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How successful would my Gladiator Sport be on the Rubicon Trail?

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Josh903

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When they 1st came out, they didn't. I think I tried to special order it as an add on, but it wouldn't let me. No big deal. I ordered it around 4-26-2019, or when ever the first day it let me custom order it, but it was around then.
Mine is also the max tow but with the rear LSD. I bought it from the dealer lot that way, I got lucky that they had a max tow Sport S in the color I wanted. I bought it July of 2020 and even got it like $5k below MSRP before it all hit the fan with car prices.
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IMO, the JT is just the wrong tool for that job!

It can obviously be done, but how much struggle and damage are you willing to take on? I wouldn't take a JT I cared about though Rubicon unless it had at least 40's and supporting mods.

Been through 9 times over the past 25 years using a KTM 525EXC, Samurai, CJ7, and YJ all with relative ease due to short wheelbase and narrow track......The JT is NONE of those!
I went slow through a couple places for sure, but it depends on how you built your JT. Mine is built to do these trails, yes the Rubicon is a beast of a trail for the JT. But it can do it with no body damage. I would not take one with Painted Fenders. In hindsight, I would have 40's and a 6" lift. But its done now. The JT can be built to be an off road beast, which in my opinion is really all its good for. I've said it before and I stand by this, the JT is a horrible DD, but if all you can afford is one vehicle, have fun driving it to the mall and work everyday. I will continue to build mine for off road use, and occasionally pulling my boondock trailer. Yes, 1 ton axels maybe on the horizon with 40's, but that opens up a whole new can of worms, and the Rubicon trail is done for me. Trail eudicot of the non-jeep crowd was the worst I've ever seen it of all the places I've been, and this observation was shared with me by other jeepers on the trail this weekend. Most of the "Buggies" hung out in gangs/packs and were driving the trail drunk, I witnessed several confrontations that were disrespectful instigated by the buggy drivers. It was extremely disappointing since there were so many families on the trail. Ouray and Moab have had a much more relaxed, and Jeep friendly atmosphere. IMO.
 

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I went slow through a couple places for sure, but it depends on how you built your JT. Mine is built to do these trails, yes the Rubicon is a beast of a trail for the JT. But it can do it with no body damage. I would not take one with Painted Fenders. In hindsight, I would have 40's and a 6" lift. But its done now. The JT can be built to be an off road beast, which in my opinion is really all its good for. I've said it before and I stand by this, the JT is a horrible DD, but if all you can afford is one vehicle, have fun driving it to the mall and work everyday. I will continue to build mine for off road use, and occasionally pulling my boondock trailer. Yes, 1 ton axels maybe on the horizon with 40's, but that opens up a whole new can of worms, and the Rubicon trail is done for me. Trail eudicot of the non-jeep crowd was the worst I've ever seen it of all the places I've been, and this observation was shared with me by other jeepers on the trail this weekend. Most of the "Buggies" hung out in gangs/packs and were driving the trail drunk, I witnessed several confrontations that were disrespectful instigated by the buggy drivers. It was extremely disappointing since there were so many families on the trail. Ouray and Moab have had a much more relaxed, and Jeep friendly atmosphere. IMO.
Yes, sad state of affairs at that trail these days. I assume it's a "Gang" of locals that kinda treats the areas as if it was their own to trash? These days I visit and try to enjoy it as if it will be the last time till it gets closed since we have seen so many fall into that fate. Probably the only things keeping the Con open are the great groups of volunteers and the fact that it's an old county road. No doubt the Forest Circus would have locked it up by now if they had control over it.
 

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Hey op! Good to see ya again! Itā€™s been a bit since top of the world.

Personally Iā€™ve seen your rigā€¦ Iā€™d say go for it. Run that rubicon trail

AD17225A-0C99-4075-BBF8-5F3923659D5A.jpeg


98D1F6E0-06FC-4D1C-9E07-138F7B180559.jpeg


781EE02A-A9F4-48C1-B7AA-3F901CBA4531.jpeg


947548B0-8A9D-4D96-BD8C-7BE02C52130F.jpeg
 
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Josh903

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Hey op! Good to see ya again! Itā€™s been a bit since top of the world.

Personally Iā€™ve seen your rigā€¦ Iā€™d say go for it. Run that rubicon trail

Jeep Gladiator How successful would my Gladiator Sport be on the Rubicon Trail? 947548B0-8A9D-4D96-BD8C-7BE02C52130F


Jeep Gladiator How successful would my Gladiator Sport be on the Rubicon Trail? 947548B0-8A9D-4D96-BD8C-7BE02C52130F


Jeep Gladiator How successful would my Gladiator Sport be on the Rubicon Trail? 947548B0-8A9D-4D96-BD8C-7BE02C52130F


Jeep Gladiator How successful would my Gladiator Sport be on the Rubicon Trail? 947548B0-8A9D-4D96-BD8C-7BE02C52130F
Cool to run into you again here, that was a fun time on that trail. Thanks for the pics!
 

