LEAKED! Say Hello To The Upcoming Jeep Gladiator

Jeep_gladiator_2

Jeep’s upcoming Wrangler based pick-up truck has garnered a lot of attention with speculations surfacing on the internet every now and then. A few spy shots did surface which was, however, not enough to quench our thirst.

Now in a finalised iteration, a few photos that give us the complete image of the truck has been leaked online. The photos which were spotted by one of the Jeep Gladiator Forum members were among the press photos that were saved for later.

We had to update our Jeep vocabulary after the name was finally decided to be ‘Gladiator’, rather than the cringe-worthy ‘Scrambler’, that was rumoured until then. We confirmed the name tag after the spec sheet of the vehicle accidentally leaked on FCA’s website.

The spec sheet of the upcoming vehicle enlightened us with facts such as the pick-up would be a Wrangler-based four-door model which will come standard with a soft top along with two options of additional hard-tops.

Similar to the Wrangler, the Gladiator will also sport Jeep’s Command-Trac and Rock-Trac four-wheel-drive systems, along with Dana 44 axles, electric front- and rear-axle lockers, a limited-slip differential, and electronic sway-bar disconnect along with 33-inch off-road tires.

Meanwhile, the Rubicon models are expected to also have a forward-facing camera for better rock-crawling visibility. Apart from that, Jeep’s claimed 30 inches of water fording ability should please most off-road enthusiasts.

Featuring the Gladiator is also the fold-down windshield, a derivative of the Wrangler, as does the FCA’s fourth-generation Uconnect infotainment system.

The pick-up will have a 5-foot steel bed with up to 725kg of payload capacity. The Gladiator’s tow rating in some configurations will reach 3470kg.

On the mechanical part, we are expecting Jeep to offer the Gladiator with a choice of two powertrains: A 3.6-litre V-6 hooked to either an 8-speed automatic or a 6-speed manual will be standard, while a 3.0-litre turbodiesel V-6 teamed an 8-speed automatic could become an option in 2020.