You're still not 100% Happy, and I get it.

[ShadowsPapa]

My comments?

Daily driver. This is IOWA. We have hills, but there are roads through those hills. We don't have rocky cliffs and off-road challenges everywhere unless you want to piss off some farmer.
Doesn't matter, I don't need to prove manhood or anything else by having a 6" lift, 40" tires and off-road every week. If you enjoy it, go for it, but dammit, stop dissing those who bought it as a Jeep driver.
Someone seems really miffed by those who don't use it as they do or they believe it was intended for. Who gives a fk - really. Yet another harping on the off-roading vs. daily driving. Crock of BS. Go off road if you want and good grief, stop looking at the rest like they are morons or don't get it. Not everyone lives in mountains, near beaches or within even a few hours drive of places to leave the road. (well, we can drive down to the river or get off the road to fishing holes a car won't go, but so can a lot of trucks)

I wanted a SMALL TRUCK. Need to occasionally haul, tow and so on.
I wanted a small truck, needed a small truck, and the fact I can remove roof panels (miss that t-top Camaro) or even the whole roof - icing on the cake. Who else can do that?

I've used the winch to rescue those who ended up sliding off an icy road into a snowy ditch, to load cars onto trailers and so on.

I've got some scratches and dings - it's a freakin TRUCK. Shits gonna happen.
I try to avoid damage, but it can't look showroom forever if you even daily drive it.

It's a snowplow truck, so it's going to get some wear and tear on the steering and front suspension that way with all the extra weight.

It's a scrap iron hauler -

It'll haul more hardscaping block than I care to admit to in public...........

5,000 pounds towing? No problem at all (air bags do help the softer Overland rear springs)

It's not the Daily drivers, there is no channel on this forum for Daily Drivers, and for good reason, the post would be of nothing but short term owners, complaining about their JTR always having some irritating discomfort and some spontaneous intermittent problem that is always grinding on them, like a tooth ache. I'm probably going to sound like a broken record to my haters with this next statement. Build your JT for adventures, and ditch it as a daily driver, its not only good at adventures, its great for them.

What a crock of BS - I'd pretty much bet there's more daily drivers here than anything.
And we aren't complaining about anything - not that any other truck owner wouldn't be complaining about. Go visit the forums for some other makes and models.
You really are stuck in your own world and ignore all of the others, the majority, who buy Jeeps as drivers, and likely don't realize that not everyone has the opportunities or need to be constantly in the rocks and mountains.
I need to show you some pictures of our neighborhood, this whole area, in fact, and show why we don't really need to leave for adventures. The beauty, the wildlife, the hills and valleys, it's all here. Now if I could spare the gas, mileage and time to drive multiple days with nothing much else to do - yeah, I could head out of state, but really the going and getting back pretty much takes the fun out of it - hours of driving each way.

No, we aren't griping about comfort or breakdowns or all sorts of little problems. Two JTs and a JLU and we'd do it all over again. In fact, if the urge hits me again, and the cats don't need thousands in health care, I might be up for trading for yet another JT. Been a JT owner since November 2019, no regrets at all, Loved the first one so much when they came out with more options, I traded for a 22 model. I'm looking at 5 years using a JT as a daily driver - and yes, I'd do it over and over and over.
They are just as prone to annoying little problems when you off-road with them as they are when driving them daily. In fact, street and road use is much easier on them and you are LESS likely to have irritating little things happen. You won't break things, wear things so fast. A JT with 50,000 miles that's daily driven won't have any more, and likely would have FEWER issues than a JT with 50,000 miles that's taken off-road all the time. The major differences could be that you'd replace many of the steering and suspension parts with heavier parts for off-roading, so in that respect, it's an unfair comparison.
But good grief, this is like the second attempt at looking down on daily driving as if you really aren't fit to own a JT if you don't constantly off-road the thing.
If it wasn't for people like me, Jeep wouldn't be selling these things any more.
Time to leave your mountain state and drive around the country - see what the rest of it is like.
Take backroads and enjoy the view - the rest of us do........

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[Idlethunder]

Daily driver here and no complaints. It gets used as a truck and I've hauled or towed everything I've needed to. It gets me everywhere I want to go and makes me smile while doing it.

 

[MoDean]

Everyone has their own use case, and all are valid. The only person that has to be happy is the one writing the check every month.

