By Kamil Kaluski
Welcome to 2020, where everyone who doesn’t want an electric self-driving car wants to go off-roading. The irony is that we lack proper infrastructure to support all the EVs we want, self-driving cars are still far away, and there is really nowhere to go off-roading but the roads sure are crap. It’s a game that we are all playing and we are all losing.
After years of speculation, Chevy has finally released the mid-engine Corvette Jeep has finally released the Wrangler-based pickup truck, the Gladiator. I really can’t recall any other vehicle that generated so much interest from people who have never considered a Jeep or a pickup before. Everyone wants the damn thing and, frankly so do I.
But everyone seems to be forgetting that FCA already has a crew-cab short-bed pickup designed with off-roading in mind. Heck, it even comes with a Warn 12,000-lb winch from the factory! It has the same locking axles and sway-bar disconnects as the Jeep Rubicon. But since it’s a three-quarter ton pickup truck it also has a 410-horsepower V8 and can tow more than 10,000-pounds. It has a bigger, more comfortable cab, and a higher payload. It is also physically bigger and its roof does not come off, but a sunroof is available.
Yes, the RAM 2500 Power Wagon is pricier. But if you load up your Gladiator Rubicon to the brim and skip on some goodies on the Power Wagon, the price gap gets much narrower. It is also a lot more likely that there will be incentives on the RAM, thereby equalizing the price even more.
So, if you’re looking for a truly off-road capable pickup and have $60,000 to blow and don’t want a used Raptor (or a new Tacoma TRD Pro or a Chevy Colorado ZR2 Bison) – what do you get?
Jeff Glucker
Dailying a 3/4 ton truck is great. As long as you can deal with the size, the (lack of) fuel economy and the ride without a load.
I used to occasional drive 3/4-tons at my day job. They were beaten to shit work trucks, regular cab and long bed. They were the worst things ever. I felt like my kidneys needed readjustment after a quick drive.
Since then I’ve driven several new 3/4 ton truck, privately owned ones and a few press cars. Previous gen Power Wagon was one of them. Even when empty they rode great. The gas mileage wasn’t horribly worse than a 1/2 ton.
I do realize that 1/2 tons and 3/4 tons should not be really compared, they’re different for a reason. The Gladiator and the Power Wagon are equally different… but they just happen to be so similar.
I drove my 3/4-ton ’70 International to work today, as I often do, but in my defense I’ve put a lot of effort into making sure I don’t know any better.
I’m still not seeing any similarities outside of wheelbase and door count. The RAM is bigger, heavier, has terrible sight lines and neither the doors nor the roof is removable. So it’s basically what the Gladiator will be in 7 years or so, about as far from a Wrangler as a Mitsubishi Fuso FG is.
The price.
{Marge Simpson disapproval noise} It sure seems like you went through a lot of gymnastics in the optioning to get the prices to equalize. How is a low-option RAM on par with a high-option Jeep? Or any other apple and orange you want to dress up?
OTOH, Ram will likely rebate the snot out of the 2500, Jeep dealers will be marking up the Gladiator for a year.
Yes, but which one looks better in the mall parking lot?
I wonder how the clearance angles compare, I’m guessing pretty similar apart from the approach.
Given that I’d want a manual transmission, my options are few. I can’t get comfortable in a Tacoma, and the Frontier is a fossil. That leaves the Gladiator. When I configure one to my liking, it comes to less than $41k, which isn’t terrible.
I’m the eternal party pooper saying it is easier to just smash this one through some offroad terrain, at 1/6 of the price:
https://uaz.global/cars/suv/pickup
Alas, hardly anyone here can get one new. Meh.
Oh man, I’d love to drive it just to see how awful it is.
Saw a Russian tourist with one of these in the mountains here once. Ungainly, but I have a lot of respect for the mechanical simplicity these stand for. The Patriot is the ambitious UAZ though, which won a lot of comparison reviews in the CIS when new. Maybe you can arrange a test drive next time you’re in Poland?
I do intend on testing something interesting next time I’m there. 🙂
Soon…
In all honesty, it would probably be huge bang for the buck.
This young lady and her assistant would like to have a pointed discussion with you about just when Jeep finally released a Wrangler based pickup, as well as just how many doors a Wrangler has.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6c2f2ffda6707426dce9882272ad4062ad8fcbc125dfe4d2c9d0ffd21e024479.jpg
I’m reminded of C-3PO’s advice to R2D2, “Let the Wookiee win.”
