Show stoppers / reliability and spare parts for remote travel with diesel Gladiator.

[Zybane]

I haven't seen much on this topic so I thought I'd start one. I will be using my JTRD for very remote travel/remote camping in all weather conditions (more rough trail/rock crawling and I avoid mud). I'd like the truck to be as reliable as possible, and curious on other peoples thoughts below and if they've ever had a critical show stopping failure outside of a blown CP4. I consider a show-stopper something that even with all the tools in the world, if you don't have the right parts, the Gladiator isn't able to start and drive back to civilization.

1. CP4 High Pressure Fuel Pump: this one is obvious. I've used Hot Shots diesel treatment since tank 1 on the dealership lot and will be super cautious about never letting the truck run out of fuel, and priming as best as possible during fuel filter changes. A spare fuel filter will be in the truck at all times.

2. DEF/DPF: I will always have at least half a tank before venturing out. Considering carrying spare heater element for the tank. Is there any other sensors on the system that would be good to have that would actually prevent the truck from starting and driving away? What does a frozen DEF tank do to the truck? I will be having a full skid plate system installed to protect critical components like the DEF system and fuel tank.

3. Battery: I will have a triple redundant setup. It will have the OEM AGM battery installed. Then I will have about 6.4 kWh of "camping" lithium permanently installed (with roof solar). Thirdly, I will have a portable battery powered "jump" starter. I am considering installing a diesel supplemental cabin/block heater to ease cold weather cranking/use. I have also considered carrying a spare alternator, possibly even starter motor (although it appears to be hidden deep, may not be possible to replace without removing stuff). Along with associated belt(s).

4. Turbo: If this were to seize/fail, could it be removed when being remote and the engine still drive to civilization?

5. ECU: I'll have a GDE tuned ECU installed, with a second "stock" ECU carried on-board. Along with the trans tuner. (The truck also has a Tazer mini installed).

6. Water pump / Power steering pump / Tensioner-Idler pulley: Has anyone had any issues with these items? Are these even access-able in the field? Obviously the water pump is critical for operation. Is the truck able to be steered without power steering? (I'll be on 37" tires). I understand the power steering pump is electric and not pully driven.

7. Glow plugs / Glow plug module issues etc: Has anyone had any issues with these items?

8. Oil cooler / EGR cooler / Camshaft/chain failures: Anyone have any of these experiences?

9. Anything else under the hood: Air filter, I'll have spare water/water filtration capability for coolant, spare brake fluid/rubber caliper hose, spare fuses and relays, possibly some spare rubber hoses of various sizes.

10. Transmission: Being a ZF sealed unit, not sure if there would be anything to do about a malfunction here. Has anyone had any transmission issues on their diesel? From what I understand, It's a pretty reliable unit.

11. Transfer case: Any spare parts thoughts for this? Shift linkage? Reliability concerns? It will be getting quite a bit of use on my truck.

12. Driveline fuse/parts: From my understanding, the "fuse" of the driveline is designed to be the axle half-shafts, is that correct? If one to were break, it could be removed and you could still have 3 wheel or two wheel drive locked up. With 37" tires, considering going chromoly but concerned about eliminating that fuse point and possible affecting the driveshafts, universal joints, yokes or differentials etc. Any failure scenarios with the driveline that would prevent the vehicle from moving no matter where the transfer case selector is?

13. Suspension: Ball joints / Tie Rods?

14. In-tank fuel pump: Reliability?

15. Anti-theft defeat: I would have second key fob hidden in vehicle with battery removed. In case something were to happen to my normal FOB.

16. I would have basically all garage tools needed for repair with me, including lithium powered electric tools. A full kit just short of bringing a welding machine with me. Various supplies for field repairs. Tapes, glues, rubber, clamps, stainless zip ties, bolts, hoses, wires, solder, propane torch, plastic weld putty, metal weld putty, prybar. I may bring along at least the minimum requirement for battery welding+goggles. Some small steel and aluminum stock.