 

[Supazuk]

my last solid axle rag top 4x4 was a Suzuki Samurai. This whole heat and AC thing has me spoiled now

 

[KDerekT83]

If you're scared to hurt it, don't get it. I bought my JT Mojave on a Friday. Saturday morning, I woke up, ordered my tires, bed cover, and a few other things online, then proceeded to out into the woods, rubbed the truck against a tree, put it in a 3ft deep mudhole rooster-tailing mud off all 4 tires to get it out, and did some donuts in a rock pit. lol.. I figured I'd get the initial scratches out the way. Initially the wife was pissed. Now, she's happy I did it. It doesn't bother her so bad when we go on a trail ride with a group and I scuff a tree/berm..

 

[Wildtoad]

I think a daily driver sub-forum would be great for those of us who use our JT on-road most if not all of the time. I've had two Wranglers- One soft top on hard top, both 2dr, two Cherokee's, and now my 2021 Willys JT which replaced one of the Wranglers. So far best of the lot. Everything works. The only "complaint" is having to use a cable to get CarPlay to work consistently.

When I got it, used at Carmax, it had knobby tires for off road which were very noisy and the ride was less than ideal. Swapped them out for more daily driver friendly ones. A world of difference.

I could have bought a Ford, Toyota, ... but I wanted the JT. Would have been cheaper but then it would look like every other small pickup out there. Plus I knew how Jeeps were to tow behind a motorhome and was an easy decision.

Just because you can take the doors off, roof panels out, lower the windshield, lift it so the wife can't get in it without a step stool doesn't mean you have to or a lessor Jeep enthusiast if you don't.

 

[ScoutVet19D]

You shouldn’t buy a Wrangler or Gladiator thinking it’s as cushy as an escalade and will ever get Prius mpg. This BS of dedicated offroad however is what pushed the prices to north of $70k. You want dedicated off road stop ranting and go buy a turn key truggy.

Driving it from the garage to the trail then back to the garage and then to work is real life for most that actually off road. Just the same as using it as a farm truck, overland rig, and all the other uses owners write about on forums. And only maybe 1/3 of Jeep owners will ever really get into serious off roading. Keeping it reserved for trail is for the folks who can afford expensive toys they keep locked up the rest of the time. You know “bought not built”.


To respond to mind numbing dissertation the OP posted:

All of the parts we buy to build up our rigs come from companies selling to people with daily drivers day dreaming of building a rig to fit with their vision of what their Jeep could or should be. All of the CJ’s back in the day were daily drivers until people started modifying them to the point it was too expensive to daily drive them with big V8’s, 1 ton setup, and expensive *** tires. So you are literally knocking the customer base that made it possible for you to not have to learn welding, suspension geometry, shock valving, steering design, etc. etc. etc.

I highly doubt you bought your JT and drove it straight to your shop where you custom fabbed all that **** you had to add to lift it and get it setup. I used to wheel with folks that did exactly that with Wranglers and 4 runners and various other rigs. Showing off impressive DIY fab skills long before the five hundred after market companies caught wind of the money to be made off of Jeep upgrades.

Most of them daily drove them unless they were down for repairs or owned a beater car for a spare and often they were begging or borrowing rides to work or wherever until their rig was up. So your point about only buying a dedicated offroad Gladiator is either bragging or just really ignorant.

I’ve owned a 89 YJ, a 89 XJ, a 04 TJ, a 05 Rubicon TJ, a 05 Rubihara LJ, a 19 WK2, and now a 20 JTR. Daily driven, modified, lifted, rock crawled, cross country trips, all of them except the WK2. Most of them I bought used and drove them every day I could while I built them up. So to me Jeeps are a vehicle that you buy because its what you want. Doesn’t matter why. Before getting into Jeeps I spent years off roading HMMWV’s and 5 ton’s as a Scout in the Army. More than most even in my MOS because of my duty stations. After I was out I got into rock crawling most of the trails in northwest NV. I still daily drove my rock crawlers.

I daily drive my JTR, haul stuff with it, and it will get modified the longer I own it. And I will continue to daily drive it and take it offroading and whatever else. Keep on keeping on but maybe use some oxygen to counter that rarified air your breathing in dedicated off road rig land before you lecture the daily drivers.

 

[cranbiz]

My JTR is the "family" vehicle. It's the DD, the run to Lowes truck, go to the pick n pull, take long trips and yes, mild off roading. We have been a Jeep family for years so we knew what we were getting into. If I want to rock crawl, I take the JK. That's the one set up for those trips.

