Doolin64
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- John
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2019
- Threads
- 17
- Messages
- 219
- Reaction score
- 278
- Location
- Dudley, Ma
- Vehicle(s)
- 2020 Jeep Gladiator, 2018 Audi A4
- Thread starter
- #1
Little background, I bought my Gladiator Rubicon (2" level and 35" tires) last month and had traded in my 2015 Ford F150 XLT Supercrew (1.5" level 33.5" tires). I used my F150 similar to most people. Commuter vehicle, Home Depot runs, family vacations truckster, dirtbike/four wheeler hauler. One place I differed was that I plowed with it. It was a great truck for the 5 years I owned.
Now as a convert, I wanted to give my opinion of the Gladiator after my first 1000 miles of ownership. This included a 500 mile family road trip this past weekend from Massachusetts to Northeast Kingdom area of Vermont with plenty of road salt! I see a fair amount of posts with people thinking about or who have swapped out from 1/2 ton.
Looks...these things get looks and start conversations everywhere. It certainly is a vehicle you turn around and look at while you're walking away. At least for me it is. I'm actually really surprised by the room in it. Yes, we had to be a little more creative for the road trip in comparison to my F150, but we all fit. I just left the tiedowns back home that I store behind the passenger rear seat so I could stow my laptop. My family consists of myself at 6'2, my wife is 5'1, a 9 year old, a 10 year old and a 30lb dog.
I'm not an audiophile, but I thought the sound system was great. I really like the Uconnect interface. It's much better than the old Sync 2 I had. I'm just happy to have Android Auto. Charging ports! Plenty there to keep a couple smartphones, an iPad and a Nintendo Switch charged. One improvement I would like to see is on the presets. I don't like that I can only be in XM and have 10 presets. In my Audi, if you select presets, you have up to 45 AM/FM/XM all mixed in and about each other. I probably never would have thought of this, but after owning a system like that I appreciate it.
Other tech, I enjoy. Adaptive Cruise. This was really nice on the road trip. I set the cruise at 71 and left it there for 80% of the trip. I even left the Adaptive Cruise follow another car on and off ramp merging on to another highway.
MPG...Yes, it matters to me. It's a mental thing. Plenty of you will say "It's a Jeep, I didn't buy it for gas mileage". That is a true statement, but mentally I couldn't live with 10-12mpg. I calibrated my speedo for the tires with an AEV Procal Snap. So far after 935 miles of driving, I'm averaging 18.5mpg. Up here in the Northeast, we're still running winter blend gas which easily drops your MPG my 1.5-2mpg when couple with the cold weather through the winter. If I average closer to 19 on 35's, I'll be beyond thrilled. I'm already thrilled. Truth be told, I'm easy on the throttle. I don't regularly just floor my vehicle everywhere. I was just around 17.5 on my F150 with the 5.0 and 3.31 gears for comparison.
HVAC - I'm still trying to figure this out. I think this could be my biggest complaint. I know others have issue with it. I tried used it manually or in auto with varying degrees of success. Inching the temperature up by 1 degree at a time didn't change much. You really had to go high. We were never freezing and that including one day where the high temps was -4F. I also wish there was a button to sync the two temps. To me, dual climate control is silly. My F150 didn't have it, but wifes car and my car both have it. We always have the temps in sync.
Last but not least, ride quality. For what it is, a stick axle vehicle, with big tires and removable roof and doors...it rides great. Did my F150 ride better, most certainly. Does it pitch and sway more than most vehicles, yup. It's still lightyears ahead of my JKU that I had. This road trip was also the first time my wife had ridden in the Jeep. I need to preface, she's not a Jeep person at all. Once we started rolling down a pot hole filled secondary road leading the highway, she quickly got aggravated and proclaimed "REALLY?". Uneven frost heaved roads do not help. Once on the highway, it was a smooth operator and the complaints ended. Except for the wind noise. By myself this is not a problem, crank the tunes and go on your way. But with a family of 4 and two kids who speak softly from the back seat, the wind noise and I guess some tire noise make for a much louder ride. This was expected, but it was noticeable and something to consider. In all honesty, I think this the one factor that will continue to hamper it's sales against the other midsize trucks. This truck fits a niche for those who want the Wrangler features with a truck bed and I think that market slice is not as large.
