1000 Mile Report

[Tire Guy]

One week and a 1000 miles later and I definitely think we bought a winner. Here are my thoughts, but nothing new here. This is my 4th Jeep so I'm not a newbie to straight axel vehicles.

Bad, ok somewhat bad:

• The ESS sometimes gets an error message out of the garage. I can restart and it is fine. Odd.
• At high speed it steers like a drunken sailor in a flat bottom boat going backwards up river. Installing the Falcon steering stabilizer tomorrow.
• I seem to fill the tank more often than usual. Getting 19 on the highway. No idea in the city.
• Damn the stock front bumper is wide and sticks out. I clipped the garage the second time I pulled in. Nothing that a little buffing couldn't take out. Makes me want to replace the bumper sooner.
• The Rubicon rides rougher than the Overland.
• I have not had a parking brake hand brake in a loooong time.
• Glove box is laughable.
• Android auto is worthless.
• Window switches take getting used to, specially when switching back and forth with the Vette.
• Can't hardly see the yellow warning light on the side mirrors for blind spot monitoring.
• My cart in Amazon has way too much in it that starts with "Jeep".
• Definitely needs the Hothead head-liner here in Georgia. And window tint.

Good:

• Very smooth ride for an off-road focused vehicle.
• Engine is peppy.
• A/C blows very cold.
• Love all the electronics, and how well they work.
• Stereo is freaking loud.
  
• Lots of room for a midsize.
• I love being up so tall on the road.
• Tires are not loud at all, I have the ATs.
• It is a very comfortable truck. We did 8 hours in it the first day and 6 hours two days later.
• Electronic nannies are non-intrusive.
• Sting Gray is a great color. Lots of compliments and stares on the truck.
• The bed accessories are great; cover, trail rail and spray liner.

Best:

• It looks amazing. Every time I walk outside or see it in the garage I am struck by just how good it looks.

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[Solrac77]

Spot on! I’m so in love with it I can’t see the negatives. They say love is blind and I’m buying it.

 

[ColoradoGlad]

One week and a 1000 miles later and I definitely think we bought a winner. Here are my thoughts, but nothing new here. This is my 4th Jeep so I'm not a newbie to straight axel vehicles.

Bad, ok somewhat bad:

• The ESS sometimes gets an error message out of the garage. I can restart and it is fine. Odd.
• At high speed it steers like a drunken sailor in a flat bottom boat going backwards up river. Installing the Falcon steering stabilizer tomorrow.
• I seem to fill the tank more often than usual. Getting 19 on the highway. No idea in the city.
• Damn the stock front bumper is wide and sticks out. I clipped the garage the second time I pulled in. Nothing that a little buffing couldn't take out. Makes me want to replace the bumper sooner.
• The Rubicon rides rougher than the Overland.
• I have not had a parking brake hand brake in a loooong time.
• Glove box is laughable.
• Android auto is worthless.
• Window switches take getting used to, specially when switching back and forth with the Vette.
• Can't hardly see the yellow warning light on the side mirrors for blind spot monitoring.
• My cart in Amazon has way too much in it that starts with "Jeep".
• Definitely needs the Hothead head-liner here in Georgia. And window tint.

Good:

• Very smooth ride for an off-road focused vehicle.
• Engine is peppy.
• A/C blows very cold.
• Love all the electronics, and how well they work.
• Stereo is freaking loud.
  
• Lots of room for a midsize.
• I love being up so tall on the road.
• Tires are not loud at all, I have the ATs.
• It is a very comfortable truck. We did 8 hours in it the first day and 6 hours two days later.
• Electronic nannies are non-intrusive.
• Sting Gray is a great color. Lots of compliments and stares on the truck.
• The bed accessories are great; cover, trail rail and spray liner.

Best:

• It looks amazing. Every time I walk outside or see it in the garage I am struck by just how good it looks.

The color is incredible!

 

[TennesseePA]

I keep hearing people talk about how a straight axle vehicle drives poorly. Do me a favor and go test drive a Ford F250,350,450 or a heavy duty Ram and you will notice that they drive and steer very very well. If your Gladiator drives poorly something is out of adjustment, be it tire pressure, castor or something else. I have personally owned an F250 Crew cab long bed, F350 crew cab drw, F450 single cab and an F550 crew cab long wheelbase and they all drove great. The 450 and 550 rode like crap unless they were loaded down but they didn't hunt all over the road and your Jeep doesn't have to either. Find out what the problem is and fix it.

