The Jeep Gladiator pickup is a tough off-road mudder

From the top from the mound, I can not see much. Some trees. A sky marbled with clouds that, in recent days, have permeated this grbady meadow of the foothills of the Sierra. And a pair of hands, apparently related to a human being, arms raised, motioning me to move forward. To obey them seems to be a terrible idea. About as bad as climbing to the top of this slope in the first place. But orders are orders. I engage my heart, squeeze my cheeks and push my right foot on the accelerator pedal. The 3.6-liter V6 engine responds, and the four 32-inch wheels, clad in mud-loving tires, move forward. This is how the Jeep Gladiator pickup grows on the rock-strewn slope and at 35 degrees with all the greedy and confident spasticity of a big dog rushing down a marble staircase.

Seconds later, as I begin to wonder if life after death really resembles northern California, my guide turns his hands in fists to signal "stop," then straighten my hand. "Good job!" I manage to smile nervously, but I take no credit. The Jeep engineers built the Gladiator for this kind of madness, and they invited me to this off-road course because they want to show me how good they have done.

At a time when SUVs and vans have never been so popular, the Gladiator is an imminent comeback for Jeep, which offered light truck versions of its vehicles from the late '40s to the early' 90s. a lot to Wrangler, but the team insists that she did not just snap a bed in the existing ring. "The challenge for us was to develop a truck that is a truck," says Pete Milosavlevski, Chief Engineer Gladiator.

In their three years of developing this model, Jeep's engineering team made a series of choices that sought a balance of utility, robustness and comfort. It fitted the Gladiator with solid axles, stronger wheels, the biggest brakes in the segment, a larger grille to bring more cold, a "tried and true" steel bed at a time when competitors were opting for it. aluminum and even carbon fiber.

Because they made the doors and roof very easy to open, the Jeep designers glued lockers behind and under the rear seats to let you store your valuables while kayaking. They included a 115-volt plug in the five-foot bed and a portable Bluetooth speaker that will survive for half an hour underwater. It would take me a few weeks of life with the jeep to check that all these little touches are good ideas, but a few minutes of twists on the rocks were enough to appreciate the decision to wrap the armrests and door handles. This and the heated seats.

The four – door Gladiator starts at $ 33,545 (for the Sport Manual Transmission Edition), but if you have money to spend, a fully specified Rubicon version will earn you $ 60,000. Production at the Toledo Jeep plant begins in April and deliveries are scheduled for May. Buy now and you'll get this 3.6-liter, 285-hp, 260-pound-foot gasoline engine, and 19-mile EPA performance rating. Wait about a year and you can opt for a 3.0-liter diesel engine that will increase torque up to over 400 lb-ft.

Approaching gasoline, however, I discover that the 260 is more than enough to go deep into the kind of terrain that, in just about any other vehicle (including my feet), that would make me say : Oops, better take the long way 'round. And at the end of the 30-minute off-road exercise, after watching the roll and roll gauges of the vehicle, a back and forth is heard. The New York Times & # 39; Electoral needles, I wear a real smile. Most buyers will never reach the limit of what the Gladiator can do, like juggling happily in 30 inches of water, but those who do it are sure to be entertained.

More great cable stories