Krash1642
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- C. Brown
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2018
- Threads
- 8
- Messages
- 158
- Reaction score
- 144
- Location
- Delaware
- Vehicle(s)
- 1984 CJ 7 (Bessie), 2020 Jeep Gladiator Sport S Bright White (DJ), 2016 Jeep JK Willy’s (traded for wife to get Ford Focus due to work), 2018 JLU Sahara (Wife’s traded for JT)
- Occupation
- Teacher
- Vehicle Showcase
- 1
- Thread starter
- #1
My build thread for my 2020 Jeep Gladiator Sport S tow package.
Purchased June 28, 2019
So I’ve been wanting to start this since the night we brought her home.... I recently lost my Mama to cancer and her and I had made some plans to have a few adventures in the Gladiator, but that didn’t quite work out, so this was just a lil hard to get started.
***i apologize, realized this was super long when I finished....but it feels relevant to me so here it is***
Some back story: Like many on here I’ve been waiting for this truck to come out since that concept way back in 2004/2005. I grew up workin on my Great Grandparents farm, had a cousin that had a CJ7 and he would come over once a week to ride the fence lines and make repairs... it was my favorite day because I got to ride in the Jeep and help... my love affair with Jeeps started then, I was about 4 when that began. Move along to 16, wanted a Jeep so badly, couldn’t afford one, bought a Chevy pickup for $500 so I could expand my lil yard business that I have been doing since I was 8. A year later, Chevy needs major work, found a lil Dodge D-50 pickup for $1050, drove it through college. 1995, graduate from college finally can by a Jeep, base sport 4 cyl, 5 speed, soft top, strip model... loved this Jeep! Everything that was put on, I did myself. Absolutely loved it!! Owned it for 15 years and 300,000 miles... always regret having to sell it when I did. It was a tank, never left me stranded, never got stuck... and never had a lift. Over the years I owned a 2004 TJ, 6 cyl, 5 speed Sport S bought new and in 2011 traded it for my 1984 CJ7 and cash (still own her, Bessie is her name, named after my Great Granny whose farm I worked on and got to ride in the CJ one a week). 2008, waiting for the Jeep Truck and no where in site, so I bought a new 2008 Nissan Frontier SEV6 4x4 king cab. 2016, just before my Daddy passes away from Pancreatic cancer we have a talk about new trucks and cost and whether I should get one or get something else to drive to keep the miles down on the truck so I don’t have to buy another one. We lose home June 24, 2016... in July 2017, we see a 2016 JK Willy’s edition, with only 23,000 miles... so I bought it to help keep the truck miles down like my daddy advised. Dec 4, 2017 the Nissan catches on fire while I’m driving.... an electrical housing that had a recall that I didn’t get the recall for... but thanks to my daddy’s advice, I still have the JK to drive (Bessie the CJ only rides in warm and sunny weather or snowy weather but always close by home). Word of the Jeep truck being a real thing is back out... so the JK rear seat comes out and we make it work for the yard business, in addition to borrowing my buddy’s trailer.... waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting still for the Jeep truck to come out (lol). In 2016, November, my Mamas cancer comes back and they say 4-6 weeks max... she once again proves them wrong (this is her 3rd bout with Breast Cancer, she also had type 1 diabetes s so treatments are a lil more complicated). Whenever I visit home (4 hours away, I’m in Delaware and from Virginia) during the summer, we have always made a point of having adventures in my Jeeps. When the Jeep Gladiator reveled, my Mama and I started making some adventure plans as we were learning they were running out of treatments/options and the cancer was no longer being held at Bay, so without stating it she was kind of implying she felt this was her last summer and she was hoping I would be able to get my truck and we could have some fun in it. She knows I’ve been waiting for the truck to come out for a long time... she thought it was super cool and perfect for me... I’ve always been a Jeep kid but also a truck kid, so the best of both worlds! I grew up pretty poor in rural VA, hard work and tough skin have always had to be a part of our lives... my Mama always made me feel like I could do anything if I put my mind to it and my daddy always showed and taught me how to do things for myself along with of course my mama, grandparents and great grandparents.. beating odds has been our thing. May 10, 2019 we lost my Mama, it has been a hard hit loss, I FaceTimed her everyday, shared my adventures with her on FaceTime and she loved seeing my dog Ryder, her grandpuppy, ride waves, paddle board, look for Deer, watch sunsets and enjoy bonfires. So though we loved four hours apart, I tried to let her be apart of our adventure with me via FaceTime when we weren’t having adventures together in VA. So when my dealership go the first Gladiator I got a text right away, it was a white rubicon, and it was amazing. I knew at that time I one, wasn’t getting a rubicon and two, wasn’t ready to buy yet but