 

[Tire Guy]

I keep hearing people talk about how a straight axle vehicle drives poorly. Do me a favor and go test drive a Ford F250,350,450 or a heavy duty Ram and you will notice that they drive and steer very very well. If your Gladiator drives poorly something is out of adjustment, be it tire pressure, castor or something else. I have personally owned an F250 Crew cab long bed, F350 crew cab drw, F450 single cab and an F550 crew cab long wheelbase and they all drove great. The 450 and 550 rode like crap unless they were loaded down but they didn't hunt all over the road and your Jeep doesn't have to either. Find out what the problem is and fix it.

I'm with you. When I do the stabilizer install tomorrow I will check the torque specs on as many front end components as possible then have the alignment checked in the next week or so. There is a massive long running thread over on the Wrangler forum dealing with the wandering problem. There is no consensus on what causes it but plenty of speculation on ways to fix it.

 

[TennesseePA]

Sounds like you have a good plan to correct it. I am not sure how a steering stabilizer will help the wandering since the stabilizer is purposed to slow rapid oscillation like movement or keeping the steering wheel from spinning out of your hand when you hit a rock or something. My Gladiator was the tire pressure. I have 37 KO2s on it and on cool mornings my pressure will be down to 26. I have found that a warm tire pressure of 29 is the sweet spot for my Jeep and she cruises as good as any other truck.

 

[Tire Guy]

The tire pressure when I picked it up was at 44 and it was dangerous to drive at highway speeds. The picture above is when we stopped at the first rest area to correct to 36. It was much better but there is this middle dead spot and weird wandering that occurs. I'm being very proactive on the things I can do. But I am not going to drop several grand on fixing the front end like some of those guys on the Wrangler forum. I'll get the best I can and then get used to it.

 

[TennesseePA]

Mine was the same way when I picked it up but I had the dealer swap the stock tires for the load range D 37s. The pressures ranged from 41-49 and all four were different. Bumpsteer is a very real thing when your solid axle truck is way overinflated.

 

[Rebornfungus]

Thank you! I’ve had my JT for a month(1k miles). I’m coming from a 2005 Ram 1500. I still have and obviously been driving it for almost 15 years. So I know and love the ride/feel. My Ram has ~the same size tires and rims.

I just figured this was the jeep feel that people complain about or maybe the steering is just way more responsive. I just trusted it came properly inflated and didn’t even check the door placard. Low and behold —36 reccomended all around. They had all the tires at 39!

I dropped them to 33. Huge difference in ride. Now it feels much more like the Ram. The steer bump is reduced a ton. I don’t know about going 29. I may be fine with 35/36 as reccomended too.

Thanks again. This has been the only complaint I’ve had when people ask me how the ride compares to the Ram. #SOLVED

 

[TennesseePA]

I have to run lower pressures because I have 37 inch Load range d tires

 

[Tire Guy]

I have to run lower pressures because I have 37 inch Load range d tires

I love the BFGs but that LR D would scare me off putting them on a JT. How is the ride quality?

 

[TennesseePA]

Rides excellent. Even the wife commented on how smooth it is. I also have an ES350 and my Gladiator drives as good as the Lexus but, even though I classify it as excellent, the ride is not the same as the car. And I would never expect a truck to compare to a luxury car, even if it is an entry level luxury car.

 

[TheSolarWizard]

Rides excellent. Even the wife commented on how smooth it is. I also have an ES350 and my Gladiator drives as good as the Lexus but, even though I classify it as excellent, the ride is not the same as the car. And I would never expect a truck to compare to a luxury car, even if it is an entry level luxury car.

What pressure do you run and what width wheel?

Does the BLIS system make audible noises if you turn on your blinker and someone is in the blind spot? How about the efficacy of cross traffic alert? Sounds?

 

[TennesseePA]

I have gotten as low as 26PSI on some of the cool mornings we have had. We had a couple days where overnight temps got down to the low 50s. But now we are back up to the low 70s at night and they were at 28 this morning. My tires are 37x12.5r17 on factory LE rims. I like all of the safety systems. You can set the BLIS to be off, just the light or light and sound. It only makes noise if you turn on the blinker with someone in the sensor range.

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