Who else is happy with the Pentastar?

[Jt-wrx]

I have a couple hundred thousand kms on them now, 150k on 2014 ram and it got wrote off so now about 50k on this gladiator. I test drove Jeep Wrangler 2.0 turbo back to back with a pentastar and expected to like the turbo as I did on paper, but the drive experience was 100 in favour of the pentastar.
For the other guy my ram was stock the whole time. The Jeep was stock foe a little while. With automatic I would not change exhaust but with manual it was too quiet so I did a magnaflow cat back, upsized wheels and changed the gearing to match, otherwise bone stock. Just towed 3000 lbs cargo trailer camper build plus my kids and truck loaded with 3 paddleboards on roof, bikes and fuel in box, through the mountains and over two major passes and never saw more than 112 degrees oil temp even at one point it was 40 degrees Celsius (104f) outside and this on 37’s with 4.88’s. We had plenty of power, 4th gear running approx 62-66 mph and down to 3rd for the steep pulls holding 58-60 mph and 4000-4500 rpm easy, and lots of declines or flats rolling 5th gear 70-75 mph just because. Average mpg was 18.5 l/100 km or 12.7 mpg. It’s a 3.6l v6, with no boost, it’s about as good as you can get for what it is. I don’t know of a comparable that beats it really. I’ve driven all the 3.5, 3.6’s, domestic and imported, and the pentastar is the best.

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[ShadowsPapa]

I have a couple hundred thousand kms on them now, 150k on 2014 ram and it got wrote off so now about 50k on this gladiator. I test drove Jeep Wrangler 2.0 turbo back to back with a pentastar and expected to like the turbo as I did on paper, but the drive experience was 100 in favour of the pentastar.
For the other guy my ram was stock the whole time. The Jeep was stock foe a little while. With automatic I would not change exhaust but with manual it was too quiet so I did a magnaflow cat back, upsized wheels and changed the gearing to match, otherwise bone stock. Just towed 3000 lbs cargo trailer camper build plus my kids and truck loaded with 3 paddleboards on roof, bikes and fuel in box, through the mountains and over two major passes and never saw more than 112 degrees oil temp even at one point it was 40 degrees Celsius (104f) outside and this on 37’s with 4.88’s. We had plenty of power, 4th gear running approx 62-66 mph and down to 3rd for the steep pulls holding 58-60 mph and 4000-4500 rpm easy, and lots of declines or flats rolling 5th gear 70-75 mph just because. Average mpg was 18.5 l/100 km or 12.7 mpg. It’s a 3.6l v6, with no boost, it’s about as good as you can get for what it is. I don’t know of a comparable that beats it really. I’ve driven all the 3.5, 3.6’s, domestic and imported, and the pentastar is the best.

When I actually tow a load this September, if it gets at least as good mpg towing as my Silverado did, I'll be happy.
I didn't buy it for mpg while towing so anything 13 or so will be just as good as my other truck. It makes up for it by better mpg (20+) and more fun other times.

I don't blame the engine for my bad towing experience a year ago so much as I blame the 3.73 ratio. That's just too high for great towing, even on a bigger truck with a bigger engine.
Reliability is primary for me - so if this engine as reliable as the others, that's cool.

It's amazing what they will handle when modified - people are doing things to these that would likely break other engines.

 

[kd1yt]

I agree that, despite my hankering for low end torque, this V6 is overall a really well-balanced, capable engine. My mom's refrigerator recently, suddenly, and completely died. I quickly learned that appliances are currently in especially short supply and high demand, long wait time, and, even when I found an actually-available-now suitable fridge. if we were going to have it delivered, the delivery wait would have been another three weeks.' wait.

So I went and got the fridge. I drove about 40 miles on the interstate bringing the fridge home, keeping it to about 55mph and with the fridge very well secured - but standing up- so it was not only several hundred pounds but a very big rectangular large cardboard box sticking up at least 2-3 feet above my cab roof.

Up substantial hills, with gusting winds, etc, both the engine and truck truly acted like there was nothing there, and rode and handled perfectly, no squat, sway, nor any other handling weirdnesses. MPG for the trip, along with the second 15 mile trip to then haul the dead fridge to recycling, was still in the very high teens, which I consider pretty exceptional.

