Thanks very much. Stock wheels, not suspension. I liked the stock “look” and light weight wheels. 3” lift in front, 4”+ in the rear. There’s maybe a small pile of other things under there as well. Jeeps. What are you gonna do?
My gladiator has been through some shit. Worse than any vehicle I’ve had in years. I backed into a tree, never done anything like that before, and someone hit it in a parking lot. Good news is the way they are built it was almost all bolt on stuff. Fender, bumpers, and side step. The bedside got a little bit tweaked with the tree incident, but I fixed it with a porta power and paintless dent repair. The rest I was patient and found good deals on take off parts.
Because they are lower revving engines. I’d never buy the diesel in CO though with how they all overheat on hills.
That’s subjective IMO. I hated the old man caddy floaty ride and bought a rubicon take off suspension to get rid of it more than the 1” of lift. With the long wheelbase and front and rear coils it still rides well. It’s just less floaty. That ride was cool on my ‘65 Coupe DeVille convertible, but I hated it on my Gladiator.
How so? Ride quality is important.
I’d recommend driving both if ride quality is a concern. The Rubicon rides like I’d expect an off-road oriented vehicle to drive. I also drove a Sport S. That was cushy by comparison.
Drive it. You’ll either love it or hate it. It’s everything that I expected it to be.
This I believe is an issue when towing at or near limits. I tow a 2-place Snowmobile trailer at most.
I’d love to drive both, but my local dealership doesn’t have any rubicons. I come from lifted diesels 06 Ram, 09 F-350, 16 Duramax, 18 Ram, now in a 19 F-150. We bought a motorhome so I don’t tow anymore.
You'll get it then. The ride is going to be harsh for someone that’s used to a cushy vehicle. Not bad, it just rides like I’d expect a Jeep to ride.
Unfortunately, not. It happens to non towing diesel gladiators as well. However, it happens more at high altitude and gladiators with bigger tires. Unfortunately, it’s a flawed design and I don’t see them fixing it. The grill opening is too small and it doesn’t get enough airflow. It’s not an issue in the Ram 1500s with the same engine. The Ram also has additional radiators that won’t fit in the gladiator.
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Well crap that sucks, I live at 4250’ not terrible but we can get higher quick.
I hate it too. I read about it a lot because I really liked the idea of 440 lb ft of torque, but I was on the fence because I didn’t need to spend the money on another Gladiator on a want vs. a need and I was trying to talk myself out of it. I came across it when reading about owner satisfaction because I was trying to include the additional diesel maintenance costs vs my wants.
I live at 8,600 in CO and tow 3500 over 12k foot mountain passes. It doesn’t win races on the way up, but I can’t get it up to the mid point on temps. Not even close. 3.6 gas btw.
