What are the "MUST HAVE" mods after buying your Gladiator? ($5,000 starting budget)

[Axeman]

Next purchase: behind rear seat ARB compressor mount (813 fab) and ARB single for on-board air. I'm surprised this isn't on more people's lists. I often don't air down on trails because I don't have easy access to air (without driving on the highway back to a town).

How is the single working for you? What size tires do you have? I have 35s and am wondering if a single would be sufficient or if I should go with the twin. I only plan to fill one tire at a time rather than those 4 airline equalizers. The cheap amazon single portable I use now is slow as hell.

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[Kilroy1941]

Can you expound on this?

If you meant the hard top seal treatment I use 3m car care silicone paste dielectric grease. You can get it on Amazon. Just wipe on the seals let it sit a few hours in the sun and wipe off the excess. Keeps the seals hydrated, soft and maintains a tight seal fit with the freedom panels

 

[Kilroy1941]

Good call on the mudflaps fellas, thank you for that idea. Good utility and aesthetics.

Also the lower control arm skid plates is smart, added to the list.

Any sunshade recommendations?




Added to the shopping cart, thank you!



So basically if you go 37" different wheels should be used?



Yeah I have a feeling it never ends haha.

Any reason why you mention a "really good warranty?"

Added the tweeters to the cart as well, that was one thing I noticed while test driving, even with the premium audio, it was missing those higher frequencies.

Just my joke with some issues I have had. Leaking back hard top window just this week. Ended up making an appointment to drive 3 hours to the dealership I purchased from. Love that dealership. They see it Monday. While the local trash dealership said they wouldn't even look at it until late in September!

 

[mike921921]

My first $5K went like this:
Stinger Heigh10
Livernois Tune + ECM
Tonneau Cover
Running Boards
Hotheads Headliners
SB Seat Covers
JCR Offroad under seat storage
Speaker replacments, subwoofer add

My objective is a sleeper Jeep pickup - not many rocks to crawl here in FL ?

 

[Deleted member 28696]

Hey everyone,

Excited to be part of the Jeep community!

I recently placed an order for my Sting-ray Gray Mojave, I loaded it out minus leather seats and adaptive cruise control.

Big thanks to everyone here who recommended the Gupton route, y'all the real MVP's.

From experience of the owners already, what are the "must have" mods or accessories to install on your Gladiator?

I know this can be subjective to your needs and use of the truck itself but let's just say from an overall everyday perspective (no commute tho since I work from home) with camping/adventure trips in the mix.

So far I'm instantly thinking about tires, AEV spacer kit, CAI, front bumper/bar, tint, bed rack, extra lights.

Utility based mods are appreciated vs purely vanity.

Thank you all!

I went for a 3” - 3.5 lift, 37” tires, 20” rims & a re-gear to 5.13s due to the extra weight otherwise you will have limited power & it won’t shift correctly. 17” rims are better for rock crawling, less weight more rubber. Added studio 67 designs universal phone mount, JL Rail for Gladiator. After lift you’ll want side steps. Rockslide Engineering power steps are what I’m considering. I added the redline hood struts. You’ll need the Tazer JL mini if you re-gear or get bigger tires to reprogram the computer. That’s just to start.

 

[Gladiator Girl]

Mud flaps. I drove around for 2 weeks in my Willys after I bought it and immediately realized I was going to lose a lot of paint after our sandy and salty slush winters with the MT tires. I may even try to find some black JL or Jk take offs and put ATs on for winter driving. Really would like the truck to not start disintegrating at least for a good 5 years if I can help it.

Same here. Lots of rocks flip up from big tires.

 

[Zarp]

So far the best $ I’ve spent was lift along with wheels, tires and spacers (~5k) The worst was tube doors instead of quality mirrors and a stubby antenna. My next 5k went into bumpers, winch and fenders. I don’t need to spend engine $ because I’m happy with the diesel.

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

I’m in sort of the same boat with my JTRD. In total I will have spent about $15k on it since May when I got it building it up. It’s easy to get distracted focusing on big ticket items but there’s a lot of little things that are important that will nickel and dime you to death.

