High Altitude Gladiator for highway use?

[dcmdon]

Re brakes.

All gladiators have itty bitty teensie weensie front brakes when you consider the mass of the vehicle. (strangely the rears appear to be larger. Which makes sense if you have a pickup with a 2500 lb capacity, but not in this case, most braking is done with the front wheels most of the time)

Thats fine. They will slow the vehicle down as well as a larger set of brakes. The problem comes when you ask them to stop repeatedly from highway speeds or if towing a heavy load.

They will still get the job done and will stop the vehicle. But they will get hot and the rotors will warp resulting in a pulsing in the brake pedal.

I have only owned domestic and European cars other than my STi. All domestic cars except for overtly performance oriented ones have undersized brakes and I always end up with warped rotors.
In contrast, pretty much all European cars come with larger brakes that tend to hold up to the use that I give them.

If you really care, you will install a big brake kit on the Gladiator. If it exists.

Case in point. Look at the pathetic brakes on the Escalade. A 3300 lb BMW 2 series has larger brakes than that.

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[ShadowsPapa]

to the OP.

I don't think that any version of a Gladiator is going to actually be a GOOD highway vehicle in the same way that a full sized pickup truck can be.

Its interesting they each have benefits on the road.
1) high altitude is clearly street oriented, but with 20" wheels and low profile tires, it may actually ride worse than other models. Low profile tires and big wheels are for performance not luxury.

2) The Overland is clearly not a hard core model and the one I drove rode decently with little tire noise from its road oriented tires.

3) The Mojave I drove actually rode the best of all of them. It seemed to be softer sprung and better damped, with better body control. However the tires were relatively loud compared to the Overland I've driven.

All of them will suffer in wind noise from the removable roof and doors, both of which are necessarily flimsy compared to non-removable equivalents on other trucks.

In short, I believe that any of these trucks will be tiring in comparison to the vehicles you currently have.

Also - ignore the people who say "I drove 1700 mies and it was fine" if the've owned primarily jeeps.

What matters is the guy who has owned a Audi, a Suburban or F150 king ranch who says "I drove mine 1700 miles and it was fine.

Jeep enthusiasts tend to overlook obvious deficiencies in these vehicles.

I dunno - this is the first Jeep of "this style" I've ever owned. I've never owned anything like a Wrangler, ever.
We're used to my Silverado (talk about a luxury truck for it's day) and loaded to the max Grand Cherokees with full IFS and rack and pinion steering and whisper-quiet cabin.
My son even commented "this thing sure rides nice". It does.

I'm used to driving and working on all sorts of cars and trucks. I've been in some of the top Mercedes cars (my friend is a Mercedes tech and one perk for his status is he gets extremely cheap lease prices on their cars and loves to show them off to me)
Tiring was my F250.
They are NOT quiet vehicles at all, not be any stretch. Get used to the whisper quiet ride of a WK/WK2 with the solid body and tight fitting everything, thicker doors, full insulation and you'll find the road noise to be problematic at times.

It's no Mercedes or Lexus - but I'll pit this against any truck I've ever owned or driven for lack of fatigue on long drives.
Anyone exhausted after driving one of these all day needs to have a dealer check it out.

The only thing I consider a down-side is the road noise - these have thin light doors, the roof is thin, it's square, it's going to make noise. There simply isn't the insulation or the thick body to insulate and isolate you from road sounds. And AT or MT tires are going to add to that. It's not an arrow shooting through the air or having hundreds of hours of wind tunnel tests to reduce wind noise or the effects of a semi truck going by......... it's a brick.

 

[Sunman54]

Appreciate all the comments so far. Went and drove a new 2021 Mojave and a used 2020 Overland with 52k miles. Able to drive along at 70 mph with some side wind. The Mojave needed constant correction (eliminated that one). The used Overland actually drove smoother on the highway. I understand that a Gladiator will not perform as well as my Tundra on the highway but the Tundra will not do as well on some of those dirt mountain roads when we go hiking. So right now leaning towards the Overland. Will go drive a High Alt later this week but the difference is about $6,000 which I can't really see the cost/benefit.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Re brakes.

All gladiators have itty bitty teensie weensie front brakes when you consider the mass of the vehicle. (strangely the rears appear to be larger. Which makes sense if you have a pickup with a 2500 lb capacity, but not in this case, most braking is done with the front wheels most of the time)

Thats fine. They will slow the vehicle down as well as a larger set of brakes. The problem comes when you ask them to stop repeatedly from highway speeds or if towing a heavy load.

