New Jeep - Gladiator Rubicon
- Thread starter Bobzdar
- Start date
Some pics from this past weekend, took a trip to the NY/PA border and got 2-3" of snow. Got to try out the Crua Loj in cold weather for the first time and was very impressed with it vs. my previous Alaknak. It's more well engineered, if not quite as well executed.
The Jeep performed well, but I damaged something on the exhaust and I HATE that the ignition has to be on for the inverter to work. This mean I had to idle the Jeep for long periods of time if I wanted to use AC power for more than 20 minutes (which is as long as the ACC will stay on for). I'm going to figure out how to make it just tie to the dash switch regardless of ignition status.
The Jeep performed well, but I damaged something on the exhaust and I HATE that the ignition has to be on for the inverter to work. This mean I had to idle the Jeep for long periods of time if I wanted to use AC power for more than 20 minutes (which is as long as the ACC will stay on for). I'm going to figure out how to make it just tie to the dash switch regardless of ignition status.
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So a major bummer - I had my Jeep scheduled to go in last Friday for the driveshaft recall. On Wednesday evening, I got stuck in traffic and it started shifting roughly. Friday morning on the way to the dealer it went into what appeared to be a failsafe mode - stuck in 4th. Got word Friday afternoon that it needed a new transmission and that I'm 12th in line for one, so does not appear to be an isolated issue. I may not have it back for weeks. In the interim they gave me a rental Ram Rebel - not really my cup of tea. It has more power but worse mpg, bigger and heavier without much more payload or towing, and is a rougher ride. I also don't really like riding around with something that says Rebel on the back, but it was that or a minivan....
Got my Jeep back around 26 days after I dropped it off, with a new transmission. All appeared fine but I kept getting a whiff of something burning. I initially figured it was residue from changing the trans, but after around a thousand miles it was still there, usually after long drives while stopped at a traffic light or similar. I popped the hood and found some wetness on the passenger valve cover near the fill tube, so I took it in - they ended up replacing the valve cover. All appears good for now.
I just ordered a fas-top, which is a tonneau and soft top for the bed combined. The soft top folds under the front of the tonneau when not in use and the tonneau rolls up when the full soft top is in use. I found that on my previous trip, the tonneau was barely able to close and in wintry conditions there was no way I'd run with an open bed, so made packing pretty tight. This should allow a lot more room in the bed without concern of things getting wet or grimy from the road, while only having to be up when I need the extra room. One of the things I didn't like about previous Jeeps I had with dual tops, and that I don't like about the bed rack I have for this is that they require storage off of the Jeep. This bed topper is self contained, so always rides with the Jeep without weighing much or taking up much room. I also don't have to decide on one or the other, I can start with the tonneau and if I decide to pick something up that won't fit under it, just roll it up and set up the topper or vice versa.
I just ordered a fas-top, which is a tonneau and soft top for the bed combined. The soft top folds under the front of the tonneau when not in use and the tonneau rolls up when the full soft top is in use. I found that on my previous trip, the tonneau was barely able to close and in wintry conditions there was no way I'd run with an open bed, so made packing pretty tight. This should allow a lot more room in the bed without concern of things getting wet or grimy from the road, while only having to be up when I need the extra room. One of the things I didn't like about previous Jeeps I had with dual tops, and that I don't like about the bed rack I have for this is that they require storage off of the Jeep. This bed topper is self contained, so always rides with the Jeep without weighing much or taking up much room. I also don't have to decide on one or the other, I can start with the tonneau and if I decide to pick something up that won't fit under it, just roll it up and set up the topper or vice versa.
Here are a couple of pics of the fas-top, it folds down under the tonneau when not needed so kind of the best of both worlds. One of things I wanted to avoid was having another top or accessory I had to store, so with this I can drive around with the tonneau cover and only put the topper up when I need the extra room. Takes less time to put up than a typical Jeep soft top.