Some years back I had a 2011 Tacoma double-cab v6 auto, bought new and well kept. It was pretty peppy empty, but nearly never got much above 18mpg empty, and well under that in winter. The few times I hauled substantial loads or pulled significant trailers with it (but nothing immense), it became a wheezing dog, sagged in back, swayed, waddled, and generally handled in a really lame way, and the power was worryingly barely adequate for things like highway on-ramps - and the MPG plummeted, sometimes into single digits. None of this was anything outside of or even pushing the limits of the Tacoma's rated specifications, and all of it involved situations in which I'd been really careful how I placed center of weight, etc., to keep conditions as favorable as possible.

I have not yet pulled anything as big or heavy with the Gladiator as I sometimes did with the Tacoma (sooner or later I will), but, based on my fridge quest, I am pretty confident that my Gladiator Pentastar 6MT will breeze through things that put the V6 Tacoma into really marginal territory. My Gladiator, driving the same routes and patterns as the Tacoma, consistently gets 3-4 MPG better than the Tacoma.

In between the Tacoma and the Gladiator, I had a 2015 Ram 1500 Ecodiesel. Loved the torque, and didn't have any nightmare scenarios, but had enough irritations and non-casual unforeseen not-covered-by-warranty expenses that I decided that I have _no_ modern diesels anywhere in my future (I've previously owned and enjoyed a 5.9 Cummins and a pre-Powerstroke Ford 7.3).

I've decided that the Pentastar is pretty much the heir to the classic Mopar Slant Six - nobody's idea of a status symbol or fountain of thrills, but relentlessly competent and reliable- and capable of being fun to drive if you enjoy what it is and don't pout about what it isn't.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Just for reference, so people have a frame of reference on the weight hauled -

Average refrigerator is about 250, so it would be similar to one of the larger forum members standing in your truck.

Usually two guys can lift one and carry it.

I believe the french door style, like our Bosch are the heaviest, about 300 pounds on average.

 

[Choatecav]

I love my iDrive!

My iDrive just delivered this afternoon and I have already installed it. Such a difference it makes. Especially with my 6 speed MT. Recommend it to every Gladiator owner!!

 

[DanW]

My iDrive just delivered this afternoon and I have already installed it. Such a difference it makes. Especially with my 6 speed MT. Recommend it to every Gladiator owner!!

Is that a throttle programmer?

 

[kd1yt]

Just for reference, so people have a frame of reference on the weight hauled -

Average refrigerator is about 250, so it would be similar to one of the larger forum members standing in your truck.

Usually two guys can lift one and carry it.

I believe the french door style, like our Bosch are the heaviest, about 300 pounds on average.

Agreed that the weight of the refrigerator, alone, wasn't a lot compared to some payloads, but the weight combined with the fact that it was protruding as a big wide blocky object in the wind 3+ feet above the height of the cab, and about as wide as the flat bed of the floor between the wheelwells, combined with the high center of gravity compared to many loads - cause me to consider the truck and engine's handling of the task as being a lot more noteworthy than if I'd just placed three eighty-pound concrete sacks (about the same total weight, if considering only weight) in the bed.

It's been enough years and a vehicle in between since I have had the Tacoma, for me to be able to remember very many specific tasks that I did with the Tacoma that are closely similar 1:1 comparable tasks to the 'fridge run' but I do remember being consistently surprised how much and how fast the Tacoma's drivetrain, handling, and suspension all seemed taxed. I don't make a living with my truck, and I don't pound on my vehicles, but I have a steady stream of projects that involve transporting big heavy objects. In fact, as I am talking about this, I now specifically remember bringing home a mid sized cast iron lineshaft-drive early 20th century drill press that weighs in at about a couple of hundred pounds in the Tacoma - and the drill press was laid down in the bed so that the aerodynamics and center of gravity were negligible issues - and the Tacoma had acted a lot more like it was being "worked" to accomplish the task than the Gladiator did with the refrigerator.

 

[Choatecav]

Is that a throttle programmer?

Actually, it is a throttle controller, but yes. Makes a huge difference in the throttle response which is really impressive in how the vehicle feels and moves. I'm very impressed with it.
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[ShadowsPapa]

Agreed that the weight of the refrigerator, alone, wasn't a lot compared to some payloads, but the weight combined with the fact that it was protruding as a big wide blocky object in the wind 3+ feet above the height of the cab, and about as wide as the flat bed of the floor between the wheelwells, combined with the high center of gravity compared to many loads - cause me to consider the truck and engine's handling of the task as being a lot more noteworthy than if I'd just placed three eighty-pound concrete sacks (about the same total weight, if considering only weight) in the bed.

