What are the bed dimensions?

I guess now I’m going to have to drop by the local Jeep dealer. I am also thinking about a 4Runner now that you guys have me thinking about trading.

A truck bed would be handy occasionally , I’m not thrilled of leaving the back window open and sliding things between the front seats.

But if you buy a 4Runner you can leave the back window open and carry lumber.

A truck bed is handy if it is not to small to put anything in. Then it will just be annoying.

My buddy’s white one I spoke of:


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1621453905.jpg

Honestly, just rent the box store truck, a local rental trailer or have the stuff delivered when you need it.

Keep the Jeep if you like it and it is reliable.

My wife's new 4Runner is bigger than my 1986 Land Cruiser...they are not small.

Styling, Jeeps have looked like that forever. I’m sure many years ago they were in fact just slapped on.

5 ft long plus the tailgate, 4 ft wide over the wheel wells. The tailgate has an intermediate stop to carry longer stuff at an angle. If I need to haul longer lumber I’ll either buy a bed extender or rent the local big box store truck for $20. It’s not that small considering most short bed 1/2 ton trucks are a 5.5 ft bed.

It’s at least worth taking a look. If you like Jeeps you’ll like it. If you don’t like Jeeps you probably won’t. Sort of like how the old 911s tended to be polarizing. Personally I’ve had new 4Runners as rentals and not been impressed, they are reliable trucks I’m sure but I feel like Toyota has gotten lazy as of late.

I love those things. I would just get the regular Rubicon and go and do stupid things with it bone-stock.

My F150 has the 5.5 ft bed. When hauling lumber I'll run it up through the rear window or use my hitch extender. Also works great hauling the kayak.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1621459249.jpg

I had two short bed F150s and did the same thing. The reality is that I almost never need to haul anything over 8 ft. For that very rare instance I’ll make alternate arrangements, but I won’t buy a truck that caters to the 1% of my use.

Just got back from the dealer. Looks like they will give me close to what I paid for my 2017 with 32,000 miles. Of coarse they expect me to pay close to sticker for the new one. They mentioned a small rebate and a few other things.

Still better than I was expecting, much better than the wife’s 2017 bmw that I paid much more for.

I drove the basic S with a hardtop, auto, and a few other things, list was $43,000. It rode better than my wrangler and the wife liked it. But it was black, not going to work for me in SW Florida.

Drove one they put a lift kit on and bigger wheels and a few other things, soft top, auto. Way to noisy and the wife didn’t like it, so no go. $48,000.

Did not drive a Mojave or Rubicon. They had many more Rubicon’s than Mojave’s. Only two Mojave’s and maybe five or six Rubicon’s. They were around $54,000-$56,000 or so. They had one special one that was over $70,000.

The Mojave’s were taco, kind of yellow, and sarge green. The Rubicon’s were white, sarge green, gator green, black, and blue.

I can of coarse order one and they said it will be about 4 months. They said they sell more Rubicon’s than Mojave’s down here.

Those are a bit more than I would like to spend, but i assume resale would be better and if I added leather seats and the navigation and bigger tires I’m not to sure I would be that far off.

I’m going to to a little research online and think about it for a few days.

Just as a data point, MSRP on mine was a little over $55k and I paid right at $50k out the door not including taxes and registration, which I have to pay locally. I drove about 3 hours one way to MO to get what I wanted.

Thanks, I didn’t really talk price much, just asked them to give me an idea. They did include taxes and registration, I’m not sure how much that is. Sales tax is 7% on the difference I’m guessing.

They weren’t pushing, just gave me the keys to what I wanted and waved. Didn’t even ask for my license. But I did buy my wrangler there and golf with the owner.

If I can trade my 2017 wrangler S for a new Rubicon or Mojave for $20-25k I may do it. But I haven’t driven those yet.

And I may still decide to just keep my wrangler and $20k-$25k.

My apologies, I didn't mean so much the cab. I know it is not a full size truck but of the ones I have seen in person the bed isn't big enough. I think at least 1990's size would be better. That is nothing negative about your vehicle. It is the size it is and I like it.

I wish you a lot of happy times and enjoyment with it. It looks like fun.

Looks like Florida only charges tax on the "boot," or difference from the new car to the used car. If they're paying too much for your Wrangler, then it looks like they're "overallowing" on it and adding the difference to the Gladiator. That's actually illegal in CA, but hard to catch and not enforced that I've seen.

If you talk turkey with them, find out the bottom line on the Gladiator and the Wrangler, not the difference figure. Then you can see if it's worth trading in to them vs selling to Carvana, Vroom, or Shift. They have a disadvantage in that you'll pay the sales tax on the value of the Wrangler, but it would be good to see what's what.

No worries at all, everybody has different needs. I wouldn’t recommend one for someone that hauled a lot of sheet goods or long lumber. Fortunately I mostly haul boating gear to and from the lake so it’s perfect.

Agreed, always better to negotiate them separately. But in today’s used market the offer on the Wrangler doesn’t surprise me, used cars are selling for over retail prices at auction. Apparently the rental car companies are on a buying spree because they can’t buy enough new cars to meet the increasing rental demand. It’s a weird situation.

Doing what we bought it to do. Love this thing! Also got the front windows tinted to match and had it ceramic coated.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1622903504.jpg

What kind of ceramic coating? I had my Land Cruiser done with Ceramic Pro and really like it.

Looks sharp!

Looks great, Matt. As I said before, that color looks the business in the real world.

Rather than look stuff up (:cool:): What are the advantages of ceramic coating and can you do it on older, think 1996, cars?

Price point?

I think of ceramic as being the latest generation of paint protection, which to me is basically like long term wax. There was silicone based, then teflon type products over the years. I professional acquaintance of mine for many years owns a detail shop in Oakland and I think he does top notch work. When I wanted to get a car done, he was also offering ceramic and he said it shines better and lasts longer, with less frequent reseals needed. And it was more expensive. I gave him a white Tesla Model 3 and did the ceramic and I have to agree- I've seen paint protection put on cars for decades and this stuff was significantly better. It seems to generate a harder shine, and when the car gets washed looks better than anything I've used before.

The problem is getting it installed with the proper preparation. You need to find someone who does the proper prep. So, referrals from those who in the know is important. My guy is $750 for a regular car nearly new and it goes up from there for size and additional prep needed. Most people I run across think it's a bargain, as they've been hearing $2,000. Dealers hype it and charge up to $5,000 for it, which is a shame. It's not that good. These kind of numbers are from what I hear in CA, so I'm sure elsewhere in the country you'll find legitimate details with smaller heads.

If you're doing a 1996, you'll want to find somebody well versed with the preparation aka paint correction before putting on the final coat.

My new LC was a little over a thousand.

To get it redone on my 997 was about 1800! But he had to remove the older coat of it and then work on the paint.

I think it’s completely worth it just in the time it saves me waxing the old traditional way. I still wash and wax my F350, but since the LC will be my DD the ease of just spraying it off and doing the traditional wash less often was very appealing.