17. Of course full off-road recovery kit, including but not limited to: Front mounted electric winch (Xeon Platinum 12S), portable 3-ton hand ratchet puller for rear vehicle winching/precarious situation safety and backup for front winch failure. Chainsaw, Maxtrax set, Snow chains, Shovel, Sledgehammer, Pickaxe, Survival axe, multiple winch extension lines/kinetic ropes, snatch blocks, soft+hard shackles, tree saver, 14K lb Pull Pal, Bottle Jack, X-Jack Exhaust Jack, backup air compressor, 5-gallon diesel Jerry can, Starlink or inReach, Combat First aid kit (CLS Bag), fire extinguishers, off-road tire repair kits (will have Hutchinson Rock Monster dual beadlock wheels) with spare in stock location, various other survival items, ratchets, winch rope splice tool, etc.

18. I will have repair/service manual on my laptop.


So some show stoppers: Catastrophic failure of CP4 (medium likelihood), starter motor (low? likelihood), transmission (low likelihood), transfer case (low likelihood).

Please let me know what I've missed!

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[Sandevino]

Let's start at square one. Where is remote, what time of year and general conditions? How much experience do you have in other vehicles with true remote travel?

The Achilles heel is fuel. What are your plans for fuel - in tank, storage and refueling? The best fuel mileage I have seen on the trail is 12 - 15mpg and 220 miles out of the tank over varied terrain over 3 days. I carried a 5 gallon tank of diesel to get back to the trail head and refuel.

Exhaust system regens are another consideration. You will be filling up the DPF with idling and low speed operation. Exhaust heat, increased fuel consumption and the potential of deal visit required exist as you won't be able to get up to operating temp and highway speeds to burn it off. Bring a tuner or talk with GDE about how to force a regen if needed.

The CP4.2 in our Jeeps is reliable if properly cared for and you've got that covered with Hot Shots EDT. If something should happen to it, you're DOA as the pump takes the fuel system with it and this is not a trail repair.

All the other kit you mentioned is overkill.

 

[Zybane]

Remote.. like tops of mountains and way beyond forest roads remote. I've done quite a bit of remote camping/overlanding in my Power Wagon, but want to go even deeper. Mainly the Colorado/Wyoming/Montana/Idaho/Utah/Arizona area, with some sporadic trips to the PNW/Alaska etc. All times of year/weather.

I'm thinking about the Titan sidekick aux tank for extra diesel, but may just stick with a 5-gallon jerry can to start and see how it goes. The Titan takes up a bit of bed space.

The GDE tune comes with a regen message, so at least I'll know if one was just completed. At least if it does a cycle before I head remote, that would help quite a bit. I really do need a way to force a regen. (I wonder what high idle would do for a while).

 

[fourfa]

I've got the Sidekick in my Alu-Cab, can answer questions about that if desired. Can't answer much of the rest.

Weight adds up... I saw "roof solar" and house battery in there - is there a camper or RTT and rack as well? One can make a case that loadout can have a snowball effect, as it steadily increases the odds of things failing in the first place, requiring more and more stuff to fix it... My guess, if there's a full equipped camper plus everything you list, you'd end up 500+ lbs over GVWR. Wouldn't be the first.

Personally, once I injured some knee tendons doing long-distance backpacking, my backpacking philosophy had to change from "better to have it and not need it" to the lightweighter's mantra "if I need it and don't have it... I didn't really need it." No judgement at all either way. But if it were me, I wouldn't go around buying all that stuff until I had a pretty solid spreadsheet of predicted final weight, sorted by utility per pound, and figure out where your threshold is on that list.

Have a look at the heavy loadouts over on expeditionportal for some examples... Lots of people have found that if you really want to have all that stuff, you'll be better off in a full size or even 3/4 ton truck. I'm sure there are good reasons you're here instead, in a compact pickup with marginal payload. One might argue that comes with some compromises.

 

[Sandevino]

Remote.. like tops of mountains and way beyond forest roads remote. I've done quite a bit of remote camping/overlanding in my Power Wagon, but want to go even deeper. Mainly the Colorado/Wyoming/Montana/Idaho/Utah/Arizona area, with some sporadic trips to the PNW/Alaska etc. All times of year/weather.

I'm thinking about the Titan sidekick aux tank for extra diesel, but may just stick with a 5-gallon jerry can to start and see how it goes. The Titan takes up a bit of bed space.

