Morning everyone! Asking for your excellent opinions on a Gladiator Max Tow Sport S!
Morning everyone! Asking for your excellent opinions. Looking for a new tow vehicle and a Max Two Sport S is on my radar. Our trailer is 3,200 pounds soaking wet, fully loaded. I’ve been pulling it with my old 2007 Ford Explorer for 3-4 years now. It has an upgraded tow package for the year with 3.73 gears and a 5,200 pound max tow rating and 10,000 pounds GCWR. 4.0L V6 and it pulls it perfectly on the highway and it does okay on smaller hills. Bigger hills are tough and expected. I get 13 mpg on most trips, 14 if I am doing really well. Stability is really pretty decent, I never use a WDH and it’s mostly always calm. Tongue weight is probably 350 pounds or so. My payload is 1,180, most likely due to my spring rear suspension designed for comfort, not carrying capacity. Mine is comfortable, sit reasonably high, has good sightlines...
My questions are this: How do you think the Gladiator will do in comparison? On paper, it has all the right stuff: 7,700 pound towing capacity, 12,800 pound GCWR, 4.10 gears, more horsepower 285 to 210 and just slightly more torque at 260 to 254 foot pounds and a hugely respectable 1,500 pounds of payload when optioned out.
I want a stable ride, some off road capability, seat comfort for longer drives, decent fuel economy, a reliable platform and something that doesn’t die on hills. I realize this is a tall order.
How far am I off on the Gladiator? Does it really require a lot of extra effort to keep it going straight? Is that just an inherent Jeep thing? Any other quirks or real world annoyances?
Would really love anyone’s opinion’s and thoughts...i wish I could find one to try the whole thing out as a unit but that’s just not an option that I can see.
Thank you!