2 weeks in....'23 Gladiator manual transmission- what should I expect?

[Carrotzilla]

Jeeps are always slow. I prefer my rubicon wranglers shifting to my gladiators but I still enjoy it better than a PRNDL. Plus most kids can’t steal it.

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[AKDrifter]

The 3.6 is building power right up to redline. I hit the rpm limiter daily going to work. Even at 4k rpm the 3.6 is pretty gutless but I can't be banging the limiter the whole 20 miles to work so I will drop to a more reasonable rpm for cruising. Even driving that way I get 16mpg. I have gotten 24 on a slow highway with stock tires on the Rubicon. But I get 12ish in the winter up to 16-17ish in the summer. My clutch is almost 5 years old with no recalls performed on it and it does still work 65k miles later. I am careful with it offroading and pulling the trailed. A '23 should have the nannies where it doesn't let it get that hot without you knowing it. As things break in you'll get better mileage and feel.

 

[coalcracker]

Thanks for the feedback. I haven't had it auto stop, but then again I always take my foot off the clutch at lights! Will try it.

I have a ‘21 JT Rubicon with the manual transmission.

For stop/start, it stops the engine if you take your foot off of the clutch. It will start the engine again once you put your foot back on. There are some parameters about when stop/start will be active, so like if the engine is cold or you’re using climate control at full blast, it won’t turn the engine off. You can scroll through the menus on the dash and it will give you the status of stop/start. Usually in the cases I mentioned here, it will say “Stop/Start Not Ready” or something similar to that. Also, I’ve noticed that if I do a lot of driving around town, it doesn‘t work most of the time. But, if I‘ve taken a longer drive, it will work again. I’m guessing it may be related to the charge in the aux battery.

In terms of making it easier to drive. When I first got mine, I felt like I was ‘bad’ at driving it even though I already knew how to drive a manual transmission. In fact, I still have my older 2007 JK with the manual and I have no problems driving that one. One thing that helped me immensely is turning OFF the “Hill Start Assist” (through UConnect) because I found that I was expecting the Jeep to roll back, but it didn’t, and then I’d either be really hard on the clutch or I would stall it if I was on a hill. That helped me a lot.

In terms of the feeling of power, I re-geared to 5.13s but it’s because I also lifted mine and it’s on 37s. It does feel a lot better although 1st gear is very short. It’s in no way a speed demon but it helped a little bit.

Eventually I’d like to replace the clutch but I’m waiting to see what the recall clutch feels like vs shelling out my own money for an ACT or similar.

Hope this helps, happy to answer any other questions!

 

[23mojavegladiator]

I have a ‘21 JT Rubicon with the manual transmission.

For stop/start, it stops the engine if you take your foot off of the clutch. It will start the engine again once you put your foot back on. There are some parameters about when stop/start will be active, so like if the engine is cold or you’re using climate control at full blast, it won’t turn the engine off. You can scroll through the menus on the dash and it will give you the status of stop/start. Usually in the cases I mentioned here, it will say “Stop/Start Not Ready” or something similar to that. Also, I’ve noticed that if I do a lot of driving around town, it doesn‘t work most of the time. But, if I‘ve taken a longer drive, it will work again. I’m guessing it may be related to the charge in the aux battery.

In terms of making it easier to drive. When I first got mine, I felt like I was ‘bad’ at driving it even though I already knew how to drive a manual transmission. In fact, I still have my older 2007 JK with the manual and I have no problems driving that one. One thing that helped me immensely is turning OFF the “Hill Start Assist” (through UConnect) because I found that I was expecting the Jeep to roll back, but it didn’t, and then I’d either be really hard on the clutch or I would stall it if I was on a hill. That helped me a lot.

In terms of the feeling of power, I re-geared to 5.13s but it’s because I also lifted mine and it’s on 37s. It does feel a lot better although 1st gear is very short. It’s in no way a speed demon but it helped a little bit.

Eventually I’d like to replace the clutch but I’m waiting to see what the recall clutch feels like vs shelling out my own money for an ACT or similar.

Hope this helps, happy to answer any other questions!

Super helpful. Thanks.

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