The GDE tune comes with a regen message, so at least I'll know if one was just completed. At least if it does a cycle before I head remote, that would help quite a bit. I really do need a way to force a regen. (I wonder what high idle would do for a while).

Mapping out your route will dictate the fuel requirements and reserves. For my use case, 5 gallons is a good reserve for my travels in the lower 48 states. If I venture up into Alaska, 5 gallons becomes 10 with a healthy dose of anti-gel.

I'd invest in a tool like OBD Fusion, Torque, AlfaOBD, etc..and a bluetooth OBDII device. I use the OBD Fusion app to monitor the diesel exhaust system components which is invaluable under any condition.

A solid GPS device would be in order as well. Look into your HAM license and get an HF setup. I have both VHF/UHF and HF rigs in my Gladiator. VHF/UHF is good for up to 20 miles / line of sight and HF can reach coast to coast if properly setup. When I go off the grid, I give my wife the HF frequency to monitor for any emergency communication. I have no issues venturing out of cell range with my communication setup.

 

[Zybane]

I've got the Sidekick in my Alu-Cab, can answer questions about that if desired. Can't answer much of the rest.

Weight adds up... I saw "roof solar" and house battery in there - is there a camper or RTT and rack as well? One can make a case that loadout can have a snowball effect, as it steadily increases the odds of things failing in the first place, requiring more and more stuff to fix it... My guess, if there's a full equipped camper plus everything you list, you'd end up 500+ lbs over GVWR. Wouldn't be the first.

Personally, once I injured some knee tendons doing long-distance backpacking, my backpacking philosophy had to change from "better to have it and not need it" to the lightweighter's mantra "if I need it and don't have it... I didn't really need it." No judgement at all either way. But if it were me, I wouldn't go around buying all that stuff until I had a pretty solid spreadsheet of predicted final weight, sorted by utility per pound, and figure out where your threshold is on that list.

Have a look at the heavy loadouts over on expeditionportal for some examples... Lots of people have found that if you really want to have all that stuff, you'll be better off in a full size or even 3/4 ton truck. I'm sure there are good reasons you're here instead, in a compact pickup with marginal payload. One might argue that comes with some compromises.

I didn't mention the "camper" aspect of it as that will really take another thread. I'm trying to keep the camper part of it as light as possible allow more "off-road" type gear. I have an RLD stainless bed cap (about 200lb) on which I'm cutting the rear cab bulkhead of the Gladiator, the front of the RLD cap and combining the interior via a rubber accordion bellows to basically make one large SUV/wagon type camper, but with the Gladiator capabilities. It will be a fairly short, sleep inside the truck setup. I could literally wake up and drive away without getting out of the truck if I wanted. And it has a nice stealth camping affect for less prying eyes when travelling.

Did you plumb your Sidekick into the truck fuel tank filler tube? Do you use a valve to control the flow? Or do you manually transfer fuel from the Sidekick into the truck fuel filler port?

I hear ya on "light" having its own quality. I had to also watch that with the Power Wagon, which also has very limited payload capacity. The truck was just too big/heavy to fit comfortably on a lot of trails. And of course the 6.4L gasser was a fuel pig. My JTRD get's like twice the fuel mileage.

 

[fourfa]

Yep understood. I guess I'd look for easy commonalities in some heavy things like tools. For instance the back of some axes is a good-enough sledge (though you want a blade guard that lets you use it safely), there are tools with interchangeable heads on one handle. I've been trying to lighten the loadout on my JTRD compared to my previous truck that was way overweight with stuff I never used.

No plumbing - I use the shaker siphon that comes with it to manually transfer from Sidekick to main tank. If it's going to share my living quarters, I don't want any extra holes in it I have to keep an eye on. It's pretty easy, you just start it flowing and set up camp or whatever for ten minutes. Totally hands off

EDIT: there is one wrinkle with the Gladiator and Sidekick - there's a bend in the left wheelwell (for the stock fuel fill tube) that interferes with the Sidekick. Either you move it back, where one of the tie down loops on the inside of the bed forces it to the side, or move it forward and the bend forces the nose of the Sidekick out a bit. They sell a Gladiator-specific kit, which mounts on the right side. That saves a little bit of wasted space, but now you probably have to move the truck to fill up both left and right. I mounted mine on the left and use that little space to keep the siphon hose

 

[Zybane]

Yep understood. I guess I'd look for easy commonalities in some heavy things like tools. For instance the back of some axes is a good-enough sledge (though you want a blade guard that lets you use it safely), there are tools with interchangeable heads on one handle. I've been trying to lighten the loadout on my JTRD compared to my previous truck that was way overweight with stuff I never used.

