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First Real World Gladiator Towing Impressions & Results (7000 lbs)

Sorbs

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Hi Guys,


Anyways, Thanks for letting me rant, and hope this was somewhat useful. Full videos coming soon. The rest of the team's opinion will certainly be in the video!

IMG_2215.jpeg
Welcome aboard Tommy!

One question: You think it will it cost $6k to repair if you bump the backend into the garage?

Just bustin' your chops, welcome to the community. Looking forward to dropping by Boulder when our Launch Edition comes in. . .
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DesertDog

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Hey Tommy. So glad you are here. I think you will find most forum members are huge TFL fans. When I want to know the real world truth, it’s my go to source.

One question:

Did you have an aftermarket brake controller?
 

Tortooga Custom Works

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I believe this thread adds fuel to the question:

When will we see the diesel????
I vaguely remember hearing/reading that the diesel isn’t really going to be that different. I need to find my source....
 

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Reasons

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Tortooga Custom Works

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DesertDog

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I’m grateful that TFL has completed their Ike Gauntlet test of the Gladiator.

I, like so many on this forum, can’t wait to watch.

Apparently my fears are confirmed. The 3.6 is simply too weak to maintain adequate highway speed on long uphill grades. I live in Salt Lake City and traveling any direction to the east or south east requires a long highway-speed climb not too different from the Ike.

FCA published the 3.6 output numbers from the beginning so there are really no surprises here but I wanted a Gladiator so bad I could not help but remain hopeful. I had a Defender 90 for 10 years and found in the last few I never put the top on it all thanks to Utah weather and garage parking pretty much everywhere I went.

I really miss that so the Gladiator had me so excited. I also have to have a pick up truck and combining both needs in one vehicle frees up a lot of garage space.

So here I am. Unbelievably giddy about everything that the Gladiator is, yet about to put my money on a big fat Raptor . The ability to maintain safe highway speeds on very long uphill climbs while pulling 5,000 lbs. is the dealbreaker.

Otherwise, there is no question I would’ve gone with the jeep .
 

Tortooga Custom Works

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I’m grateful that TFL has completed their Ike Gauntlet test of the Gladiator.

I, like so many on this forum, can’t wait to watch.

Apparently my fears are confirmed. The 3.6 is simply too weak to maintain adequate highway speed on long uphill grades. I live in Salt Lake City and traveling any direction to the east or south east requires a long highway-speed climb not too different from the Ike.

FCA published the 3.6 output numbers from the beginning so there are really no surprises here but I wanted a Gladiator so bad I could not help but remain hopeful. I had a Defender 90 for 10 years and found in the last few I never put the top on it all thanks to Utah weather and garage parking pretty much everywhere I went.

I really miss that so the Gladiator had me so excited. I also have to have a pick up truck and combining both needs in one vehicle frees up a lot of garage space.

So here I am. Unbelievably giddy about everything that the Gladiator is, yet about to put my money on a big fat Raptor . The ability to maintain safe highway speeds on very long uphill climbs while pulling 5,000 lbs. is the dealbreaker.

Otherwise, there is no question I would’ve gone with the jeep .
My cousin's answer to everything is "LS SWAP!"" in this case the answer might be "HEMI SWAP!!" :LOL:

No I get it. They are important considerations...
 

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steveale

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no surprises in this report. smaller towing no issue, large towing I'll saddle up my 2500HD tuned Durimax and go.
 

JTRUBI

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Thanks for that. Looking forward to the video, have been following you guys for years.
I know this might be hard but can you guys do those test with a manual trans Gladiator at max and compare?

I don’t ever tow, but I’m planning to pick up a small track car and I’d like to be able to confidently tow it to the track.

Hi Guys,

Thanks for having me! My name is Tommy, I am a videographer/editor at a publication called The Fast Lane Truck (TFLtruck). We do new truck testing from off-road to max towing. Big fan of this forum btw!

Maybe you guys care, maybe not but we just got done with our towing tests with the new JT. We've got full videos coming soon but as I think this is a pretty cool community thought I'd share some thoughts ahead of publishing.

First thing we did was hook up roughly 4000 pounds to the truck and run it through our MPG loop. This is a standard test we do for most all trucks to find out their real world towing fuel economy. Keep in mind we are in Colorado at elevation, but hey! It's the real world.

Here's an example of what the test looks like:



The gladiator towing proved to be a bit of a mixed bag. On the plus side our resident towing expert Andre felt the truck to be confident dynamically with decent road holding and good brakes. However...

At roughly 4000 lbs (exact numbers to come in the vid) the truck did under 9 MPG on the highway towing loop. I find this fairly disappointing given the relatively flat terrain and constant highway speed.

Okay now for the fun stuff. We do a test called the "Ike Gauntlet." Essentially we tow heavy uphill on i-70 in Colorado and see how the truck performs. For the Gladiator, we noticed many users on this forum wanted to see how it would do maxed out so that's what we did! This is what the test looks like for reference:



So. Jeep says our tester (loaded rubicon with tow group) will tow 7,000 pounds. We hooked up 7000 lbs (once again, exact weights in the video). Again, I believe it's performance is acceptable towing, but not great. On the plus side the truck made it the through the test without mechanical failure or overheat.