Some of this is assuming you want to go off road on something more than a dry fire road:

• winch and recovery gear to go with it (tree saver, recovery strap, shackles and snatch block). This stuff will pay for itself one day. Id rather have a winch than big tires. I’m not stepping into the winch flame war so I’ll spare you my opinion on that cost, but I’ve yet to see cheap recovery gear. It will add up quickly. Don’t buy brandX shackles from Amazon.
• Winch bumper or winch plate if you already have the steel bumper.
• Good quality floor liners. Again, off road you’ll wreck the carpet and stock floor mats. These are nice regardless.
• Some basic tools, good low pressure tire gauge, tape, rope, etc. and a bag to put it in.
• Some basic emergency camping gear, water jugs, fire starter, etc.
• A quality first aid kit
• Snake boots. Seriously. At least some tall rubber boots for crossings.
• Out West in these dry conditions your vehicle becomes a potential fire starter. One more reason to buy a good fire extinguisher and some kitty litter and bucket for spills. Tread lightly.
• Incidentals: chargers, power brick, phone mounts, tablet mounts, some towels to keep in the jeep, flashlight for the Jeep, center console organizer.
• Bungee cords and ratchet straps. It’s a truck after all.
• A mesh bikini top like spider web shade for when you have your panels off or run topless so you don’t cook.
• A good shovel and maybe traction boards. I got away without them for years, but moved a lot of rocks and did a lot of digging in my time.
• There’s no correct answer for air inflation. I have a power tank. Lot of folks are using compressors. Some folks have both. All are expensive to get good performance.
• I’ve got hot head liners and their sound assassin floor liner and love it.
• Random Jeep accoutrements like Yeti ramblers with 7 slot grills on them, flip me over stickers, Jeep keychains, bottle openers that mount to the door hinges. We all know we buy this crap.
• Rubber tubing for the gaps in the fenders. My favorite mod so far.
• Lights are nice and run the gamut in terms of cost. The LED lights on the new Jeeps are actually pretty adequate for once.

Most of that stuff above is pretty unglamorous but it will add up quickly. If you lift it, that’s obviously 3 big expenses right there (wheels, tires, lift). But you’ll then most likely be taking on more challenging terrain. Paradoxically the need for recovery increases with that additional capability and the stresses on components also increases so you’ll break more stuff. You’ll need to consider carrying more replacement parts, stronger recovery equipment, upgrades to steering components not provided by the lift, etc.

You can get away with the stock scissor jack for an unlifted Jeep or a jack base for a mildly lifted one, but consider a good larger bottle jack. I’ve owned highlift jacks but I think they’re too dangerous and mostly a waste of money. I’ve seen someone permanently disfigured by one and I’ve narrowly avoided serious injuries despite treating my 60 inch high lift with proper respect. I’d be willing to bet that a lot of the folks with 48 inch ones are unaware that their jack won’t even get their lifted Jeep’s tires off the ground with axle drop. From a bumper lift point my 60 inch high lift could get my TJs closest tire 2 inches off the ground at full extension. So that’s 4500lbs balancing on a steel stick. It’s as dangerous as it looks. Bottle jacks are easier, safer and more convenient in most circumstances. Buy some coveralls for crawling under the Jeep to place it.

 

[REDcrabman]

steps, grab handles, floor mats, entry guards, trim between fender and body.

 

[DBravo]

Hey everyone,

Excited to be part of the Jeep community!

I recently placed an order for my Sting-ray Gray Mojave, I loaded it out minus leather seats and adaptive cruise control.

Big thanks to everyone here who recommended the Gupton route, y'all the real MVP's.

From experience of the owners already, what are the "must have" mods or accessories to install on your Gladiator?

I know this can be subjective to your needs and use of the truck itself but let's just say from an overall everyday perspective (no commute tho since I work from home) with camping/adventure trips in the mix.

So far I'm instantly thinking about tires, AEV spacer kit, CAI, front bumper/bar, tint, bed rack, extra lights.

Utility based mods are appreciated vs purely vanity.

Thank you all!

2020 Jeep Gladiator Overland, Punk'n Orange Metallic
Stock 255/70R18 Bridgestone Tires on stock 18" black granite crystal wheels
Mopar Tri-Fold hard tonneau cover (awesome cover, makes the bed locking storage)
22k miles already!