They will still get the job done and will stop the vehicle. But they will get hot and the rotors will warp resulting in a pulsing in the brake pedal.

I have only owned domestic and European cars other than my STi. All domestic cars except for overtly performance oriented ones have undersized brakes and I always end up with warped rotors.
In contrast, pretty much all European cars come with larger brakes that tend to hold up to the use that I give them.

If you really care, you will install a big brake kit on the Gladiator. If it exists.

Case in point. Look at the pathetic brakes on the Escalade. A 3300 lb BMW 2 series has larger brakes than that.

My silverado was heavier by about 500 pounds and yet the brakes weren't meatier.
I didn't compare the mass of the rotors, the ability of them to cool, or the CoF of the pads or surface area of the pads and so on, but all things being equal, my JT has as much ability to stop as that truck had. In fact, I've been able to stop it just as easily or quickly as I could my Chevy when I had it (I tend to go fast and stop fast)

 

[Jaxmax]

Mojave should not be on the list for a highway driver with the 4.10 gearing, rear locker, and large tires, HA is a lot more money, and has wide axles at 3.73 ratio, but the wide tires and wheels might not achieve the ride or MPG of a loaded Overland, if you want every thing to be paint matched , HA, go to Jeep .com and build them to match, I just looked , there are still a lot of options to add to the HA. Me I drive a Mojave and love it, but passed over the Overland to get the 4.10 gears for towing, I would take a bet that the Overland rides better on highwaythen Mojave……Jack

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Of course that makes sense - everyone made the best decision. To say otherwise is to say they didn't make the best choice and no human will do that.
So it doesn't matter - whatever someone has will always be the best choice.

 

[MrZappo]

Re brakes.

All gladiators have itty bitty teensie weensie front brakes when you consider the mass of the vehicle. (strangely the rears appear to be larger. Which makes sense if you have a pickup with a 2500 lb capacity, but not in this case, most braking is done with the front wheels most of the time)

Thats fine. They will slow the vehicle down as well as a larger set of brakes. The problem comes when you ask them to stop repeatedly from highway speeds or if towing a heavy load.

They will still get the job done and will stop the vehicle. But they will get hot and the rotors will warp resulting in a pulsing in the brake pedal.

I have only owned domestic and European cars other than my STi. All domestic cars except for overtly performance oriented ones have undersized brakes and I always end up with warped rotors.
In contrast, pretty much all European cars come with larger brakes that tend to hold up to the use that I give them.

If you really care, you will install a big brake kit on the Gladiator. If it exists.

Case in point. Look at the pathetic brakes on the Escalade. A 3300 lb BMW 2 series has larger brakes than that.

Huh ? How hard do you stop ?

Ive been driving for (oh maybe 100 years or so now) and never warped my rotors ... And I find the Gladiator brakes to be fine ... Not great, Not bad, Not Yugo, Not BMW, just decent ...

I've had BMW's and sure those brakes are massive. One might even say oversized ... And they piss brake dust all over everything and need service more often as they are "performance" ...

Honestly, other than my crazy friends when I was 16 in the late 1800's I dont remember heaving about people warping rotors ...

European cars come with bigger brakes for a variety of reasons. Not just to be better than others for no reason ...

In any event, I do really care, and the last thing on my mind is hunting down some after market larger brake kit for my Gladiator unless I were to increase my tire size to 37 or above in which case it would be necessary ... On my stock tires? There is simply no issue whatsoever ...

 

[FloridaJT6MT]

Get all that OP??

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Get all that OP??

We have a winner! Summed up multiple pages in 4 words.

Frankly. whatever the responder has will be best.
If it's Mojave, the that's great, if it's high altitude, that's great (Gotta say, I'd have seriously looked at that if it had even been a thing in 2019), if it's Overland, then that's great.........

Test drive each, make lists of pros and cons, make lists of "must have's", and figure out what you can afford balanced with all the rest.

Whatever you choose WILL BE THE BEST (for you, no matter what)

 

[Wheelin98TJ]

I just built a few on the Jeep website.

Took an Overland and added:

Leather
8.4" screen
Remote start
Remote-Proximity Keyless-entry
Premium LED lighting
Jeep active safety group
Hard top (not color matched)

MSRP for this was $49,520.

A base High Altitude with no options added is $51,735.

Roughly $2,200 more for the High Altitude. So if the color matched trim, 20" wheels, wide axles, and different leather are worth that to you, go for it.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Huh ? How hard do you stop ?