No plumbing - I use the shaker siphon that comes with it to manually transfer from Sidekick to main tank. If it's going to share my living quarters, I don't want any extra holes in it I have to keep an eye on. It's pretty easy, you just start it flowing and set up camp or whatever for ten minutes. Totally hands off

Is it hard to prevent diesel drips inside? Have you *had* to use the Titan before to get you out of an unplanned situation/fuel consumption? I'm just wondering if I can accomplish what I want to do with a 5 gallon Jerry can to save the bed space the Titan would take up.

 

[Zybane]

Oh sweet, looks like I found a way to manually do a regen:

 

[fourfa]

Is it hard to prevent diesel drips inside? Have you *had* to use the Titan before to get you out of an unplanned situation/fuel consumption? I'm just wondering if I can accomplish what I want to do with a 5 gallon Jerry can to save the bed space the Titan would take up.

It's easy to prevent drips when transferring with the hose. The harder part is when filling up - the fill opening is a lot bigger than the fuel pump spouts, and as it approaches full there can be foaming, and spray if you're not careful with high-speed fill. I'd expect to wipe up from time to time. Neither I nor my girlfriend have noticed any odor at all though. We're both stoked on it, it's way less hassle and mess than the Scepter MFCs we used to use on my old truck

My trips are usually in places like Death Valley, where you can easily burn half a tank just getting from the last fuel station to the trailhead. So extra fuel is a requirement. We used to carry 4 MFCs getting 12-16mpg of gas. Now I've got the 15-gal Sidekick, which actually is 14 gal of fuel and 1 gal of airspace above the fill line (by design, helps with pressure buildup to prevent leakage) and I'm getting more range with way less fuss. (I'm seeing 18-22mpg off road, but that's a lot of open desert trails and 2WD.)

And not for nothing, but I can fill the aux tank for cheaper on the interstates or in Nevada, when the diesel at the only place in some remote town is WAY more. So I'm using it for that even on shorter trips where range isn't as much of an issue. The tank will literally pay for itself in like 6-7 trips, lol. I could have been doing this for years with the 4x 5-gal MFCs, but opening them all, filling them all, sealing them all, stowing and unstowing them all was just too much trouble most of the time.

If I only needed 5 gallons then yeah, everything would be easier.

 

[Zybane]

I've also just remembered that tye diesel has start/stop functionality, which I disabled via Tazer. In theory, the engine has a much stronger/durable starter motor because of the design and the starter should last a very long time just doing normal "once per drive" engine starts.

 

[Sank]

A solid GPS device would be in order as well. Look into your HAM license and get an HF setup. I have both VHF/UHF and HF rigs in my Gladiator. VHF/UHF is good for up to 20 miles / line of sight and HF can reach coast to coast if properly setup. When I go off the grid, I give my wife the HF frequency to monitor for any emergency communication. I have no issues venturing out of cell range with my communication setup.

I agree.

You probably are on the same page here, but for all the lurkers, communications is probably The most important thing. When stuff breaks and the one thing you didn't prepare for happens... you need to call somebody. Have an updated list of repeaters for whatever areas you'll go to. A handheld unit and a short hike up to a ridge should get you to a repeater in many of the places you'll likely go. And/Or the gps-enabled satcom devices work without the hike!

 

[Free2roam]

Geezuz, that's quite a list. What's your suspension set up? Need something to carry all that extra weight.
Steering components?
Axle halves?

 

[Zybane]

Geezuz, that's quite a list. What's your suspension set up? Need something to carry all that extra weight.
Steering components?
Axle halves?

Haven't bought it yet, but ya basically will be looking for the strongest suspension setup.

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