So far. I've stayed pretty minimal/stock:
-Bestop Sunrider (stored the Freedom Top Panels for the summer)
-ShadeIdea 2 pc mesh shade set - orange (Amazon)
-Drivers Side Dead Pedal foot Rest: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y1JFPJ...abc_A4SXKSEJPMTWHPW91QDX?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
-3m paint protection kit to protect from stone chips: Hood (leading edge), Fog Lights, Headlights, Fender Marker Lights. www.clearmask.com
-Poly bed liner/tailgate protector
-Steel Dash Mount Phone Holder - very solid - best phone holder I've ever had. Installs under the rubber dash tray: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BP6WHX...abc_G0MKSDP33JMM741YYWFW?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
-Added a 2x8 across the bed in the provided impressions - I can put items in the back near the tailgate and it keeps them from sliding forward.

 

[mfs]

New guy here, and also a new JT owner.

I purchased recently and immediately talked to a couple of places about lifts, wheels, and tires. Decided that I really don't need to turn this into a Moab rockcrawling monster out of the gate, especially when considering my skill of zero when it comes to offroading.

In the interim I decided to go with AT tires, which look better and of course can get me into some light offroading. Yokohama Geolandar 285/65R18's on stock Overland wheels:

One thing my Overland did not come with was LED's, which was a bit disappointing but of course saved me money. Dealer quoted me $1300 for LED headlights (!). They are great for buying vehicles, but don't budge on parts and service. A couple of days after the tire upgrade, I received my Oracle Oculus headlights. I see this as a daily driving upgrade and am a huge advocate of LED's. Easy to install and much better than the stock non-LED headlights:

Once thing I noticed right away is how washed out the fender and fog lights looked after the upgrade, so I decided to upgrade those with bulb replacements:

That is all I have installed so far, but I have a few things on the way this week. First, mud flaps.

Since installing the Geolandars which stick out ever so slightly from the fenders, I have been getting nasty bangs on the doors from rocks picked up on gravel roads. I am also concerned about flinging rocks at cars behind me on the highway (not sure if that is really a thing), so I ordered a front / rear set of rockblokz. They are spendy but I chose them because of the quick disconnect feature with thumbscrews. I plan to hit some trails, and that feature spoke to me.

I also have a Smittybilt compressor coming, again so that I can air back up after hitting a trial.

I don't know what other trims come with, but in my case I also need a full size spare (new wheel to accommodate new tire size).

My want list is long, but I think realistically I am looking for a good multi-mount for the dash (phone / tablet / GMRS HT radio), possibly a bed rack, and cosmetics to get rid of the silver accents in the Overland grille and bumper.

 

[Trailman]

How is the single working for you? What size tires do you have? I have 35s and am wondering if a single would be sufficient or if I should go with the twin. I only plan to fill one tire at a time rather than those 4 airline equalizers. The cheap amazon single portable I use now is slow as hell.

I see that my "next purchase" comment can be read two ways . I meant next as in, the future (not that it was next in order of past purchases). I have the same reservations as you but I looked up a table of times for the single versus a double, and it was not that big of a deal to just use a single for 33s or 35s.

The arguments for the double, to me, are most relevant to really large tires (37 and up) or to people filling others vehicles in a group setting. Neither of those are likely to apply to me for a long time (if ever). I'll see if I can find that time-to-fill table and update here.

 

[COASTAL CAJUN]

For Me:
Sport Bar
Lights Front and Back
2 1/2" Leveling Kit
Rubicon Rims and Tires for my Gladiator Sport
Hood Sticker plus more
Iron Cross Rockers
All weather floor mats ,Short antenna ,Tube Doors
All that for just under 5000$

 

[Jack'D]

Have to agree with the ppl that said get to know the truck first and figure out what you like to do with it.
There are peripherals tho that I wanted regardless, doorless mirrors, foot pegs, phone mount, weatherproof seat covers, cabcover, and recovery gear. A good cardio for your wallet to start with lol

 

[dfwxjer]

Winch, bumper, recovery gear, 35s, new wheels, Jeep all weather floormats and JL Tazer is what I did with ~$5k for my Mojave. Next few grand will be 4.88s and a front locker.

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