You were relying on the suspension/shocks/steering a lot with a high centered load.
I had mine overloaded (purely by accident, never planned what happened) by a huge amount and although I'd have never dreamed of taking it far or fast, it was impressive how it did even with what I'd consider an abusive load in it.
Let's just say I have an Overland and exceeded max tow specs.

These guys that tow their big campers/travel trailers with xx square feet of frontage - now those guys are taxing that engine.

 

[kd1yt]

You were relying on the suspension/shocks/steering a lot with a high centered load.
I had mine overloaded (purely by accident, never planned what happened) by a huge amount and although I'd have never dreamed of taking it far or fast, it was impressive how it did even with what I'd consider an abusive load in it.
Let's just say I have an Overland and exceeded max tow specs.

These guys that tow their big campers/travel trailers with xx square feet of frontage - now those guys are taxing that engine.

I just added an additional comment above in my other recent post about a payload that I'd hauled home in the Tacoma that had been about the same weight as the fridge and much lower center of gravity and no aerodynamic drag.

Suffice it to say that the couple of times I actually hauled loads nearing but not exceeding the Tacoma's specs, the feedback from the experience had "bad idea" signals all over it (and various less strenuous tasks all kind of sent more minor reminders of the same phenomena), but, so far, I'd approach with optimism and confidence doing anything with my Gladiator that's up to or at the limit of the Gladiator's ratings. And I am not a Toyota trasher, they have their strong attributes.

 

[FrankFrqnkFrank]

1995 - 8' box was standard, anything else was a "short box". My ford was a large truck
2011 - 6'6" is standard, an 8' bed is a "long box". My chevy dwarfed my ford and barely fit in my garage.

By the way - Jeep never called their original Cherokee, etc. a "SUV" - that was the media. Jeep called it a station wagon and to this day, the Grand Cherokee is not an SUV, it's a station wagon. Just look at my registration papers. Jeep didn't start calling everything with 4x4 capabilities and a larger cargo area an SUV - the media did - those EVIL SUVs! Headlines "SUV kills pedestrian" that sort of thing, instead of pedestrian killed in accident. The media hyped the SUV nomenclature because they are hogs, evil, gas-guzzling killers.
Anyway, look at Jeep and how they named things in the 90s - station wagons, not SUVs.
What is marketed as an SUV today is not. But it sells better if they call it that because no one is going to go out and buy a station wagon these days - gasp - that's like driving a MINI VAN!

you are so right. When the Chicago media went to war with SUV’s (long before electric cars), it would personify them and blame/shame them for accidents rather than holding actual drivers accountable.

 

[Jt-wrx]

My iDrive just delivered this afternoon and I have already installed it. Such a difference it makes. Especially with my 6 speed MT. Recommend it to every Gladiator owner!!

I agree, I have the 6-spd and I-drive, it’s very aggressive imo, I leave mine on 2...there are 9 settings lol, if you want tire chirpin snort anything above 5 will get you there

 

[Choatecav]

I agree, I have the 6-spd and I-drive, it’s very aggressive imo, I leave mine on 2...there are 9 settings lol, if you want tire chirpin snort anything above 5 will get you there

Don't know about you, but it is the most dramatic mod that I have yet done to my Mojave. I have experimented with all the settings and the Ultimate setting, especially in the higher numbers, will absolutely launch you off of a start and is crazy on going through the first few gears!

I've heard of others leaving it on U-2, as well but I'm not sure where I will leave it. Right now I'm leaving it on Auto setting, but who knows, I may get adventurous and "live in the U's." Ha.

 

[02sahara]

In the past week I’ve had on several different trips, 12 sheets of 3/4” plywood, 925lbs, a full load of 2x6 deck boards, 600-700lbs, and a pallet with 800 lbs of flooring. I’ve had the pentastar in my pervious grand Cherokee and have one in my wife’s van. It’s been reliable, strong and a good engine so far. The brakes on the gladiator have been great as well.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

So, what does the iDrive (I see the name is changed due to a merger or acquisition?) do for an AUTOMATIC when TOWING in hills. Not Colorado type hills, but the hills like, say, I80 in eastern Iowa?
I seem to have to push down on the throttle a lot to get it to kick down and take off.


That little engine handled loads in the box from 1,080 to way more than I should have had in there and the brakes were great. This truck has always stopped when and how I've needed it to.

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