Ive been driving for (oh maybe 100 years or so now) and never warped my rotors ... And I find the Gladiator brakes to be fine ... Not great, Not bad, Not Yugo, Not BMW, just decent ...

I've had BMW's and sure those brakes are massive. One might even say oversized ... And they piss brake dust all over everything and need service more often as they are "performance" ...

Honestly, other than my crazy friends when I was 16 in the late 1800's I dont remember heaving about people warping rotors ...

European cars come with bigger brakes for a variety of reasons. Not just to be better than others for no reason ...

In any event, I do really care, and the last thing on my mind is hunting down some after market larger brake kit for my Gladiator unless I were to increase my tire size to 37 or above in which case it would be necessary ... On my stock tires? There is simply no issue whatsoever ...

I've towed tractors on trailer with no trailer brakes (farm exemption) never had brake troubles.
I towed my F20 on a trailer behind my Comanche, never had brake issues.
I have severe ADHD - go fast...........ok, now stop! No warped rotors. I don't baby the brakes on this truck (unless my wife is with me haha)
The only rotors I've ever had issues with were those on my soon-to-be second wife's Camaro - she took it to a shop to have rotors turned and new pads put on. Yeah, shimmied when hitting the brakes, steering wheel wobble. Took it back - said fix it. They turned the rotors again. Got it back - yeah, same thing. The dork putting newly turned rotors on was using an impact one lug nut at a time. ZIIIIP bzz bzz, then the next one and so on. They put on NEW rotors and I stayed there while another mechanic put the lug nuts on by hand and torqued them properly.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I just built a few on the Jeep website.

Took an Overland and added:

Leather
8.4" screen
Remote start
Remote-Proximity Keyless-entry
Premium LED lighting
Jeep active safety group
Hard top (not color matched)

MSRP for this was $49,520.

A base High Altitude with no options added is $51,735.

Roughly $2,200 more for the High Altitude. So if the color matched trim, 20" wheels, wide axles, and different leather are worth that to you, go for it.

Question - was the color matched hard top much more money?
Mine is color matched (my wife INSISTED with this blue) and as I recall she didn't care about price to get what she wanted on MY truck LOL

Some of this depends on the dealer, incentives and what they have on the lot or can find for a customer as far as final price............ Your last two sentences pretty much sums things up depending on what he finds, his dealer, what's on the lot and his budget of course. 2 grand is nothing to a fair number of folks, it's a big difference to others. I've been on both sides of that fence so totally understand it could be big - or nothing, to the buyer.

 

[DailyMoparGuy]

My ‘21 Sport S w/ Max Tow package feels awesome on the highway, even at 85 mph. Wind is really the biggest enemy in these things so all of em will suffer in that aspect.

I think the Fox shocks on on the Rubicon and Mojave are the softest in the lineup, so I’d start there. Worst case scenario, get your High Altitude and swap the stock shocks for the softest ones you can find. Not sure about the best spring setup for a plush ride though.

 

[dcmdon]

My ‘21 Sport S w/ Max Tow package feels awesome on the highway, even at 85 mph. Wind is really the biggest enemy in these things so all of em will suffer in that aspect.

I think the Fox shocks on on the Rubicon and Mojave are the softest in the lineup, so I’d start there. Worst case scenario, get your High Altitude and swap the stock shocks for the softest ones you can find. Not sure about the best spring setup for a plush ride though.

Its not just about shocks. Spring rates matter at least as much.

I think the OP really just needs to find a large dealer and drive every model.

There is one absolute truth though. Avoid mud tires. They are the worst option for highway use.

And yes, I'm going to anticipate someone saying "I've got a Willys and the mud tires are fine". No they aren't. They are fine for you. For someone looking for smoothness and quiet, they are about the worst option.

Re brakes. I guess I'm in the minority here. I've warped the rotors of every American vehicle I've ever owned within 10,000 miles.

 

[Wheelin98TJ]

Question - was the color matched hard top much more money?
Mine is color matched (my wife INSISTED with this blue) and as I recall she didn't care about price to get what she wanted on MY truck LOL

Some of this depends on the dealer, incentives and what they have on the lot or can find for a customer as far as final price............ Your last two sentences pretty much sums things up depending on what he finds, his dealer, what's on the lot and his budget of course. 2 grand is nothing to a fair number of folks, it's a big difference to others. I've been on both sides of that fence so totally understand it could be big - or nothing, to the buyer.

An extra grand for the color matched hard top.

$1,495 for not color matched, $2,495 for color matched.

Good point about the incentives/rebates. Those are a wild card so basically just ask and see if they are different for different models.

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