This isn’t a truck for the hundreds of thousands of buyers looking for the perfect, job-site-groomed F-150, RAM, or Silverado, but it’s a truck. This isn’t a truck to haul your speedboat, your friends, and everyone’s coolers – all at the same time – but it’s a truck. This isn’t a truck to secretly signal six-figure MSRP wealth or plonk yourself down in a massage seat, but it’s still a truck.

The Jeep Gladiator Mojave doesn’t conform to modern conventions of what truck buyers typically want. When you approach the Gladiator from the front, you’ll certainly think you know what’s behind it until you drive on and see the rear of an otherwise attractive Wrangler. Same story, different ending. And for that, thank Auburn Hills, Michigan, because the Jeep Gladiator is a truck for roughnecks.

List the pickups with the highest horsepower and the most ground clearance, and on paper they’ll beat the Gladiator. With a years-old 3.6-liter Pentastar V-6 making 285 horsepower and 260 pound-feet of torque, the Gladiator doesn’t outdo many of its competitors. On the road, the solid axles make it seem similarly lacking in comfort and precision. But the Gladiator’s refined character lives in its looseness. None of us are perfect, and the Gladiator shines as an imperfect but fun truck.

The V6 fits the chassis well, if only because it does what it’s told without complaint. Mated to an 850RE eight-speed automatic transmission, the Gladiator Mojave has enough torque to rip the rear wheels off the line and provide 0-30 mph acceleration. It’s no surprise that an off-road-focused truck is capable of so much power in the lower rev range. But on the highway, the V6 asks the transmission to drop a gear or two, waiting patiently for its request to be approved before fighting its way up to its 4,400 rpm peak torque and reaching passing speeds. The transmission is slack and upshifts are clunky, especially in lower gears. Yet what would be annoying in a sports car adds character to such a proud utility vehicle.

The real heart of the Gladiator Mojave is its off-road hardware. Equipped with 33-inch all-terrain tires, Dana 44 axles and a 1-inch front suspension, as well as hydraulic Fox bump stops up front and 2.5-inch shocks with internal bypass and external reservoirs front and rear, the Mojave is more at home off-road than on-road. With its lightweight rear end, 31.5 inches of fording capability, switchable 4WD and low gear, and limited-slip rear differential, the Gladiator Mojave makes adventures on loose surfaces much wilder than the Wrangler.

On the road, driving the Gladiator is like driving a Wrangler derivative—a little loose. Keeping the steering wheel straight at highway speeds requires most of your concentration, though you never feel like the front axle is slipping away from you. That imprecision, and the Mojave trim’s high-quality suspension, actually affect its handling in New York City, where it soaks up deep holes and numerous expansion joints in equal measure. Braking performance is adequate, though the pedal is a little soft, requiring an extra nudge to quickly slow the truck down from highway speeds, taking noticeable weight off the bed-laden wheels in the process. Since I was only 100 miles from the George Washington Bridge, I didn’t get the chance to drive the Gladiator Mojave aggressively in its natural habitat. But there’s no doubt that the upgraded hardware would allow the Gladiator Mojave to match or surpass previous Wrangler experiences in sandstone-climbing prowess.

Inside the Gladiator, the new year’s redesign did a good job of making it suitable for Gen Z. Seamlessly integrated into the dashboard is a 12.3-inch screen that responds quickly to touch and connects easily to Apple CarPlay. While the proprietary navigation system is slow, the vehicle settings were fairly easy to navigate and the tech can boast some cool trail stats like pitch angle and yaw. Stacked vertically below the screen within reach of both front seat occupants are a series of window switches and power banks with clear function. It’s not that the Gladiator is devoid of bells and whistles, but its trim is designed for ease of use whether you’re covered in mud or not.

Oddly enough, the Gladiator is still a truck, and of course I did my best to do truck things with it. After a failed attempt to shop at IKEA, a beloved recliner needed to be transported back to New York City from the Hudson Valley, and the Gladiator came to the rescue. No matter how it was oriented, the recliner sat uncomfortably in the 60.3-inch bed, leaving little room for much else. Compared to smaller, off-road-focused trucks like the Nissan Frontier Hardbody with its 73.3-inch bed, the Gladiator’s bed is about a foot shorter.

With an MSRP of $65,865, our Gladiator Mojave test vehicle was on the expensive side. For that amount, a well-equipped F-150 or Silverado crew cab is affordable for those who need a real truck, as are performance models like Ford’s Ranger Raptor or Toyota’s Tacoma TRD Pro. Of course, a Ranger Raptor or Tacoma TRD Pro can handle loose surfaces, but the Gladiator is better equipped for any surface. Boulders and rocks included. I’ll even admit that I had ambivalent feelings about the Wrangler family before my time with the Gladiator, but it managed to put a smile on my face every time the rear tires spun or the Fox Racing shocks absorbed a New York crater. That’s worth something, especially if you’re a diehard trail rider, but maybe not $65,000.

It wouldn’t be fair to say the Gladiator Mojave isn’t suitable as a pickup truck – it actually hauls real loads and can tow up to 6,000 pounds. But Gladiator buyers know the truck is much better suited to real singletrack than anything with a bed in the back. That goes double for the Mojave.

Emmet White, a New Yorker originally from the Pacific Northwest, has a passion for all things cars, bikes, planes, and motorcycles. After learning to drive at 17, Emmet worked in the motorcycle industry before joining Autoweek in 2022 and Road & Track in 2024. The difficulties of parking across the street have kept his fleet manageable, with a 2014 Volkswagen Jetta GLI and a BMW 318i E30 parked on the street in his Queens neighborhood.