See How Our 2020 Jeep Gladiator Works As An Overland Camping Companion? Behind The Scenes

Now this is a behind the scenes, video to show you our camp set up as we prepare for another day out on the trail for our no pavement needed series where we are bringing you some of the most beautiful passes throughout the wonderful state of colorado, and We are currently setting up camp here at the buena vista koa because we are living large. Well. To be honest, we have the f 250 with us, and andre really wants water, so we've got the water set up for the f 250, but here on the gladiator we have the roof nest and in this video i kind of want to show you just how The vehicle is done on a little road trip out here, a couple hours away from boulder and also talk about what it's like to camp in the jeep gladiator. Now this is our project truck it's, a 2020. we partnered with mopar and warren and bfg for the build of this vehicle. So it's got a two inch: lift it's got full mopar parts, which means it's got the complete warranty in the front. We'Ve got our winch with the light set up, and the nice thing about this light set up here is we've got the pods on the front, the pods on the a pillar, and that is all controlled via the auxiliary switches we had installed over at johnson's autoplasm. Now the snorkel here is probably the least useful thing on the jeep, but i really wanted it because it looks cool and you're probably going to disagree, but i think it looks really cool.

The whole goal of this build was to be very purposeful. So, apart from the snorkel, everything on this jeep has a purpose. Everything on this jeep is used, including the steel wheels. Steel wheels are great on the trail, because, if you bend them, you can bang them back into shape with a hammer. Well, i can't, because i have the upper body strength of a limb squirrel, but someone with a moderate amount of upper body strength could salvage a wheel if you were to bend it on the trail fox shocks now that's the jeep you've probably seen this this vehicle. In some of our other video videos, but let me show you the camping setup, because this is the part i'm currently really excited about. Now. Of course, the gladiator is a pickup truck and in order to mount a tent, a rooftop tent to our pickup truck, we partnered with this company called rackstars. This is a company out of boulder colorado. They make these uh racks here in the united states and they are super heavy duty. So, unlike most pickup racks, where you'll have two crossbars, the rackstar system has three and then it has these molle panels that keep it all nice and taut. So this thing is going nowhere, and this is a huge deal, especially when you're out on the trail. You don't want a lot of flex. You don't want, whatever you have on top of the rack to uh, potentially either damage the rack itself or fall off.

So this is a super, robust system and the way it works. It ties in here into the factory bed rails. I added these on. These are the mopar rails. You can see it's bolted in there, the three cross members and then the rockstar molly panel is also um uh, ready to take accessories so max tracks, or in this case we have uh additional containers for water and gasoline mounted on the side of the molle panels. Now in the bed, this is the decked system. This is a drawer organization system for the rear of your gladiator or your other mid size, pickup truck you can see. I'Ve got my recovery bags and my air down tools and my air compressor in this left. One and then in the right one i just have a set of recovery boards, just in case we get beached and then of course you do have some additional room above the deck system. Before you hit the tents, so you could store some other stuff on there too. If you had larger items now, let's talk about this tent. This is the roof nest condor, and this is a really premium tent i'm really impressed with the size of this tent. Now, in the last video, my dad and i shared a tent, but we shared the roofness sparrow, which is down there on our silverado and that's, the one that pops up the condor is more of a two piece fold system.

So you've got a hard shell that folds back and then the whole bottom portion of the tent folds like this and then of course, it's supported here on one side by the ladder and then of course, it's also melted mounted securely to the rock star. As a rack, but the cool thing about the condor is it's extremely large i'm still setting it up here. So i haven't quite got my sleeping bags in position, but this is more of like a two and a half or three person tent. So three smaller people or two larger people that want some additional comfort. This is perfect for nice, soft padding. We have one of the windows open. Unfortunately, you can see here. The window is secured via these rods, but the way we have it mounted that rod would hit the back of the cab. So i have to figure out a new solution for that always tinkering out here, but i think this is going to be nice and warm tonight. You can see it's insulated as well, so this should be the way to do it. I'M. Really stoked about this it's gon na be a great night's sleep. The advantage of having a tent like this is you don't have to pull a big camper around when you're out on the trail you don't have to deal with additional weight of a bed mounted camper. Like andre, even though those are comfortable and they're much smaller than a a trailer which is great for when you're off road they're, still pretty heavy and there's, not a lot of bed mounted camper options.

At least i have found for the gladiator. So this is a light compact solution. I can fold it up into just a small box that lives on the top of the the jeep is hard shell, and i can drive this jeep around every day, not worried about it, not worried about someone breaking into it or something it's. A nice convenient solution and i'm impressed with the quality we've had a few of these we've had yakimas and easy ons and i think the roof nest has been the best so far, certainly the most comfortable, and this one is definitely one of the largest anyway. So there you have it quick little walk around of our jeep gladiator biltar. We are going to run. I think 10 cup pass, which is one of the most scenic passes in the state. We have the rubicon here. We'Ve got the silverado trail boss down there. Andre is somewhere out in the boonies and his f250 baby and then, of course, i'll be in the gladiator in terms of overall interior space, plenty in terms of backseat rooms. We have all of our camera gear computers all that lives back here in the rear seat. It all got kind of jumbled around when i threw together camp, but the front seats is kind of where i have a space issues. I'Ve talked about this in previous videos, but the driver's seat just does not go back far enough for me at six foot.

One inch tall so it's hard to get comfortable and the seats just don't have enough lumbar support for my liking. This is the biggest issue i have with the jeep, but if you can kind of get past that which is granted a big thing to get past plenty of headroom here so headroom is definitely not an issue. Good visibility too. So, unlike the silverado, which is a little bit closed off on the inside, a very high sills, the gladiator big windows, flat windows as well easy to see the world, the uconnect system is great 8.4 inch. Uconnect system we've been uh pairing our phone with the system too, so we can play our music as we cruise down. The road, of course, am fm xm capability heated steering wheel. This is a loaded truck it's, an expensive truck, though 55 000 and fuel economy. It says 16. it's a little better than that. I haven't recalibrated for the uh oversized tires in terms of power decent power you're. Never you never feel like you're at a loss of power, but you never feel like you have an excess amount of power to overtake semis on a two lane road, so it's not underpowered, but i certainly could probably use another 50 horsepower or a re gear. Although i'm not sure i'm gon na go re gear out, i kind of like the 410s, i kind of like how it was all built together at the factory.

So you know it's going to hold up a jeep built this lift specifically for the 35s, and they also built it for the 410s, because this was all a package so i'm going to trust the fca engineers there, but i'll show you the pentastar 285 horsepower 260 Pound feet of torque, this is going to be hard. One handed i apologize. Oh there we go wows are that sturdy definitely got to clean that up, but very reliable uh. I know if you all out there are fans of a certain youtube channel who waves his arm and talks into a camera very loudly. That gentleman will tell you that never never buy a jeep they're going to fall apart. The second you pull it off the lot, but the 3.6 has been around for close to eight years now in the wranglers it's it's a it's, a simple engine. The fact of the matter is it's, not direct injected it's, not turbocharged. We have not a lot of mileage on this truck just under 7000 there, but absolutely no issues to report with the three six. It runs. It works it's a little slow, but who cares as long as it gets me home off? The trail i'm gon na be a happy camper, well anyways, just a quick look at the jeep gladiator build uh i'm gon na finish. Setting up camp and we'll uh hit the trail tomorrow.