So disappointed in this Diesel platform; wish there was a return policy.

[Azriel62]

Try accelerating with a “stiff foot” let the turbo spool and get the torque flowing, RPMs should only ever be at 2500-3000, when you hit 45-50 then coast. See if that brings you better MPG than granny footing it to 45-50 then coasting. I can’t get below 26mpg on the meter.

I have always driven this way, I call it “riding the torque curve”, it’s harder with an automatic, but I move my foot slower and can really get some sweet torque from the engine without downshifting. Or if I’ll need power I’ll blip the throttle to kick down a gear and the add some throttle as I need to get over a hill…

this strategy has always returned good MPG.Like 34mpg in a Datsun 280z, TJ would get 16-17 city and 14hwy.

#Ericshere03 what are your temps running

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[Ericshere03]

#Ericshere03 what are your temps running

I never pay any attention, I never see the fake needle move. I’ve used the off-road pages while pushing hard up elevation and everything was stable.

when I tow my little travel trailer I’ll take note …
I think this platform can be totally stable, full ac, idling, cruising and highway… but when your boosting and demanding high power for long periods the cooling system becomes saturated and the temperatures escalate … I have not been in a condition that caused runaway temperatures …

I do wonder what a dual row radiator and lower thermostat will do for us desert dwellers. A second row radiator may make the cooling stack too restrictive and actually hurt us. Ideally a second row doesn’t double cooling capacity, it doesn’t work that way and only get about half as much cooling capacity. But the thickness may choke the cool air flow and cause poor cooling … there is a dual row all aluminum unit available.

what Jeep should do is throw the inter cooler on top of the engine and use the Mojave hood and some ducts. The radiator even has room to go below it’s current level, not a lot of airflow, but there’s some…

 

[ShadowsPapa]

A second row radiator may make the cooling stack too restrictive and actually hurt us. Ideally a second row doesn’t double cooling capacity, it doesn’t work that way and only get about half as much cooling capacity. But the thickness may choke the cool air flow and cause poor cooling …

Gotta ask where the thinking there comes from. I can give many examples of how moving from a 2 row core radiator to a 3 row fixed cooling issues when engines were rebuilt for more power.
Are you thinking the added row in series or parallel?
Example - V8 cars with no AC used to come with 2 row core radiators. When the had AC they came with identical radiators that had 3 row cores (common tank top and bottom so it was "parallel")
The air flow wasn't negatively impacted.
Don't know what you think it gets half as much cooling capacity - I have examples of the opposite.

As far as added capacity in series - I can give the example of our solar pool heater. Adding more sections in series actually didn't hurt the flow but did make the water coming out more hot because as it passed through the tubes it could only pick up so much heat - before it exited. Making it pass through more tubes meant it picked up more heat before exiting.
Didn't impact the flow rate in any appreciable way.

I have a car in my shop where I swapped out a 2 row core radiator for a 3 row core and cooled it down without other changes. The engine was built up and cranking out much more HP than the factory had the cooling system designed for. The only difference - a third row in the core. Otherwise the exact same radiator.

I guess I'm asking - if it doesn't matter, or if adding the extra layer or row of tubes in the radiator core causes less cooling, why did AC cars have the added capacity, thicker core with 3 rows of tubes instead of 2?

 

[Ericshere03]

Gotta ask where the thinking there comes from. I can give many examples of how moving from a 2 row core radiator to a 3 row fixed cooling issues when engines were rebuilt for more power.
Are you thinking the added row in series or parallel?
Example - V8 cars with no AC used to come with 2 row core radiators. When the had AC they came with identical radiators that had 3 row cores (common tank top and bottom so it was "parallel")
The air flow wasn't negatively impacted.
Don't know what you think it gets half as much cooling capacity - I have examples of the opposite.

As far as added capacity in series - I can give the example of our solar pool heater. Adding more sections in series actually didn't hurt the flow but did make the water coming out more hot because as it passed through the tubes it could only pick up so much heat - before it exited. Making it pass through more tubes meant it picked up more heat before exiting.
Didn't impact the flow rate in any appreciable way.

I have a car in my shop where I swapped out a 2 row core radiator for a 3 row core and cooled it down without other changes. The engine was built up and cranking out much more HP than the factory had the cooling system designed for. The only difference - a third row in the core. Otherwise the exact same radiator.

I guess I'm asking - if it doesn't matter, or if adding the extra layer or row of tubes in the radiator core causes less cooling, why did AC cars have the added capacity, thicker core with 3 rows of tubes instead of 2?

Now we are going into physics here... I wont toally nerd out here, but the principal is that when the first row hits the incoming air, there is a differential of temperature, right? after the first row the air is now warmer when it hits the second row, the differential in temperature is less, therefore less energy is removed by the second row...

In addition to the reduction of energy removing potential, we are adding restriction to the air passing through the cooling stack; AC Condenser, Oil Cooler, Intercooler, Radiator... if increase the resistance of the "Stack" there needs to be a greater differential of pressure to get the same flow of air through the stack.

Yes, in the olden days we had 4 row radiators (Copper brass) I have an 80 and 81 vette with copper radiators, this is true. and yes, adding more rows helps, but there is a point of deminishing returns with regards to thickening up the radiator with more "rows".