I knew what I was getting into with the JT, I wanted the Rubicon package for those mild trips with the grand daughter. I love my JTR and so does my wife and her last DD was a Grand Cherokee Trailhawk. I will admit, she wasn't convinced this was the vehicle to replace the Grand but after her first multi hour trip, she was sold.

She is about to take another trip to TN for a week and I'm bummed that she is going because I'll have to DD my JK while she is gone.

Honestly, it's the best Jeep I have owned to this point.

 

[GWolgamott]

A.) Daily Driver (Commute is 45 minutes one way, highway is quickest route.)
B.) In Michigan my commute even on highway is half the year a mess in the morning.
C.) Pushing 143K because I don't just daily drive it. I actually drive... it... for fun on and off road.
D.) Finally I don't and often time do not take the highway home, fortunate to have a national forest between work and home. I can literally decide on the drop off the hat to just turn off the highway to a two track and take an interconnected route of trails home.

Jeep used to be fun community... where are these p#$ks coming from lately?People who peaked in high school/shortly afterwards or what? Come on grow up a bit and get over yourself.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

My JTR is the "family" vehicle. It's the DD, the run to Lowes truck, go to the pick n pull, take long trips and yes, mild off roading. We have been a Jeep family for years so we knew what we were getting into. If I want to rock crawl, I take the JK. That's the one set up for those trips.

I knew what I was getting into with the JT, I wanted the Rubicon package for those mild trips with the grand daughter. I love my JTR and so does my wife and her last DD was a Grand Cherokee Trailhawk. I will admit, she wasn't convinced this was the vehicle to replace the Grand but after her first multi hour trip, she was sold.

She is about to take another trip to TN for a week and I'm bummed that she is going because I'll have to DD my JK while she is gone.

Honestly, it's the best Jeep I have owned to this point.

Sounds like our situation. My wife was hesitant about a JLU for a long time - then after having my JTs for a few years, she decided they aren't so bad. So she has a JLU that replaces a long long string of Grand Cherokees from the ZJ forward, and she traded her 2021 WK2 she dealer ordered for the JLU she has now.
After having grown up driving anything from 3/4 ton 67 chevy to multiple other trucks - I knew I was buying a truck, not a Porsche sports car. I've also worked on almost everything in my career, including many Jeeps, Broncos (the originals!), Blazers (again, the originals), I didn't expect cushy or quiet.
I expected fun, and that's exactly what I got - and reliable, too.
I've added some simple stuff to make it a tiny bit easier if I do decide to drive out where there are no roads (good luck in this state), if I'm out and about at a car show or whatever, I leave the car and trailer and can go pretty much anywhere with the Jeep.
It was a fun ride in the Colorado Springs area a couple of years ago or so. I knew at the drop of a hat, I could veer off a main road (but my wife wanted to stick to the more mainstream stuff and I was busy with the swap meet and show otherwise).
The point is - I bought a do almost anything vehicle, bought a Jeep. How I use it should be of no concern to anyone but me. (Didn't Billy Joel sing something about "it's my life.......")

A.) Daily Driver (Commute is 45 minutes one way, highway is quickest route.)
B.) In Michigan my commute even on highway is half the year a mess in the morning.
C.) Pushing 143K because I don't just daily drive it. I actually drive... it... for fun on and off road.
D.) Finally I don't and often time do not take the highway home, fortunate to have a national forest between work and home. I can literally decide on the drop off the hat to just turn off the highway to a two track and take an interconnected route of trails home.

Nothing like that around here - too developed. Even the spots like Saylorville and Red Rock are pretty much "tourist" things, fishing, boating, trails, but not for jeeps. "no motorized vehicles" signs abound.
Years ago I used to take backroads home just to avoid the highway messes, but again, those are so developed now.

If anyone can find Jeep trails around here they don't cost an arm and a leg, and where you can just "go" and don't have to sign in with the owner........ interested in knowing.....
(there are spots, but they are private land and you have to deal with it as a commercial thing - not a public trail where you can just go drive it. They are private for pay Jeep trails)

 

[FreshStart]

I chose the JT after a great run with my JKU, which was passed on to my parents to replace their JKU. I'm mostly a daily driver, belong to an offroad club and actually do those alleged 'Jeep things' and regularly use it as a 'real truck' for our home renovation. Yesterday, I got really wild and picked up my parents from the airport and loaded the bed with luggage.

