Looking to order a new gladiator rubicon diesel

[Pattar]

Hey y’all I’ve been looking into ordering a Jeep gladiator rubicon with the diesel for a little while now mainly because of the mpg difference compared to my Jkur with 35s. I also really enjoy the amount of torque it has. I had the opportunity to test drive one recently and immediately fell in love with the diesel. I plan on trading in my Jkur and putting the stock rims back mainly so I can keep my 35s (I paid too much for the rims). Does anyone have a diesel here with 35s and if so what kind of mpg do you get? Has anyone had any serious reliability issues with the diesel so far? I am pretty sure the 3.0 is reliable and have done a decent bit of research on it now.

Also if these questions have already been ask could you please link the thread to me?

Thank you!

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[K9Jeeper]

Hey y’all I’ve been looking into ordering a Jeep gladiator rubicon with the diesel for a little while now mainly because of the mpg difference compared to my Jkur with 35s. I also really enjoy the amount of torque it has. I had the opportunity to test drive one recently and immediately fell in love with the diesel. I plan on trading in my Jkur and putting the stock rims back mainly so I can keep my 35s (I paid too much for the rims). Does anyone have a diesel here with 35s and if so what kind of mpg do you get? Has anyone had any serious reliability issues with the diesel so far? I am pretty sure the 3.0 is reliable and have done a decent bit of research on it now.

Also if these questions have already been ask could you please link the thread to me?

Thank you!

i don’t have the 35s but do have a JTR Diesel and can say it’s been an amazing little truck so far. A bit over 1000 miles in 3 weeks and loving the 25 MPG on road trips (most of where my miles have been so far). The torque in the TN mountains was incredible. The power is plenty with passing and at highway speeds. It’s the amount of power that a Jeep deserves IMO, without Having to blow $75K on a 392 at least....

there are folks that have stated they are running 35s without regearing and they don’t seem to have any complaints. MPG was also quoted as being close enough with just a small loss at that tire size. Of course, you have to factor in the weight of the wheels and tires which could cost you more MPG than someone that throws on a C rated 35 on lighter wheels...

 

[CerOf]

I had a JKUR on 35s. It desperately needed a re-gear.

Fast forward, I now have a JTRD on 35s. I get 18mpg with the 35s and 2” lift. I have zero desire to regear. It doesn’t need it, at all.

I have a heavy right foot and enjoy hearing the turbo spool.

On the highway, I get 23~24 if I stay around 65. If I cruise at 80~85, I get 21~22.

This is way better than my old jk at 13mpg.

I love the torque!
Zero problems and I’m at ~5k miles.

 

[Gladiator_92]

I had a JKUR on 35s. It desperately needed a re-gear.

Fast forward, I now have a JTRD on 35s. I get 18mpg with the 35s and 2” lift. I have zero desire to regear. It doesn’t need it, at all.

I have a heavy right foot and enjoy hearing the turbo spool.

On the highway, I get 23~24 if I stay around 65. If I cruise at 80~85, I get 21~22.

This is way better than my old jk at 13mpg.

I love the torque!
Zero problems and I’m at ~5k miles.

I second all of this. I'm getting same MPG on 37s. 6000miles and no regrets!

 

[Pattar]

i don’t have the 35s but do have a JTR Diesel and can say it’s been an amazing little truck so far. A bit over 1000 miles in 3 weeks and loving the 25 MPG on road trips (most of where my miles have been so far). The torque in the TN mountains was incredible. The power is plenty with passing and at highway speeds. It’s the amount of power that a Jeep deserves IMO, without Having to blow $75K on a 392 at least....

there are folks that have stated they are running 35s without regearing and they don’t seem to have any complaints. MPG was also quoted as being close enough with just a small loss at that tire size. Of course, you have to factor in the weight of the wheels and tires which could cost you more MPG than someone that throws on a C rated 35 on lighter wheels...

Thanks for the input and I was initially looking at the 392 but I don't really want to spend 75k. It's also good that you are not having any issues going up mountains with the diesel because my jkur doesn't do to well going uphill in the Virginia mountains. I also only getting 12-15mpg on the highway going 70-80mph.

Luckily the wheels I have are really light even though they are bigger than stock so I might get decent mpg.

 

[Pattar]

I had a JKUR on 35s. It desperately needed a re-gear.

Fast forward, I now have a JTRD on 35s. I get 18mpg with the 35s and 2” lift. I have zero desire to regear. It doesn’t need it, at all.

I have a heavy right foot and enjoy hearing the turbo spool.

On the highway, I get 23~24 if I stay around 65. If I cruise at 80~85, I get 21~22.

