That demonstrates the value of body on frame. Frame damage is no good, but you can see the inherent strength of the design. Unibody may be stiffer, but having the hitch bolted in line with a big steel frame is resilient.I think my hitch for the Max Tow is what has saved me so far. That hitch has taken a beating. I tried to show a pic of that, but you will have to zoom in. The receiver part of the hitch is bent down now. The bolts on the Hitch itself are bent where it attaches to the frame on the right side. Frame looks okay but I don’t know how it could be. The spare is full sized 37” BFG AT and it has been moved forward enough to have bent the heat shield. The Tereflex rear track bar for overland kit has a bend to clear the spare but it is really close to hitting it now.
I hate this because I’ve avoided so many accidents in this JT and in my Mustang. This time the JT has taken a beating. I am still driving it, but something in its rear alignment is messed up.. and that’s not good! I’m afraid to drive the 2013 32.000 mile GT coyote convertible right now. I have had to accelerate that GT out of a couple of accidents in the past two years. Good thing she is fast!
Sold my 2013 GT Premium Convertible Mustang to help fund the purchase of my new (to me) JTR. Sure do miss the 420 hp, and the ease of putting the top down (pretty much every day all year here in Central Florida), but I surely do love this Gladiator.
I hear you. I keep a big pintle hitch on my JT year around. I have been rear ended at traffic stops three times by idiots who can't put their phone down while stopped at lights. Each time I came away unscathed but not the bumpee who hit me. That big old pintle hitch really raise heck with a grille but it also sends a subtle message to the driver behind me to not get too close. It has kept both my JK and now my JT damage free so not going to change anything in future. Whatever works.There are a lot of idiots out there. My city of Nashville has changed from its quaint Sothern Charm small town feel to the chaotic NY, Cali big city crazy. I love some aspects of the influx of new multicultural people, but not impressed with their impatient often aggressive driving style.
This year alone I close out with 4 incidents, this does not include probably 10 times someone has hit my sticking out wheels and tires (read poke) in traffic ??.
I’ve had a weapon drawn on me twice for absolutely nothing, yes I carry but that is not the time nor place to engage a crazy person that very obviously has no idea about rules of engagement nor how to hold a weapon.
I’ve also been hit in the back of my gladiator twice in less than 2 months. Yes lass than two months!
both of the drivers that hit the gladiator were not from my home state of TN, and neither had insurance or a DL. Pictures below, the gladiator with the red focus accident happened a little over 24 hours ago. His car went under the JT hitting it really hard. This makes no sense, I wasn’t looking at rear view when this happened, because I was on an on ramp to the interstate from downtown Nashville. He must have been on his phone, fell behind as traffic moved forward, then floored his vehicle not realizing the traffic in front of him, including me and my beloved JT, were stopped in traffic again.
this driver got out of his totaled car, I asked him if he was okay, he simply said “I don’t have a driver’s license, turned and ran on foot back up the ramp until out of sight, never to come back. A true hit and run on all senses of the words!
I waited for 3.5 hours blocking more than half of the on-ramp yet people were able to get by, even semi trucks that missed me by 1” or less. People often yelling at me, flipping me off, getting out and telling me I had to move my truck because it’s the law… umm the police told me to stay put, and I couldn’t move anyway because the car was stuck under my truck!
glad my gladiator is lifted, glad I wasn’t carrying my expensive mountain bike on the rear. These trucks are tough. Though I think this time the hit and going under the JT bent the frame.
the first rear hit happened when I was turning into a hospital parking lot but still on a main road. A black Toyota Avalon hit me then and I did not get the front end pics of the Avalon. You can see the hood of that car pushed back to the windshield. A front view would show the total destruction the JT put on this car too. This guy had a father show up in another car 10 minutes after accident. The father was yelling at me in Farsi, I understood some of it but the hospital security officer knew more of the language than I did. The father was trying to get me to tell the police that he was driving the car, not his son. His son did not have a DL nor insurance. The son was cuffed and taken to jail. I was surprised by the police taking him into custody. I hadn’t had time to replace the rear bumper yet, so same bumper took the hit from the red ford as well.
I wish I had thought of that! When he popped the trunk opened as he got out of the stolen car, my mind was on a whole other level, and shooting a picture wasn’t one of them unfortunately. I’ve also had weapons pulled on me twice this year, two lessons learned.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/worst-drivers-by-stateThere are a lot of idiots out there. My city of Nashville has changed from its quaint Sothern Charm small town feel to the chaotic NY, Cali big city crazy. I love some aspects of the influx of new multicultural people, but not impressed with their impatient often aggressive driving style.
This year alone I close out with 4 incidents, this does not include probably 10 times someone has hit my sticking out wheels and tires (read poke) in traffic ??.
I’ve had a weapon drawn on me twice for absolutely nothing, yes I carry but that is not the time nor place to engage a crazy person that very obviously has no idea about rules of engagement nor how to hold a weapon.
I’ve also been hit in the back of my gladiator twice in less than 2 months. Yes lass than two months!
both of the drivers that hit the gladiator were not from my home state of TN, and neither had insurance or a DL. Pictures below, the gladiator with the red focus accident happened a little over 24 hours ago. His car went under the JT hitting it really hard. This makes no sense, I wasn’t looking at rear view when this happened, because I was on an on ramp to the interstate from downtown Nashville. He must have been on his phone, fell behind as traffic moved forward, then floored his vehicle not realizing the traffic in front of him, including me and my beloved JT, were stopped in traffic again.
this driver got out of his totaled car, I asked him if he was okay, he simply said “I don’t have a driver’s license, turned and ran on foot back up the ramp until out of sight, never to come back. A true hit and run on all senses of the words!
I waited for 3.5 hours blocking more than half of the on-ramp yet people were able to get by, even semi trucks that missed me by 1” or less. People often yelling at me, flipping me off, getting out and telling me I had to move my truck because it’s the law… umm the police told me to stay put, and I couldn’t move anyway because the car was stuck under my truck!
glad my gladiator is lifted, glad I wasn’t carrying my expensive mountain bike on the rear. These trucks are tough. Though I think this time the hit and going under the JT bent the frame.
the first rear hit happened when I was turning into a hospital parking lot but still on a main road. A black Toyota Avalon hit me then and I did not get the front end pics of the Avalon. You can see the hood of that car pushed back to the windshield. A front view would show the total destruction the JT put on this car too. This guy had a father show up in another car 10 minutes after accident. The father was yelling at me in Farsi, I understood some of it but the hospital security officer knew more of the language than I did. The father was trying to get me to tell the police that he was driving the car, not his son. His son did not have a DL nor insurance. The son was cuffed and taken to jail. I was surprised by the police taking him into custody. I hadn’t had time to replace the rear bumper yet, so same bumper took the hit from the red ford as well.
They are missing a couple states.
There are several studies each use some of the same criteria while adding more and different criteria and factoring it all in by percentage. I just picked the one that had TN in the top ten. Just seemed like it fits considering how many times the original poster has been hit by a bad driver.
