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Thoughts from a new Gladiator (and Jeep) owner after a 1100 mile drive home.

Deisher

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One other thing. I averaged 15.3 mpg for the trip based on the computer. I cruised at 72 to 75.

4wd Auto was on roughly 1/2 of the trip.
That is great. I'm at 1600 miles and I'm getting 13 mpg max. I have 35s but still thought I'd see 16 on the road. I'm in East Texas which is a little hilly and windy this time of year. Hoping it is break in and winter blend. Maybe this summer I'll hit 15.
 

DBravo

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The worst thing about Apple Car Play sucking so bad is that I now need to figure out a mount for the phone. I originally thought I'd just stow it in the center glove box.
I use Carplay all the time for spotify and Apple Maps. Did not renw Sirius cause signal sucks unless your on an open highway.

I tried a few different mounts and prefer this one from Amazon. Wife liked it so much i just installed one in her new '21 JT.
Solid and doesn't move - uses two factory dash screws re-inserted into original location. Can still use the dash tray. You can fit it in under the dash tray mat, or cut the two "side wings" off the mat like i did - I don't put anything up there that would warrant a rubber mat.

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Jeep Gladiator Thoughts from a new Gladiator (and Jeep) owner after a 1100 mile drive home. 1642026413394
 

IamPro2A

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Glad you are mostly enjoying it so far. I'm an android guy, and no real complaints once I went to a quality cable. I'm not doing any major off-road, so I didnt feel I needed one of those really heavy duty (ie expensive) phone mounts. A went with this cheap cup holder/phone mount and it's been perfect for my needs so far: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LCGKMVX

Jeep Gladiator Thoughts from a new Gladiator (and Jeep) owner after a 1100 mile drive home. 1642032029397


I power it with a short 12 inch double braided cable so there is no excess wire in the way.

As far as MPG, I have a tonneau cover and a lead foot and on summer gas I was averaging close to 21mpg mostly highway after about 3000 mile break-in, and on winter blend gas I'm running around 19ish.

As for climate control, I leave it on auto and generally let it do it's own thing unless I need defrost. I will vary the temp setting a bit on a long trip... it seems if I start at 70f in the winter, I eventually feel a bit chilly, so I'll bump it up a degree, then later bump it up, and again until I feel too hot around 74 and turn it back to 70. Ihavent checked it with an external thermometer, but I suspect it's me and not the Jeep. I know this is your first Jeep, but this is my 4th, and this is the first one that is remotely "car like" with the climate control. Every other one has been basically hot or cold with nothing in between no matter how you set the knob.

Performance is surprising. I have the max tow, so A/T, 4.10 gears with the smaller tires, and it leaves the M/T JK in the dust (we wont even talk about the YJ with the 2.5l. WOOF!). I mean it's not my hemi Ram, but plenty of power to deal with NY/CT/MA drivers (I know you know what I mean).
 

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dcmdon

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What was your tire pressure? Mine is very comfortable at any speed and can hold the lane without much trouble if there isn't wind.
Its funny you should ask that. I just checked them they were 41 PSI. I will let air out tomorrow.
 

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Glad you enjoyed the drive home with the new Gladiator OP.

I use Android Auto in the Gladiator 99% of the time I'm in the truck. My girlfriend is an iPhone user and she uses CarPlay.

Navigation - I use Waze, which is actually a Google product, for the alerts. While this has been incorporated in Google Maps, I prefer Waze for turn by turn. For looking at a map, I'll switch to Google Maps, where you can adjust, pinch, zoom. Something you can't do on CarPlay.

If Waze is your default map, Android Auto will default to Waze. You can input by typing, if you aren't moving. Or, more simply, just hit the mic button and speak the address or POI.

Auto climate is fairly effective. I do typically need a lower temp to get the cooling I want in the Summer versus other systems I have used. And at times I just ditch the Auto portion and set it manually to get it where I want and then switch back to Auto.

I do like Spotify in CarPlay better than AA. Navigation is cleaner, you can select the artist from the Now Playing song, etc. Which you can't do in AA.

As for mounts, I bought the 67 Designs and love it. The rail is excellent, the mount can be used with one hand, and you have several options for devices.

I wouldn't give up on CarPlay. It takes some resetting of expectations though. Neither AA not CarPlay or designed to give you your phone experience in the dash. They are designed around voice and keeping eyes on the road.
 

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My headlights were not adjusted correctly from the factory either and was flashed daily. My JLUR never had an issue but my Gladiator definitely had the headlights aimed too high. Luckily it is easy to readjust and recommend to lower them a bit.

Cheers
Mine have been checked and checked, and frankly if I had to have them any lower - I'd go back to halogens. They don't shine out very far at all on low beam.
It seems that people don't get modern lights around here and those that do - have illegal lighting. The ones most likely to flash or not dim their own are those with gigawatt blue/white lights shining as if trying to light a football field.
 

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Its funny you should ask that. I just checked them they were 41 PSI. I will let air out tomorrow.
That's just crazy - almost everyone I've talked to about tire inflation say they got their JT with 41psi in the tires - didn't seem to matter the level or model, it was always 41. Even when I had new tires put on mine - they set them to 41 psi and they should be lower than stock tires.