they are cool and they knew I wanted to see the unicorn in person and drive one. The next day they got an overland, my wife and I went over to look at that one and drive but ended up just looking at it, as there was someone ready to buy it and they were gonna take it for a ride so we got to play in it but didn’t drive it as we, again knew we weren’t buying that one. A dealership near my wife job got a sport s, max tow package, hard top etc... I went down to drive it, knew pretty certain we were getting a sport s (not from that dealer) but my dealer had agreed to the 5% below invoice if I placed the order... so I wanted to drive a sport s max tow first. Again, loved it! I’m a teacher, so as soon as our summer break started it was time to really figure out if this was gonna be possible in a few weeks, months or another year. They let me know they had some sports in with the regular tow package (so 3.73 gearing) and soft tops... so I went over to drive that so I could compare to the others I had driven, get the numbers breakdown and possibly prepare to order, or at least know where I stood. As I was waiting for my guy to finish up with a customer and bring the keys out my Mamas butterfly was flying around... it followed my all over the dealership.... when near the JT’s she would land on the truck, then flutter of and rest on my arm or shoulder... this went on for over 30 minutes before I drove the truck.... It was the first Gladiator I had driven with a soft top, I loved it even more than the previous two test drives with the hard tops and 4:10’s. I’ve always had soft tops but had thought this time I’d get the hard top and add the flip top thingy.... I LOVED the soft top! The 3:73’s felt zippy and overall I liked it more than expected. Took a nice long test drive, enjoyed every second of it, head back to the dealership to talk numbers. We ran some, I felt we were still too far apart to place the order (also having to do trade in numbers for our JLU), so I left to head back home to mow. Later that afternoon, I come in to get a drink while mowing to find a few messages and a video, Luis, my guy at the dealership has called and sent me a video of a truckload of Gladiators, 3 are white (which is what I want). I text back to let me know what options they have, he immediately calls... his GM has told him if we come and purchase one that day they will honor the 5% below without having to order... I reminded him our numbers were not really close enough and he assures me we will get it right. My wife gets home, we talk about it... I empty our JLU out and head over.... after a lil squirting around with numbers we get it right and drive the truck home in ship mode at 946pm... have to be back at 8am so they can take it out of ship mode and swap our wheels and tires over from the JLU.... one Happy Jeeper here!!!
Purchased June 28, 2019
So I’ve been wanting to start this since the night we brought her home.... I recently lost my Mama to cancer and her and I had made some plans to have a few adventures in the Gladiator, but that didn’t quite work out, so this was just a lil hard to get started.
***i apologize, realized this was super long when I finished....but it feels relevant to me so here it is***
Some back story: Like many on here I’ve been waiting for this truck to come out since that concept way back in 2004/2005. I grew up workin on my Great Grandparents farm, had a cousin that had a CJ7 and he would come over once a week to ride the fence lines and make repairs... it was my favorite day because I got to ride in the Jeep and help... my love affair with Jeeps started then, I was about 4 when that began. Move along to 16, wanted a Jeep so badly, couldn’t afford one, bought a Chevy pickup for $500 so I could expand my lil yard business that I have been doing since I was 8. A year later, Chevy needs major work, found a lil Dodge D-50 pickup for $1050, drove it through college. 1995, graduate from college finally can by a Jeep, base sport 4 cyl, 5 speed, soft top, strip model... loved this Jeep! Everything that was put on, I did myself. Absolutely loved it!! Owned it for 15 years and 300,000 miles... always regret having to sell it when I did. It was a tank, never left me stranded, never got stuck... and never had a lift. Over the years I owned a 2004 TJ, 6 cyl, 5 speed Sport S bought new and in 2011 traded it for my 1984 CJ7 and cash (still own her, Bessie is her name, named after my Great Granny whose farm I worked on and got to ride in the CJ one a week). 