I had a Dakota back in the day and I really missed having a pickup, but I also didn't want to give up having a Jeep. This gives me both and I'm impressed with how refined it is compared to my JKU. The majority of my time is on pavement and the stock tires are loud as hell and not what I would have picked myself, but I have a smile on my face every time I drive it and it doesn't matter where.

I think what gets forgotten in the forums is how the vehicle makes you FEEL, rather than what others have to say. What if it was someone's bucket list item? What if they just like the look of it? It's their money. Some people just buy whatever will get them to and from where they need to go, never change the oil or wash it. Again, their money. I don't know what a real Jeeper is supposed to be, but I can tell you what it isn't....someone that just comes on here to judge you for not doing what they do.

 

[GWolgamott]

Nothing like that around here - too developed. Even the spots like Saylorville and Red Rock are pretty much "tourist" things, fishing, boating, trails, but not for jeeps. "no motorized vehicles" signs abound.
Years ago I used to take backroads home just to avoid the highway messes, but again, those are so developed now.

If anyone can find Jeep trails around here they don't cost an arm and a leg, and where you can just "go" and don't have to sign in with the owner........ interested in knowing.....
(there are spots, but they are private land and you have to deal with it as a commercial thing - not a public trail where you can just go drive it. They are private for pay Jeep trails)

You're also in Iowa so a 4x4 is nice to have regardless if never leaves pavement.

Was just calling out someone who must think he is gods gift to us all... so his opinion on what a daily driver is must be the truth. Now in most of Michigan it is certainly not a must have, but it is a really nice to have a jeep as a daily drive. Not that need to, could drive the other car or go buy another if really wanted to. But I mean it's just ignorance and what was his goal? Something stupid to stroke a broken ego or something? I mean I do get the sentiment he is making that there are a lot people who buy a jeep thinking it is just another suv and realize it is not. So yeah lots of complaining. But there are plenty of people who daily drive them and knew well what they were getting.

 

[Greg_L]

Daily driver, couldn't care less about climbing a f@#$%ng mountain.

I chose the Gladiator because I wanted a truck that can do Jeep things and be different from the usual boring Ford/Chevy/Dodge redneck stuff.

 

[sharpsicle]

I am happy, and I don't get it...

I do think there's a bit of tone-deafness in the original post. Just because enjoying the JT as a daily is not something you see or you experience doesn't mean it's a sign of a problem.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

You're also in Iowa so a 4x4 is nice to have regardless if never leaves pavement.

Exactly, and a nimble 4x4 at that.
A couple of years ago, a poor fellow experienced one of the midwest's finer ice and snow storms. The highways were partially cleared, not too bad, but the ramps were ICE, at times, black ice. The guy had driven quite a ways on the highway, took a ramp with a tight turn near the end and landed himself and car in the icy/snowy median.
(by his appearance and really strong accent, I suspect recently came here from Jamaica, and I don't mean Jamaica, Iowa)
My wife and I decided there'd be little traffic and the stores would be uncrowded that morning so went shopping. We came across the poor guy standing next to his car in the snow. I pulled up and asked if he needed some help - no, he had called his brother who was coming to get him.
I said - I can pull your car out of there, the damage is just the front bumper and valance.
He was shocked - "you'd do that for me"? of course!
I got my JT onto the shoulder where the ice was a bit rougher, and tried to keep standing upright as I walked around to the winch. About that time a guy hauling scrap iron in a big truck pulled up behind me and asked if I wanted any help - sure- keep traffic away, help watch for safety and the winch line. He said if my truck started to slide we could chain my truck to his. The hardest part was walking on the ice, and then in the deep snow where his car was, and hooking onto something I'd not rip off that car. It was a low sitting car, made worse by the fact it was sitting down there in deep snow. Brrrrrrr.

Got him pulled out fine. In the process, his brother showed up in his minivan (I was surprised he made it) They both drove away happy as heck.

Anyway, the whole big long story is to say - I bought it for me - but that includes the fact I am more able to help anyone I can. If I never use the winch to help myself out of anything and only use it for things like the above, I'm happy with that. (but I have used it other times for other stuff)

I've driven in some pretty deep stuff in the winter - our road isn't a primary road so doesn't get "first priority" at plowing, although it's better than a lot of 'em. It's a very sure-footed 4x4, and with good tires it will get you through a lot.
The small size, short hood, make it easy to see all around the vehicle.

You hit perfectly on one reason I wanted this vehicle, and my wife loves her Jeeps - when she wants to go, she can go and she'll get there.

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