I have the factory navigation system which fills my needs perfectly
Ask my wife where nav on my truck has sent us - it's a freaking joke. Colorado Springs area - my wife wanted to go shopping in one of the shopping centers. It was 2 lanes both directions in front of the shopping center - there were left turn areas that went into the shopping area - but the truck said go to the next light, make a u-turn and come back and turn right into the shopping center. HUH?
Then another time - it had us turn off a main road, took us past a school zone during the day, through residential areas, at least 3 stop signs, then a few blocks later had us turn back onto the main road it had us leave! Coming back I ignored it and stayed on that main road and shaved 10 minutes off the trip. It's done that to us several times - even around Overland Park it was sending us through residential areas and crazy routes.
But the worst of it was Colorado Springs area - I mean I could have used a road map better than that NAV did. I finally got my phone out and loaded up WAZE and we compared routes. WAZE was faster, more direct, not heavy traffic where the JT's NAV was having us make multiple turns and backtracking and going residential. We used WAZE leaving the area and it took us out a far superior route and cut a lot of time off our trip.
 

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That's just crazy - almost everyone I've talked to about tire inflation say they got their JT with 41psi in the tires - didn't seem to matter the level or model, it was always 41. Even when I had new tires put on mine - they set them to 41 psi and they should be lower than stock tires.




Ask my wife where nav on my truck has sent us - it's a freaking joke. Colorado Springs area - my wife wanted to go shopping in one of the shopping centers. It was 2 lanes both directions in front of the shopping center - there were left turn areas that went into the shopping area - but the truck said go to the next light, make a u-turn and come back and turn right into the shopping center. HUH?
Then another time - it had us turn off a main road, took us past a school zone during the day, through residential areas, at least 3 stop signs, then a few blocks later had us turn back onto the main road it had us leave! Coming back I ignored it and stayed on that main road and shaved 10 minutes off the trip. It's done that to us several times - even around Overland Park it was sending us through residential areas and crazy routes.
But the worst of it was Colorado Springs area - I mean I could have used a road map better than that NAV did. I finally got my phone out and loaded up WAZE and we compared routes. WAZE was faster, more direct, not heavy traffic where the JT's NAV was having us make multiple turns and backtracking and going residential. We used WAZE leaving the area and it took us out a far superior route and cut a lot of time off our trip.
It's a Jeep navigation; maybe it's about taking a less direct and more relaxing route.
 

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It's a Jeep navigation; maybe it's about taking a less direct and more relaxing route.
LOL - school zones, residential areas packed with cars and houses relaxing. Oxymoron, sort of like government intelligence - maybe a contradiction in terms. I guess it never listened to John Denver........


It's fine on the Grand Cherokee but on mine it always takes the longer more complex route and usually through residential areas, it's always suggesting a u-turn instead of a direct turn left.
My son won't use the NAV on his Jeep either for similar reasons.
 

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Congrats on the new Rig. Mojave is the best riding of all the Gladiators, I love mine.

#1 Apple Car play used to be great, and was like a slimmed down version of your phone on the dash. However recent changes made (by apple) to the music app and other things have made it difficult to not pick up the phone while driving. Mostly when you are searching for an artist or song. It tries to force you to use Siri, but siri sucks shit through a tube and if i want to hear something i want a specific song or album, so being able to search on the screen would help. Another issue that is Jeep Gladiator specific is the cable management. If you are like me and don't like the open flap protruding and cable vomit all over your dash, you would prefer to use the USB port in the center console as opposed to the port on the dash, you will be very disappointed. Because every 5-10 minutes your phone and apple car play will randomly disconnect and you will have to reseat the connection at the phone for it to reconnect. This is really fun when on important phone calls and everything just goes silent. In other threads on this forum the theory is a voltage thing or interference that jeep refuses to acknowledge, but who knows??, its just annoying...

#7 you are correct that the LED Low beams are great! However I have had a couple of times where I have ben flashed, and maybe its the New England temperament, but I did have a guy in a smaller car pull over to wave me by. He then yelled "Your f*cking headlights suck!!!" out his window as I passed by him.
 

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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?
A lot of good observations that I'm sure each and every new Mojave owner has noticed.

#3: We have a Grand Caravan with the 3.6 and I have always loved the engine in it. The thing that holds the 3.6 back in the GC is the crappy transmission. With the Manual in the JT, it's soooooooo much more enjoyable. I just usually have to downshift to 5th on the interstate while hitting steep hills....that's more about gearing, though.

#5: This is exactly why I chose a Mojave. For me, though, it was the crappy potholed Montana roads (and the gravel ones) that made the decision easy. The Mojave is in its element here.

#6: Exactly the same for me. I'm happy to wear these stock tires out before blowing any money on an inch-bigger tire.

#9: This happened to me and I didn't even notice. I drove mine to Montana from Denver, where I bought it, and I was stressed out the whole way. Now, I don't even notice it...and our speed limit here is 80, so I'm doing 83-85 all the time on the interstate.
 
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One other thing. The seats were surprisingly good.

Coming from a Volvo almost anything is a step down when it comes to seats. But my back didn't start to hurt until 11 hours into the trip. Pretty good.
 

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One other thing. The seats were surprisingly good.

Coming from a Volvo almost anything is a step down when it comes to seats. But my back didn't start to hurt until 11 hours into the trip. Pretty good.
I've only ever sat in one other vehicle that had seats as good or perhaps very slightly better - it was my wife's cousin's Ford - I THINK it was an Escape. I drove it one day and didn't want to get back out of it. Didn't like the rest of it but the seat were nice.
I can drive this Gladiator for hours and not feel like the seats are any problem and I have a bad back to boot.

You are saying a lot suggesting these aren't too bad compared to a Volvo!
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