I will happily discuss with this issue with this young lady, and without her assistant, over dinner and drinks.
Technically, the CJ-8 pictured above wasn’t a Wrangler. However, a 4-door Gladiator isn’t exactly news.
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/7994/536edited.jpg
That’s technically a J20. I believe the last Gladiator was 1971, and that’s clearly an 80s front clip. Given that it’s a crew cab, it must also be Australian, because I think that’s the only market that got four doors. I will give you props for reminding everyone that the J-Series pickups are seriously badassed compared to this new Gladiator.
Regardless, the Gladiator isn’t new, nor is a Jeep CJ pickup (in addition to the CJ-8 Scrambler, some may also recall the CJ-10). A Wrangler-based pickup is, however, a new thing, though not nearly as exciting as everyone seems to make it out to be.
The license plates in the background do appear to be Australian.
…and the steering wheel location is def RHD, though that’s not strictly Aussie, since you could still order RHD Jeep products in the USA into the 21st century. I wonder if anyone ever used a J-Truck or a Gladiator for a Rural Route?
The image got flipped.
Look closely at the tread of the tires and you can clearly tell the Jeep is shod with A/T Niarret Dum rubber, which matches what the sidewalls should say.
Why, are they on upside-down?
My bad. Wrangler is a YJ, not a CJ, I just learned. As a teenager in the ’80s I conflated the “All New Jeep Wrangler!!” with the CJs I had grown up seeing because they all look like jeeps! (As opposed to the All New Mustang!!! which looked nothing like a Mustang.)
You think YJs look like Jeeps? Maybe I could see some resemblance if you grafted round headlights onto it…
Jeep’s first mistake was going with square lights in ’86. Their second was not returning to the CJ name in ’97. Their third: retiring the 4.0 six.
Isn’t the correct number of doors for a Wrangler (or similar) zero?
https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.gearjunkie.com/uploads/2018/11/MP20_001JP87c6mtpup9ek2is8qmf5ifagpp1.jpg
Speak for your neck of the woods as far as the nowhere to go offroading- plenty of places to go out here in Colorado, and a lot of the people that own offroad focused vehicles actually do use them.
But I don’t have any clue where the nearest wheeling to Boston is. I imagine not close.
The location of the nearest wheeling often depends on whether NO TRESPASSING signs are posted and how adept you are at talking to cops. I had a co-worker who went wheeling before work less than a mile from the office. He did it a couple times a week. He got away with it for 3 or 4 months and just had a “talking to” when a cop finally stopped him.
It’s just very different out here I guess. We have so much public land, National Parks, National Forests, BLM, and supporting wheeling, ATVs, dirt biking, is a big part of what they use the land for, in addition to hiking, hunting, etc.
I drove a few vehicles near constructions near my work but those have since been completed. I went Jeeping with a friend some years back about 90 minutes west. There are trails in NH and VT but that’s 2-3 hours away. You can drive on some Cape Cod beaches with a permit.
The Gladiator isn’t small, but it’s appreciably smaller enough than a Ram that it’s not much of a question – I see the full-sized trucks that have to adjust mid-turn to get around some of the tighter sections of my garage.
This of course presupposes that I want to spend that kind of money. I’d sooner buy an old XJ Cherokee and offroad that since they are cheap enough to keep as dedicated play vehicles. I’m surrounded by BLM and National Forest land so I need dirt road capability more than rock crawling.
For $60K I can imagine several collections of vehicles that I’d rather own. In fact, I already own one of them.
If you’re spending $60k on a vehicle, chances seem good that you have a driveway big enough to fit two vehicles. And crew cabs are way too long to be great off road (unless we are talking about desert running – but I live in a temperate rain forest).
Spend $35k on a nice used truck. Since you’re going to spend the rest on an offroader, you’re now free to something IFS and/or diesel. Complement with an $18k used 2-door JK, and spend $7k on mods to make it way more capable than the Gladiator.
Seriously, you cannot compare a Jeep Gladiator Rubicon with a RAM pickup Truck. These are two different worlds. It is like comparing a Sedan with a Hatchback. It is not really interesting. What about RAM Vs FORD F1. We all know the winner, but this is at least sound and normal. Checkout Ford F1 Series details at:
https://top10greatcars.blogspot.com/2018/12/2018-ford-f-150-xl-xlt-and-lariat-details.html