dcmdon
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- Don
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Hi all, so I finally picked up my Gladiator at Gupton and have a bunch of thoughts and some questions I'd like to share.
In general the truck's mechanical aspects are very straightforward with no real leaning curve. The electronics though took a while. So here is a list as I took notes during the ride.
1. Apple Car Play is a huge disappointment. I thought it would essentially present my apps on the car's display. Well,kind of but not quite. When I am driving somewhere I dont' know I like to have my map presented North Up and zoomed out so I can actually understand where I am and what is around me.
Car Play's presentation of all major mapping apps doesn't allow this. (Apple Maps, google maps, and Waze) After a while I figured out how to make Google Maps (my preferred) north up. But you can't zoom out. Its set at a zoom of about 500 ft. This is a useful size for when you want turn by turn guidance in a city but is less than useless when you are driving 1100 miles in 16 hours on the interstate.
2. Its reasonably quiet up to just a bit over 70. Its pretty loud by 75. This is good for me. I am hoping the Gladiator will slow me down as a driver. So far so good.
3. Its quicker than I anticipated. My memory of the demos that I drove weren't of it really being able to accelerate on the highway. But I really didn't have any trouble. I was very pleasantly surprised. Of course I'm not afraid to run it up to 5500 rpm. So that may be it.
4. which leads to the transmission - this may be the nicest automatic I've ever driven. Its quick to downshift when I need the power. Which is pretty much always. I spent a fair amount of time in 7th and 8th gear manual so that I could run run at high throttle settings up hills which helps with break in. And it is truly gutless in 7th and 8th. But the transmission always seems to grab the right gear on first attempt when you need more poke.
5. The Mojave's ride is amazingly good. Compliance is acceptable. Body motion control is exceptional.
6. The tires are bigger in person. I was originally going to put 35s on it right away. I think I'll wait a couple of years for that.
7. Factory LED low beams are exceptional. I couldn't believe how bright they were and nobody flashed their lights at me. High beams are good. But not as much of an improvement as you might think.
8. 4-Auto works great. I found myself in a couple of snow squalls starting in WV and they had no equipment out. The road was unplowed and untreated. I pulled off for gas during one snow squall and was able to accelerate from the bottom of the exit ramp pretty hard with no slippage. It was also seamless. Though for some reason there is a small amount of noise when its engaged on the highway.
9) The steering definitely takes some getting used to. At the beginning of the trip it was mentally exhausting to keep the truck between the lane markers. By the end of the trip it was second nature.
A question - I'm used to an HVAC with an auto setting that automatically turns on the AC compressor. The AC light comes on and if you don't want it on, you tap the AC button. This leaves it in Auto mode but it can't run the AC. This is a good way to do things on dry winter days.
Overall it was a fun
In the Jeep, when you tap Auto, the AC light doesn't light up. Is it on? If you tap AC the AC light comes on but the Auto light goes off.
There doesn't seem to be a way to have it in Auto without AC engaged. Am I missing something?
In general the truck's mechanical aspects are very straightforward with no real leaning curve. The electronics though took a while. So here is a list as I took notes during the ride.
1. Apple Car Play is a huge disappointment. I thought it would essentially present my apps on the car's display. Well,kind of but not quite. When I am driving somewhere I dont' know I like to have my map presented North Up and zoomed out so I can actually understand where I am and what is around me.
Car Play's presentation of all major mapping apps doesn't allow this. (Apple Maps, google maps, and Waze) After a while I figured out how to make Google Maps (my preferred) north up. But you can't zoom out. Its set at a zoom of about 500 ft. This is a useful size for when you want turn by turn guidance in a city but is less than useless when you are driving 1100 miles in 16 hours on the interstate.
2. Its reasonably quiet up to just a bit over 70. Its pretty loud by 75. This is good for me. I am hoping the Gladiator will slow me down as a driver. So far so good.
3. Its quicker than I anticipated. My memory of the demos that I drove weren't of it really being able to accelerate on the highway. But I really didn't have any trouble. I was very pleasantly surprised. Of course I'm not afraid to run it up to 5500 rpm. So that may be it.
4. which leads to the transmission - this may be the nicest automatic I've ever driven. Its quick to downshift when I need the power. Which is pretty much always. I spent a fair amount of time in 7th and 8th gear manual so that I could run run at high throttle settings up hills which helps with break in. And it is truly gutless in 7th and 8th. But the transmission always seems to grab the right gear on first attempt when you need more poke.
5. The Mojave's ride is amazingly good. Compliance is acceptable. Body motion control is exceptional.
6. The tires are bigger in person. I was originally going to put 35s on it right away. I think I'll wait a couple of years for that.
7. Factory LED low beams are exceptional. I couldn't believe how bright they were and nobody flashed their lights at me. High beams are good. But not as much of an improvement as you might think.
8. 4-Auto works great. I found myself in a couple of snow squalls starting in WV and they had no equipment out. The road was unplowed and untreated. I pulled off for gas during one snow squall and was able to accelerate from the bottom of the exit ramp pretty hard with no slippage. It was also seamless. Though for some reason there is a small amount of noise when its engaged on the highway.
9) The steering definitely takes some getting used to. At the beginning of the trip it was mentally exhausting to keep the truck between the lane markers. By the end of the trip it was second nature.
A question - I'm used to an HVAC with an auto setting that automatically turns on the AC compressor. The AC light comes on and if you don't want it on, you tap the AC button. This leaves it in Auto mode but it can't run the AC. This is a good way to do things on dry winter days.
Overall it was a fun
In the Jeep, when you tap Auto, the AC light doesn't light up. Is it on? If you tap AC the AC light comes on but the Auto light goes off.
There doesn't seem to be a way to have it in Auto without AC engaged. Am I missing something?
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