This is way better than my old jk at 13mpg.

I love the torque!
Zero problems and I’m at ~5k miles.

If I was keeping the jkur I would probably end up regearing it because you're right it needs it.

What kind of lift kit do you have? I kind of figure the mpg would be a bit low I am guessing you're mainly driving around town? I noticed the stock jtrd I test drove was getting 17 mpg but I didn't think I would judge the mpg on that.

Also, I don't blame you for having a heavy foot I am like that in my Cummins the turbo sounds too good.

 

[BEERviper]

I also had a JKU with 35's prior to my JTD, my JKU was a Sahara that came with 3.21 gears stock so that would have been impossible without a regear. I ended up going with 4.88 gears which honestly was too much gear for my needs, but it still seemed to chug going up mountain hills and would always downshift and rev high.

My JTD is a Sport S but has the same gears as any other JT diesel ... 3.73. I decided to go with 37's for the JT with a Mopar 2" lift and I am SO happy I did. This diesel just PULLS like nobodies business, even in the Rocky Mountains outside of Denver up to 12k feet elevation!

In the next month or so will be the big test ... towing my ~3,500 lb camper with the 37's and 2" lift on stock gears. My gut tells me it will be just fine, maybe not see 8th gear and only occasional 7th gear but those are overdrive gears anyways.

For as awesome as this beast drives on the highway moving along at 75 mph in 8th gear at 1,600 RPM, I can't imagine I will change a thing, even when I tow a camper occasionally!

 

[CerOf]

If I was keeping the jkur I would probably end up regearing it because you're right it needs it.

What kind of lift kit do you have? I kind of figure the mpg would be a bit low I am guessing you're mainly driving around town? I noticed the stock jtrd I test drove was getting 17 mpg but I didn't think I would judge the mpg on that.

Also, I don't blame you for having a heavy foot I am like that in my Cummins the turbo sounds too good.

I installed the mopar diesel lift with a 1/2” spacer up front. There is still a little bit of rake; about half of what it normally has.

local Jeep dealer sells them for $1,200. For what I do, it made the most sense.

 

[Gladiator_92]

I am also running the 2inch Mopar Diesel lift with a 3/4" spacer in front. I do light towing and haul dirtbikes so I wanted a little rake still. I love everything about the kit, the fox shocks are awesome, rides great on the 37s and the diesel engine loves the setup too. Much faster than my JK in 32s with 3.73s and a 6 speed.

 

[WTR]

I am running 35’s on my ‘23 JTRD with a 1” level. I ran on the stock 33’s for the first 800 miles then installed new wheels/tires. No discernible difference in acceleration going from 33 to 35”. Non-issue in my opinion. Fuel economy, however, dropped about 1-2 mpg. Currently getting about 21 mpg on secondary roads under 60 mph.

 

[staying_tuned]

I’m pretty heavy on the pedal and permanently have around 1k lbs. of static weight from the rack, bed-slide, full width aluminum & steel bumper, winch, me and misc. gear along with another 500-ish lbs. in wheel & tire rotational mass on 35” muds w/ 2.5” of lift and average just over 19 around town with 26+ on the highway even with the RTT up on the rack. Any of my previous gas jeeps would have been extremely frustrating with the above config. I dreaded adding any weight on them but the EcoD just embraces the suck and clatters on full tilt.

Keep an additive in the tank for additional lubrication and you should be good. Nearing 50k miles on ours with zero EcoD issues, only had a leaking rear axle which was fixed under warranty.

 

[Pattar]

Ok I figured I’d make an update to this thread. I ordered and bought a JTRD back in 2021 and put 17k miles on it and loved it ever since. I also have been running 35s and it’s been great.

 

[briscoelab]

Thanks for the update! Looks great. We got ours in the fall. Put 255/85r17 on it within a couple weeks. Been awesome so far.

 

[WillVra]

Have a buddy with a 2022 Overland, 37x13.50 black rhino wheels 17x9.5 runs great as is but it’s currently in the shop getting 4:56 gears. Didn’t need it but it’s going to pull a Small Overland trailer. He owns heavy equipment and has a thing about lugging a diesel. I have a gasser and like it but after driving his… I might have switched.

 

[ATX_Jeeper]

I have a 21 JTRD and with the Mopar lift, heavy 35s on heavy 18s (12 ply / load range f tires and Black Rino wheels) and a Tazer for tire size calibration. On a recent trip from Austin to Ft. Worth (360 miles round trip), the trip screen was showing 21.9MPG when we got home. That was driving at 70 to 75 MPH. City driving I have seen it as low as 17.

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