However... By the top of the run it struggled to maintain 35-40 MPH. Granted this is an extreme test, far beyond what many of you will end up using it for. That's ultimately the point. And while it made, slowly but surely, I am still not convinced I would want to tow above 5000 consistently. MPG up the hill was sub 5. The biggest issue is the 3.6 makes it power high in the RPM range so it spends a lot of time screaming at you up hill. Here's the rub (again, in my opinion):

With driver and fuel the truck came in at over 5000 lbs empty. If you are used to a JL and its performance, I would adjust your expectations. Of course we are at elevation which has a big impact, but in my personal opinion the truck is, well, a little poky. The 3.6 is a well made and durable engine. But I personally think the truck is crying out for the 2.0L turbo, especially at elevation.

Anyways, Thanks for letting me rant, and hope this was somewhat useful. Full videos coming soon. The rest of the team's opinion will certainly be in the video!

IMG_2215.jpeg
 

TacoNoC

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I’m grateful that TFL has completed their Ike Gauntlet test of the Gladiator.

I, like so many on this forum, can’t wait to watch.

Apparently my fears are confirmed. The 3.6 is simply too weak to maintain adequate highway speed on long uphill grades. I live in Salt Lake City and traveling any direction to the east or south east requires a long highway-speed climb not too different from the Ike.

FCA published the 3.6 output numbers from the beginning so there are really no surprises here but I wanted a Gladiator so bad I could not help but remain hopeful. I had a Defender 90 for 10 years and found in the last few I never put the top on it all thanks to Utah weather and garage parking pretty much everywhere I went.

I really miss that so the Gladiator had me so excited. I also have to have a pick up truck and combining both needs in one vehicle frees up a lot of garage space.

So here I am. Unbelievably giddy about everything that the Gladiator is, yet about to put my money on a big fat Raptor . The ability to maintain safe highway speeds on very long uphill climbs while pulling 5,000 lbs. is the dealbreaker.

Otherwise, there is no question I would’ve gone with the jeep .
Do you not think it could tow 5000lbs up hill just fine? They did 7000lbs and it struggled some, but made it.

I plan to get one and tow around 6000lbs, but Ill get the Sport S so it may do a bit better. My towing is out East, with less elevation gains.
 

WXman

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The model you tested is listed at well north of 5,000 lbs., as you noted, and then you added passenger(s) and possibly a small amount of gear. So you were around, what, 5,400 lbs. probably? That's a LARGE amount of weight for a "mid-size" truck. My last Ram 1500 QuadCab 4x4 with V8 engine only weighed 5,600 lbs.

So, I wouldn't expect this truck to tow like a champion. However, I also doubt that it's significantly worse than a Colorado V6 or Tacoma V6.

Also, just for your reference the version of the Pentastar engine that is in your tester has a camshaft profile that focuses it's torque down low. So the engine is not actually designed to wind out at high RPMs to make power. It has a nice flat torque curve actually.

Looking forward to the Ike Gauntlet. I've been sub'd for a long time. But, I do wish y'all would do more testing below 2,000 ft. altitude where a huge majority of Americans live.
 

JoePaul

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Hi Guys,

Thanks for having me! My name is Tommy, I am a videographer/editor at a publication called The Fast Lane Truck (TFLtruck). We do new truck testing from off-road to max towing. Big fan of this forum btw!

Maybe you guys care, maybe not but we just got done with our towing tests with the new JT. We've got full videos coming soon but as I think this is a pretty cool community thought I'd share some thoughts ahead of publishing.

First thing we did was hook up roughly 4000 pounds to the truck and run it through our MPG loop. This is a standard test we do for most all trucks to find out their real world towing fuel economy. Keep in mind we are in Colorado at elevation, but hey! It's the real world.

Here's an example of what the test looks like:



The gladiator towing proved to be a bit of a mixed bag. On the plus side our resident towing expert Andre felt the truck to be confident dynamically with decent road holding and good brakes. However...

At roughly 4000 lbs (exact numbers to come in the vid) the truck did under 9 MPG on the highway towing loop. I find this fairly disappointing given the relatively flat terrain and constant highway speed.

Okay now for the fun stuff. We do a test called the "Ike Gauntlet." Essentially we tow heavy uphill on i-70 in Colorado and see how the truck performs. For the Gladiator, we noticed many users on this forum wanted to see how it would do maxed out so that's what we did! This is what the test looks like for reference:



So. Jeep says our tester (loaded rubicon with tow group) will tow 7,000 pounds. We hooked up 7000 lbs (once again, exact weights in the video). Again, I believe it's performance is acceptable towing, but not great. On the plus side the truck made it the through the test without mechanical failure or overheat.

However... By the top of the run it struggled to maintain 35-40 MPH. Granted this is an extreme test, far beyond what many of you will end up using it for. That's ultimately the point. And while it made, slowly but surely, I am still not convinced I would want to tow above 5000 consistently. MPG up the hill was sub 5. The biggest issue is the 3.6 makes it power high in the RPM range so it spends a lot of time screaming at you up hill. Here's the rub (again, in my opinion):

With driver and fuel the truck came in at over 5000 lbs empty. If you are used to a JL and its performance, I would adjust your expectations. Of course we are at elevation which has a big impact, but in my personal opinion the truck is, well, a little poky. The 3.6 is a well made and durable engine. But I personally think the truck is crying out for the 2.0L turbo, especially at elevation.

Anyways, Thanks for letting me rant, and hope this was somewhat useful. Full videos coming soon. The rest of the team's opinion will certainly be in the video!

IMG_2215.jpeg
Thank you for the post, as it answers questions I had. I'll wait for a more powerful motor.
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