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I went slow through a couple places for sure, but it depends on how you built your JT. Mine is built to do these trails, yes the Rubicon is a beast of a trail for the JT. But it can do it with no body damage. I would not take one with Painted Fenders. In hindsight, I would have 40's and a 6" lift. But its done now. The JT can be built to be an off road beast, which in my opinion is really all its good for. I've said it before and I stand by this, the JT is a horrible DD, but if all you can afford is one vehicle, have fun driving it to the mall and work everyday. I will continue to build mine for off road use, and occasionally pulling my boondock trailer. Yes, 1 ton axels maybe on the horizon with 40's, but that opens up a whole new can of worms, and the Rubicon trail is done for me. Trail eudicot of the non-jeep crowd was the worst I've ever seen it of all the places I've been, and this observation was shared with me by other jeepers on the trail this weekend. Most of the "Buggies" hung out in gangs/packs and were driving the trail drunk, I witnessed several confrontations that were disrespectful instigated by the buggy drivers. It was extremely disappointing since there were so many families on the trail. Ouray and Moab have had a much more relaxed, and Jeep friendly atmosphere. IMO.
yeah, good points. I have 5:13s, the JTR 4:1 transfer case and with stick, I was in low lock first gear the whole way. Really just crawling slow. Buggies were catching us, and we would let them by... Also, There is hope yet, if you look at our last video, a group of buggies coming up the hill (they had the right away) pulled over, because they could, and let our group of Jeeps by.... One of them even gives me some spotting help as I go by. Here's to rooting for the good guys !
 

hjdca

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Yes we were at Buck Island on Friday night. Here is the photo of our camp (Blue tent lower right), unfortunately, my JT is behind the huge boulder on the left of our camp. You can barely see the top of my RTT. I think we rolled out about 10ish on Sat morning. Huge traffic jam on Big sluice for 2 hours. Stopped and spoke with all the JT owners in the JT group in Rubicon Springs. Here is a good photo of what my JT looks like, as we were camped at Loon Lake Thursday night. Yes the tires did excellent. It was a cold and windy trip.

IMG_2002.jpeg


IMG_2026.jpeg
Cool ! We left two hours before you on Saturday morning and hit zero traffic through Big Sluice and were in Rubicon springs by 1 am or so. We took the first campsite by the water with the fire ring just as you get into the Springs - right by the donation box. We saw lots of rigs pull in a few hours later. They had that poker run going on...
 

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Challenging but very doable on 37s without lockers. On 35s, you're going to struggle in some sections for sure, especially with the geometry brackets and not adjustable LCAs.
How will adjustable lcaā€™s help? Iā€™m clueless lol
 

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I just did it last weekend. Sport Max tow, no lockers no rear LSD and never spun a tire for more than a few seconds. 5.13 gearing on 37's with a 5" lift. Challenging trail, but I never needed pushed, pulled or winched. I did skip little sluice. I ran it in the traditional direction from the Loon Lake start to the Cadillac hill finish. We stayed 1 night at Buck Island Lake.

Jeep Gladiator How successful would my Gladiator Sport be on the Rubicon Trail? 947548B0-8A9D-4D96-BD8C-7BE02C52130F
If you have max tow you do have lsd right??
 

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Check out the replies above and you'll have your answer.
Sorry. I didnā€™t take 10 minutes to read through 4 pages . My bad.
 

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How will adjustable lcaā€™s help? Iā€™m clueless lol
When you lift your truck, you have a number of choices for fixing the length of your control arms.

1. You can just fix the length with adjustable control arms. This does not effect your clearance.

2. You can also keep the same length control arms and get "geometry correction" brackets which lower the control arm bracket connection point to the frame a few inches or so. This hurts your clearance off-road, but, gives you better suspension geometry on the road.
 

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When you lift your truck, you have a number of choices for fixing the length of your control arms.

1. You can just fix the length with adjustable control arms. This does not effect your clearance.

2. You can also keep the same length control arms and get "geometry correction" brackets which lower the control arm bracket connection point to the frame a few inches or so. This hurts your clearance off-road, but, gives you better suspension geometry on the road.
Or you can buy the replacement fixed length lower control arms that are the appropriate length for your lift. Then youā€™ve got one less adjustment to worry about, and donā€™t need geometry correction brackets.
 
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When you lift your truck, you have a number of choices for fixing the length of your control arms.

1. You can just fix the length with adjustable control arms. This does not effect your clearance.

2. You can also keep the same length control arms and get "geometry correction" brackets which lower the control arm bracket connection point to the frame a few inches or so. This hurts your clearance off-road, but, gives you better suspension geometry on the road.
Yea I wanted the geometry brackets for the better handling since it is my daily driver. My understanding is the more parallel the front LCAs are to the frame/road the less jarring bumps are so that's why I went with them.

I do plan on getting better control arms with the Clayton kit, but will likely keep the geometry brackets along with the new control arms for the same reason. Even with keeping the brackets, the Clayton arms will give me more flex which is mainly what I am after.
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