Saying this in reference to steering issues needs to stop. Its a safety thing.
Agreed. Mine is not OK for sure. Anyone that I have let drive it has commented immediately about how bad it felt. My wife doesn't even want to drive it because of it.
What the heck! If it steers straight, you might roll it because its a jeep?! They put that slop in the steering on purpose. He says its a safety thing. Is he trying to say the new 2020 Gladiator was never intended to be driven on the highway? I wish the sticker said "farm use only", at least I would get a tax break. Where do they get these so called experts.
Who trains these people? At a minimum you would think they would at least read a forum or two to see what's going on outside and start asking questions. Stop treating the customer like an idiot. They are supposed to be the expert but we seem to have to educate them. Isn't that FCA's responsibility? This is my 5th Jeep and my CJ tracked better, heck my trade in tracked better (may I have that back please). I bought it BECAUSE it's a jeep. Why do they keep trying to tell us "all you bought is a jeep, If you wanted something good you should have bought something else". You never hear that on the show room floor, just in service. FIX IT...it can't be that hard.
I looked quickly and yes it seems to me the play is in the steering box/pitman arm. The sector shaft itself has more play in it than I think it should compared to my Jeeps of the past.
I know it’s a brand new truck so don’t flame me for saying this.... but as it appears you did identify some definitive slop/play in the system, why not get a box wrench and Allen wrench and adjust the box yourself? Just for a sense check if not anything else. It will only take a very slight adjustment (VERY slight) to tighten it up. I mean it’s easy enough.... Again I know you shouldn’t have to on a new truck, but I’d rather take 10 minutes in my driveway (and probably fix the problem) then take the time to go to the dealer to have 3 “expert technicians” stand there scratching their heads for an hour, all while the chief knucklehead keeps repeating in my ear over and over “sir, it’s a Jeep thing and it’s supposed to be that way”.
Understood...and yes...it's new. Also the last thing I wanted was for the problem to continue and then start being told "someone" was messing with the steering and we aren't warrantying it. So yes, to your point I just plunked down a pretty large sum of $ on a vehicle. Expectation is that it drives correctly and safely.
I think it was an originally poorly designed box is my guess. Because this issue has plaged JLs also. Reading around when people pushed the dealers hard enough oddly it got "fixed" so if it's supposed to be that way...how did it get "fixed" or if it's supposed to be that way then why don't ALL of the JLs/JTs do it?
Do that with a #2500 trailer on a highway with a jersey barrier on one side and a semi on the other. White knuckle does not even begin to describe how I felt on that trip. Ended up pulling over and calling the wife to bring my other truck to get the trailer home. It's kind of like death wobble. Once you overcorrect and the trailer goes one way the jeep wants to go the other that back and forth creates an oscillation. The play in the steering magnifies it. I thought I was going to bounce that trailer off the wall and the semi and that's a TINY trailer compared to what I usually tow (granted it doesn't have trailer brakes).