I'd be remiss to not bring up steering. In my first few 100 miles of driving, I was thinking I had loose/sloppy steering. After 1000 miles and this road trip, I'd say it's fine. I had no issues and was not over correcting, etc. I just needed some time to get used to the Jeep and how it handles.
Next big family road trip will be to the beach for vacation in July. I'll be utilizing bed racks, roof racks, and bike racks to get all our stuff down there!
Now as a convert, I wanted to give my opinion of the Gladiator after my first 1000 miles of ownership. This included a 500 mile family road trip this past weekend from Massachusetts to Northeast Kingdom area of Vermont with plenty of road salt! I see a fair amount of posts with people thinking about or who have swapped out from 1/2 ton.
Looks...these things get looks and start conversations everywhere. It certainly is a vehicle you turn around and look at while you're walking away. At least for me it is. I'm actually really surprised by the room in it. Yes, we had to be a little more creative for the road trip in comparison to my F150, but we all fit. I just left the tiedowns back home that I store behind the passenger rear seat so I could stow my laptop. My family consists of myself at 6'2, my wife is 5'1, a 9 year old, a 10 year old and a 30lb dog.
I'm not an audiophile, but I thought the sound system was great. I really like the Uconnect interface. It's much better than the old Sync 2 I had. I'm just happy to have Android Auto. Charging ports! Plenty there to keep a couple smartphones, an iPad and a Nintendo Switch charged. One improvement I would like to see is on the presets. I don't like that I can only be in XM and have 10 presets. In my Audi, if you select presets, you have up to 45 AM/FM/XM all mixed in and about each other. I probably never would have thought of this, but after owning a system like that I appreciate it.
Other tech, I enjoy. Adaptive Cruise. This was really nice on the road trip. I set the cruise at 71 and left it there for 80% of the trip. I even left the Adaptive Cruise follow another car on and off ramp merging on to another highway.
MPG...Yes, it matters to me. It's a mental thing. Plenty of you will say "It's a Jeep, I didn't buy it for gas mileage". That is a true statement, but mentally I couldn't live with 10-12mpg. I calibrated my speedo for the tires with an AEV Procal Snap. So far after 935 miles of driving, I'm averaging 18.5mpg. Up here in the Northeast, we're still running winter blend gas which easily drops your MPG my 1.5-2mpg when couple with the cold weather through the winter. If I average closer to 19 on 35's, I'll be beyond thrilled. I'm already thrilled. Truth be told, I'm easy on the throttle. I don't regularly just floor my vehicle everywhere. I was just around 17.5 on my F150 with the 5.0 and 3.31 gears for comparison.
HVAC - I'm still trying to figure this out. I think this could be my biggest complaint. I know others have issue with it. I tried used it manually or in auto with varying degrees of success. Inching the temperature up by 1 degree at a time didn't change much. You really had to go high. We were never freezing and that including one day where the high temps was -4F. I also wish there was a button to sync the two temps. To me, dual climate control is silly. My F150 didn't have it, but wifes car and my car both have it. We always have the temps in sync.
Last but not least, ride quality. For what it is, a stick axle vehicle, with big tires and removable roof and doors...it rides great. Did my F150 ride better, most certainly. Does it pitch and sway more than most vehicles, yup. It's still lightyears ahead of my JKU that I had. This road trip was also the first time my wife had ridden in the Jeep. I need to preface, she's not a Jeep person at all. Once we started rolling down a pot hole filled secondary road leading the highway, she quickly got aggravated and proclaimed "REALLY?". Uneven frost heaved roads do not help. Once on the highway, it was a smooth operator and the complaints ended. Except for the wind noise. By myself this is not a problem, crank the tunes and go on your way. But with a family of 4 and two kids who speak softly from the back seat, the wind noise and I guess some tire noise make for a much louder ride. This was expected, but it was noticeable and something to consider. In all honesty, I think this the one factor that will continue to hamper it's sales against the other midsize trucks. This truck fits a niche for those who want the Wrangler features with a truck bed and I think that market slice is not as large.
I'd be remiss to not bring up steering. In my first few 100 miles of driving, I was thinking I had loose/sloppy steering. After 1000 miles and this road trip, I'd say it's fine. I had no issues and was not over correcting, etc. I just needed some time to get used to the Jeep and how it handles.
Next big family road trip will be to the beach for vacation in July. I'll be utilizing bed racks, roof racks, and bike racks to get all our stuff down there!
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