The Jeep TJ is a great example, those radiators pop all the time, I had 4 TJ's\LJ's and replace 4 radiators... My first Tj i went with a crazy 4 core aluminum radiator, crazy thick, gauge read higher than OEM, turns out I needed a HD fan clutch to pull more air in... dumb and loud! I later went with a 2 row from the same company and an OEM fan clutch and seemed to work better, i kept this one long enough to see the aluminum radiator fail, again... now as got to the 4th jeep, i replaced the leaky radiator with a 1 row OEM mopar unit, standard fan clutch and NEVER overheated, YES never in Arizona, off road with AC. I just summarized 15 years of diddling with jeeps cooling systems and a little of the corvettes.

Long story short, there are many parts to the cooling package, in some cases a big bad ass 4 row copper radiator is best, in other a dinky plastic/aluminum radiator is best, there are trade offs and this is where "Engineering" comes into play. This is why I suggested removing the intercooler from the equation, throw it on top and put a thicker radiator, get less resistance in the cooling stack and more cooling. in fact, id wager a bet that we can relocate the tranny cooler as well, drop it below the grill, behind the bumper, there isnt a lot of flow, but cut a slit in the bumper there ya ho, we have increased the cooling area of the tiny grill.

So when the "engineers" said they did all they could for the cooling for the gladiator, we need to read the fine print and realize the penny pinchers had their input and management gave their input more weight than the engineers.

Wow, sorry for the length.

Do I think our 1 core aluminum plastic radiator has room for improvement... YES

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Yeah, been around the block with radiators, cooling systems, etc. - worked in a shop along I80 and saw my share of cars towed in with over-heating. Building more power into engines, adding AC, etc. - radiator changes and swaps.

Blown radiators? Hmmm, oh, you mean like this - plastic of that size likely doesn't have the strength to handle the pressures required to prevent boiling. even 14 psi working on that large an area means pretty hefty force. It's no wonder these things exploded.

 

[Azriel62]

Nipples are not sexist, men, women and everything in between have them.

Adam’s apple on the other hand, that’s pushing it, might what to use something PC like esophagual fruit.

Holy cow, what they heck did I start?

 

[Gladman]

Try accelerating with a “stiff foot” let the turbo spool and get the torque flowing, RPMs should only ever be at 2500-3000, when you hit 45-50 then coast. See if that brings you better MPG than granny footing it to 45-50 then coasting. I can’t get below 26mpg on the meter.

I have always driven this way, I call it “riding the torque curve”, it’s harder with an automatic, but I move my foot slower and can really get some sweet torque from the engine without downshifting. Or if I’ll need power I’ll blip the throttle to kick down a gear and the add some throttle as I need to get over a hill…

this strategy has always returned good MPG.Like 34mpg in a Datsun 280z, TJ would get 16-17 city and 14hwy.

Same principle airlines use to save fuel.

 

[krweatherl]

Interesting the manual for my 2022 has a Note for the Diesel engine. “NOTE: Light duty operation such as light trailer towing or no load operation will extend the time before the engine is at full efficiency. Reduced fuel economy and power may be seen at this time.”
Is this different in your 2021 manual?

 

[krweatherl]

SO reguards to the cooling ive found a radiator from this brand "Cold Case" and it says its for the jl's but i dont think it would matter as much since ive seen on the mopar parts store that the oem radiator is shared on the 4 cyl,6cy and the 3.0 turbo diesel motors,im thinking about pulling the trigger on it but my new diesel JTR isnt here in about 2 months or so but yeah and plus i wanna buy other mods

Did you ever try this? I used one of their radiators in a JK, very well build.

 

[Mike-len]

You don't want to lug the engine. If the grade is really steep, my truck will downshift to either 4th or 5th gear. It's good to lockout 7th and/or 8th gear when towing, or maybe even 6th gear if you're in the mountains. It really depends on how much you are towing and the gears you have. For reference, I just towed our travel trailer through NM, AZ, CA, NV, UT, KS, MO, IL, AR, OK, and TX (7,000+ miles of towing) and locked out 8th gear the entire time.

Let's talk about speed. The fastest I tow with my Ram EcoDiesel is 63 mph. When towing up long steep mountain passes, my top speed is typically no higher than 45 mph.

Keep in mind, I believe the max torque is 442 lb-ft @ 1,400 RPM on the Gladiator and 280 lb-ft @ 1,600 RPM on the Ram.



I've towed over lots of mountain passes and didn't see anything over 3,500 RPM. It didn't matter if I was towing in 4th or 5th gear, 3,500 RPM was the highest I saw. I pulled an oil sample and it looked good. See attached.

Ok, how do you lock out gears?

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Ok, how do you lock out gears?

knock the lever to the left and shift manually?
My ford had a tow mode button that locked out the overdrive gears when towing.

 

[biodiesel]

Ok, how do you lock out gears?

Does the Gladiator have the + or - buttons to select the gear? By manually dropping the gear down to 6th or 5th, you are locking out the higher gears.

 

[Mike-len]

So just put it in manual. Got it. I thought maybe there was something in the settings to do this.

 

[biodiesel]

On my Ram EcoDiesel, you can see where I have 8th locked out, but the truck is currently running in 5th on a steep mountain pass towing 7,000 lbs.

 

[Rusty PW]

Just move the shift lever to the left. That puts the tranny in manual mode. Then use the lever to up shift and down shift.

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