2008, waiting for the Jeep Truck and no where in site, so I bought a new 2008 Nissan Frontier SEV6 4x4 king cab. 2016, just before my Daddy passes away from Pancreatic cancer we have a talk about new trucks and cost and whether I should get one or get something else to drive to keep the miles down on the truck so I don’t have to buy another one. We lose home June 24, 2016... in July 2017, we see a 2016 JK Willy’s edition, with only 23,000 miles... so I bought it to help keep the truck miles down like my daddy advised. Dec 4, 2017 the Nissan catches on fire while I’m driving.... an electrical housing that had a recall that I didn’t get the recall for... but thanks to my daddy’s advice, I still have the JK to drive (Bessie the CJ only rides in warm and sunny weather or snowy weather but always close by home). Word of the Jeep truck being a real thing is back out... so the JK rear seat comes out and we make it work for the yard business, in addition to borrowing my buddy’s trailer.... waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting still for the Jeep truck to come out (lol). In 2016, November, my Mamas cancer comes back and they say 4-6 weeks max... she once again proves them wrong (this is her 3rd bout with Breast Cancer, she also had type 1 diabetes s so treatments are a lil more complicated). Whenever I visit home (4 hours away, I’m in Delaware and from Virginia) during the summer, we have always made a point of having adventures in my Jeeps. When the Jeep Gladiator reveled, my Mama and I started making some adventure plans as we were learning they were running out of treatments/options and the cancer was no longer being held at Bay, so without stating it she was kind of implying she felt this was her last summer and she was hoping I would be able to get my truck and we could have some fun in it. She knows I’ve been waiting for the truck to come out for a long time... she thought it was super cool and perfect for me... I’ve always been a Jeep kid but also a truck kid, so the best of both worlds! I grew up pretty poor in rural VA, hard work and tough skin have always had to be a part of our lives... my Mama always made me feel like I could do anything if I put my mind to it and my daddy always showed and taught me how to do things for myself along with of course my mama, grandparents and great grandparents.. beating odds has been our thing. May 10, 2019 we lost my Mama, it has been a hard hit loss, I FaceTimed her everyday, shared my adventures with her on FaceTime and she loved seeing my dog Ryder, her grandpuppy, ride waves, paddle board, look for Deer, watch sunsets and enjoy bonfires. So though we loved four hours apart, I tried to let her be apart of our adventure with me via FaceTime when we weren’t having adventures together in VA. So when my dealership go the first Gladiator I got a text right away, it was a white rubicon, and it was amazing. I knew at that time I one, wasn’t getting a rubicon and two, wasn’t ready to buy yet but they are cool and they knew I wanted to see the unicorn in person and drive one. The next day they got an overland, my wife and I went over to look at that one and drive but ended up just looking at it, as there was someone ready to buy it and they were gonna take it for a ride so we got to play in it but didn’t drive it as we, again knew we weren’t buying that one. A dealership near my wife job got a sport s, max tow package, hard top etc... I went down to drive it, knew pretty certain we were getting a sport s (not from that dealer) but my dealer had agreed to the 5% below invoice if I placed the order... so I wanted to drive a sport s max tow first. Again, loved it! I’m a teacher, so as soon as our summer break started it was time to really figure out if this was gonna be possible in a few weeks, months or another year. They let me know they had some sports in with the regular tow package (so 3.73 gearing) and soft tops... so I went over to drive that so I could compare to the others I had driven, get the numbers breakdown and possibly prepare to order, or at least know where I stood. As I was waiting for my guy to finish up with a customer and bring the keys out my Mamas butterfly was flying around... it followed my all over the dealership.... when near the JT’s she would land on the truck, then flutter of and rest on my arm or shoulder... this went on for over 30 minutes before I drove the truck.... It was the first Gladiator I had driven with a soft top, I loved it even more than the previous two test drives with the hard tops and 4:10’s. I’ve always had soft tops but had thought this time I’d get the hard top and add the flip top thingy.... I LOVED the soft top! The 3:73’s felt zippy and overall I liked it more than expected. Took a nice long test drive, enjoyed every second of it, head back to the dealership to talk numbers. We ran some, I felt we were still too far apart to place the order (also having to do trade in numbers for our JLU), so I left to head back home to mow. Later that afternoon, I come in to get a drink while mowing to find a few messages and a video, Luis, my guy at the dealership has called and sent me a video of a truckload of Gladiators, 3 are white (which is what I want). I text back to let me know what options they have, he immediately calls... his GM has told him if we come and purchase one that day they will honor the 5% below without having to order... I reminded him our numbers were not really close enough and he assures me we will get it right. My wife gets home, we talk about it... I empty our JLU out and head over.... after a lil squirting around with numbers we get it right and drive the truck home in ship mode at 946pm... have to be back at 8am so they can take it out of ship mode and swap our wheels and tires over from the JLU.... one Happy Jeeper here!!!
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