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Rock Crawler, Mall Crawler & ?

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Mine is my everyday driver when I am home. I use it for shopping, home maintance, parts running, fun off road and hunting. I may put less than 4000 miles a year on a truck. Thats only because I travel in my other other truck 180,000 miles a year.
Same here... I have a work-issue I drive everyday. So I hardly put any miles on my personal vehicles.
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Bama_Swampfox

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Peter
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2020 Jeep Gladiator Overland (09-14-3pm) ; Kubota 2910 Tractor; 1964 BP-1
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Retired, thank God
New to this forum so please forgive my rambling. Yes, I may be a ā€œmall crawlerā€ or worse. I recently traded my beloved but tired 2004 F250 6.0 Crew Cab for a vehicle Iā€™ve been wanting since the teasers were out from FCA a few years back ā€“ a 2020 Jeep Gladiator Overland. This Jeep is technically my second ā€œFiatā€ since the 1981 Fiat Spider I bought new for my wife in Boston.

I worked in the ā€˜70s as a technician (back when we were called mechanics) for MB and Datsun (I did drive a 1964 Jeep Gladiator for plowing snow at the dealership I worked for).

Somehow I rose through the ranks and became a Service Manager in 1981 for a large, multi-franchise dealer in Boston. I was very lucky in 1983, ā€œgrabbed the brass ringā€, and landed a job with BMW Corporate.

This was back when BMW was commonly known in the US as ā€œBritish Motor Worksā€. BMW drivers back then had their own ā€œwaveā€. We flashed our high beams at each other because there were less than 50,000 a year being sold. You just didnā€™t see that many on the road.

Over the 35 years working for BMW I was lucky enough to have almost every model as a ā€œjob assignedā€ vehicle. I had M3s, M5s, M6s, 850s, X5Ms, 5s, 7s, and nearly every other model up to an Alpina. One my favorite company cars was the first generation M3 (E30). That car had real character. It was imperfect and unrefined but it had real guts and a soul.

I loved driving every one of them but by the time I retired in 2018, the BMW brand had become ā€œhomogenizedā€ as they tried to attract more mainstream buyers and increase sales volume. Even the MINI brand became ordinary ā€“ the funkiness that people loved about the early versions had faded away ā€“ and so did the sales volume.

When I had to spend my own money to replace the F250, I didn't buy a BMW. I bought the Jeep Gladiator. In many ways this Jeep brings me back to my early days with BMW. BMW owners were fanatics that loved everything BMW ā€“ even though the front ends shook, the brakes squeaked, they had frequent vapor lock, blown head gaskets, drivability problems and a litany of other foibles.

But almost nothing deterred their loyalty to BMW including high repair costs and break-ins (to steal the easily removable radios).

Iā€™ll get to the point: I really love the Gladiator for what it is. Itā€™s certainly not perfect. Iā€™ve had the CEL on twice already in less than 1,000 miles. The steering is almost ā€œdeadā€ on center. The wind noise is terrible on the highway. I got a stone bruise on the windshield the first day I owned it. The engine makes more noise than power. It has a lot of body roll. The taillights look like theyā€™ve been tacked on as an afterthought.

I donā€™t plan on any modifications to my Gladiator or doing any rock crawling any time soon. I know I can make the run from Prescott to Crown King and into the mountains of New Hampshire for skiing and thatā€™s enough for me. And maybe the occasional trip to the mall.

The Gladiator is imperfect but true to the Jeep brand and I'm very proud to be part of it. Iā€™m hoping a Jeep always stays a Jeep. Thanks for listening!
 
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A proper front-end alignment and a Fox TS 2.0 steering stabilizer helped mine out a lot on the floppy/sloppy steering and the inconsistent tracking down the road. Also, I agree, the tail lights look like an afterthought. I am not a fan of them. Yes, the top is loud. Yes, the engine makes more noise than power (thanks to Jeep thinking they knew what engine option was best for us, instead of letting us choose for ourselves whether or not we wanted a V8 in it). The windshields are rock-magnets...Get used to that. The body roll can be improved upon by adding some stiffer springs, like swapping out your Overland springs for a set of Rubicon front springs, and a set of Max Tow rear springs, and adding a set of Rubicon Fox shocks all the way around. Folks have reported that made a HUGE difference.
 

Bama_Swampfox

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Peter
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2020 Jeep Gladiator Overland (09-14-3pm) ; Kubota 2910 Tractor; 1964 BP-1
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Retired, thank God
A proper front-end alignment and a Fox TS 2.0 steering stabilizer helped mine out a lot on the floppy/sloppy steering and the inconsistent tracking down the road. Also, I agree, the tail lights look like an afterthought. I am not a fan of them. Yes, the top is loud. Yes, the engine makes more noise than power (thanks to Jeep thinking they knew what engine option was best for us, instead of letting us choose for ourselves whether or not we wanted a V8 in it). The windshields are rock-magnets...Get used to that. The body roll can be improved upon by adding some stiffer springs, like swapping out your Overland springs for a set of Rubicon front springs, and a set of Max Tow rear springs, and adding a set of Rubicon Fox shocks all the way around. Folks have reported that made a HUGE difference.
I guess Iā€™m complaining about what makes the Gladiator so endearing to me. It is what it is and thatā€™s why I bought it. Character, flaws and all.

Thanks so much for the detailed recommendations. Iā€™ll revisit these once I get 10,000 miles on it. Headed down to Florida this week so Iā€™ll have some more Jeep wheel time.
 

ACAD_Cowboy

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Beach Krawler
This was the topic of discussion between my wife and I for a bit this weekend. We seem to agree that the native habitat for the Gladiator is as a toy hauler; we have seen a fair amount out on Fire Island either out on Smith Point or Robert Moses, hauling the family plus boards and fishing gear and cooler & grill etc. Stripped naked they look to be a great beach taxi, big enough to pack the gear but small enough to make it feel more like an adventure and not like moving.
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