Head Lice
TJ Addict
Don't see many Gladiators around here in a major heavy 3/4 - 1ton forestry market. They are somewhat laughed at. Tries to be a Jeep and a truck, ends up being neither.
Is the Gladiator selling very well?
- Thread starter HDRider
- Start date
Actually, it does both quite well.
Most people don’t realistically need a three-quarter to 1 ton truck. Obviously some do, perhaps, in the forestry market you mentioned.
For the average truck buyer, a midsize truck, like the gladiator works just fine. And it does Jeep stuff very well as well.
I would buy one because it came with a Hemi and Ultimate Dana 60s from the factory.
I have no interest at all in a Gladiator, but THAT I would buy in a heartbeat!
Unfortunately, with the current market it will never happen. Not even in a supercab.
GM has even killed the supercab on the new Colorado, 4 door only.
Still...
Looks fantastic. I saw it at Jeep Beach a few years ago. No room in the cab and the spare tire takes up most of the bed.
Mousy Orla
TJ Enthusiast
When I worked PDI at a local dealership, used to drive so many Gladiators, and it really feels like driving a 4 door wrangler, with a truck bed tacked on the back as well. Also, they come with scoops and stuff on them, that serve zero functionality, so lots of stuff on them just seems stupid. Now I like the 2 door Gladiator concept, but a perfect size truck for me would be a mid-late 80's Toyota Pickup w/ 4WD. New trucks I feel so tiny in, and on edge of potentially hitting something in front that I never had a chance to see.
The problem for me with the new Rangers are they're closer to old F150 in size than older model Rangers.
This was from my job, and that scoop isn't real, just for show, and I find that just pointless really.
The problem for me with the new Rangers are they're closer to old F150 in size than older model Rangers.
This was from my job, and that scoop isn't real, just for show, and I find that just pointless really.
Part of the reason that trucks keep getting bigger is the CAFE mandates that were put in place during the Obama administration.
While the regulations were meant to increase fuel economy, the automakers used the new standards to game the system and make trucks bigger so that they don't have to meet more stringent requirements.
The new standards set a target MPG based on wheelbase and track width instead of an actual average, so it was easy to make trucks just a little bigger to hit the easier target.
The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Intentions
While the regulations were meant to increase fuel economy, the automakers used the new standards to game the system and make trucks bigger so that they don't have to meet more stringent requirements.
The new standards set a target MPG based on wheelbase and track width instead of an actual average, so it was easy to make trucks just a little bigger to hit the easier target.
The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Intentions
Wow. I had no idea. I never understood why a "standard" pickup truck was suddenly almost the size of a deuce and a half. Does this have anything to do with all the oversized "trucks" with schoolbus cabs and vestigial beds?
I would contend that there are a lot of people driving pickups, including Gladiators, that don't "need" one at all. It's a common male status symbol in these parts to the point that it seems they make up 50% of vehicles on the road, but I doubt significantly more people need trucks in 2023 than did in 1980 when the roads were dominated by large sedans, or 1995 when it was all minivans.
I for one, don't "need" a truck with a bed that doesn't support an 8' piece of lumber with the tailgate down. And I don't need the fact that it's a Jeep tempt me into lifting it and making it harder to get in and out of the back as I use it for truck things.
I was probably right around the max payload for the Silverado with (64) 3cf bags of cedar bark mulch.
At least a 2 door TJ has a short wheelbase for those tight turns off road.
Certainly the case. I bought a Duramax for somewhat of a need. That need is now gone and I still have the truck, granted it sits 95% of the year. It sure is great to travel with though... My wife's Yukon and my 12' trailer will easily do 99.9% of what I could ever want.
A while back we decided that we were going to get a travel trailer so I of course needed a proper truck for it.
I ended up with an F250 Super Duty 4x4 with the V10 and a 6 speed manual.
The camper we eventually bought was a big popup that could be towed by almost any truck.
But man! That V10 with the manual was STOUT and could pull like a train.
It was way more truck than I needed so I traded it for a Frontier
A while back we decided that we were going to get a travel trailer so I of course needed a proper truck for it.
I ended up with an F250 Super Duty 4x4 with the V10 and a 6 speed manual.
The camper we eventually bought was a big popup that could be towed by almost any truck.
But man! That V10 with the manual was STOUT and could pull like a train.
It was way more truck than I needed so I traded it for a Frontier
Funny how things work....
We wanted to travel and pull the Jeep or Side by Side. We now realize its way easier to fly places and rent.
A V10 and a manual would be a pretty unusual truck. The Duramax is probably 3-4x as much truck as I need, but man is 765+ lb-ft tq nice and it is worth too little to get into something newer (even a half ton) without spending a lot more.
WestCoastDan
TJ Enthusiast
It must be selling pretty well, as I see tons of them on the roads here in SoCal.
I was absolutely, 100% against them when they first came out. They looked like a hillbilly shop project gone wrong, but like many things in life, once the initial WTF wears off, they are beginning to grow on me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not rushing out to sell a kidney and grab one for myself, but I no longer hate the sight of them.
I was absolutely, 100% against them when they first came out. They looked like a hillbilly shop project gone wrong, but like many things in life, once the initial WTF wears off, they are beginning to grow on me.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not rushing out to sell a kidney and grab one for myself, but I no longer hate the sight of them.
I go through phases where it makes sense to have one. Never needed anything more than a half ton, but at various times such as when building a house or the first couple years after moving into one it just becomes too much of a hassle to make do with an SUV so I'll shop around and find a clean used truck that I can almost always sell for what I have in it.
The truck in the mulch picture I bought in 2019 as a one owner with some undiagnosed electrical issues that looked intimidating to the PO but cost me less than $200 to fix. I got my use out of it and sold it to my dad in 2021 when I wasn't using the bed much anymore. I could probably justify owning one with the stuff I have going on right now, but being that this one is their third vehicle and sits about 9 miles away, it's a lot more convenient to borrow it every now and then and return it washed and with a full tank.
A lot of the skepticism I have against the Gladiator is based on my single experience owning a truck/SUV hybrid with a small bed. There just wasn't that many occasions where owning it allowed me to haul something that I couldn't have in a good sized SUV (such as my wife's 4runner) to justify owning it, and in fact there were plenty of times that the 4runner was preferred since it kept things out of the weather. The last straw was having to rent a trailer to haul fenceposts that would have easily worked in a 6.5' bed. I didn't even buy another truck, I went for a sports sedan because I had a 50mile/day commute and figured I might as well enjoy the drive and save some mpg.
