share any interesting details I’ll update this post. But it’s Facebook Marketplace, so they’re probably drowning in a sea of automated “Is this item available?” messages.
Quick sidebar: I’d like to apologize to all the sellers on that platform that I’ve inadvertently sent such a message while window shopping. I swear Facebook is just firing ’em off when I have no intention to, but I think I might just be fat-fingering and hitting the button when I try to scroll by. It’s too easy to do that!
Anyhow, what makes this Chebby Silverdoe eye-catching is that it’s got the hood, grille, headlights, fenders, and front bumper of a Cadillac Escalade. Since both the Silverado and Escalade were built on the same platform and their architecture is quite close, this swap would not have been exceedingly complex. But whoever did it did a nice job—everything looks pretty straight and scratch-free.
Inside it still looks like a work truck, which makes sense. Bench seat for the win, and the fact that it’s stick-shift is a coolness cherry on top.
So, yeah, why are we so captivated by this? Well, this might sound strange to some, but the GMT800-era Escalade is majorly emblematic of an era, and a vibe, that resonates with a lot of people. Especially millennials like myself who were young and impressionable when these vehicles (and the pop culture they were born in) were fresh.
Honestly, even now, this front end looks genuinely cool to me. In my mind, this will always be the ultimate Escalade. And I think everybody would agree it’s a quintessential emblem of “it’s the mid-’00s and I’m rich.”
Naturally, the contrast between that against the idea of a dirty ol’ dump truck is just uniquely funny. And the unexpected aesthetic compatibility that the Escalade front clip has with the utilitarian work truck bits makes it even more fun to look at. Just like a bodybuilder can look good in a tux, this dump truck is pulling off the upscale look surprisingly well. Like, it just works, right?
I don’t follow the dump truck market closely enough to know if $35,000 is a good price for this, but as far as diesel, manual-transmission Cadillac Escalade work trucks go this is the best I’ve ever seen.
