Gladiator or Tacoma, Help Me Decide!

Are you implying that solid front axle jeeps can be a bit jarring?

 

That red Gladiator is sweet.

Looks like a nice Gladiator! You nailed it on wheeling an expensive vehicle and the harder tails. I saw this years ago, guys buying a new 4x4, dumping money into, and what original owner is really going to beat on it (unless you have a YouTube following!).

I have a nicely build TJ, original owner, and it's not banged up/rusted out (like many are). It's been my camping/Jeep trail trips out west. Ride is a bit rough at speeds in dirt (being solid axle), but that's not what it excels at.

Anyway, I did look at the Gladiator in 2019. I already had a 4Runner in my garage (love it), and so that's why I looked at the Tacoma. I went with the Tacoma for cost for a midsize pickup, good for dirt roads (TRD OR), and a two door with a 6 ft. bed (Access Cab) for $34k. With a Gladiator, I would have spent a lot more on it. Tacoma is nice, but it's not perfect. Transmission is my biggest gripe. My top like for my Tacoma is that it's paid off.

Besides going up a tire size, I'm not touching the suspension. With a Gladiator IMHO they have to a minimum run 35s to look right. Still, I will someday regret not spending the money on one. But again, the Tacoma is paid off.

 

Well, in Australia they have a saying.

If you want to go into the Outback take a Jeep.
If you want to get back take a Toyota.

 

I had the same dilemma. I love the Gladiator. But I wasn't willing to risk or compromise on quality. I'm glad I got the Tacoma 3rd-gen.

 

This!

 

You are missing something. Watch the video a page or two back comparing Jeep’s to Toyotas. It shows really well the advantages of a solid axle for off-roading.

Also here’s an interesting picture of stock gladiator vs stock trd pro flexing up an RTI ramp. Tacoma has significantly less flex. IFS does in general due to its design.



In theory yes you can modify a Tacoma to get more flex and bigger tires but it’s much much harder to do. And requires lots of actual fab work. You can slap 35s on a stock rubicon. No lift no fab work. You can buy a bolt on lift, simply remove the inner fender liner and run 37s on a rubicon gladiator. Then you have a F/R locked vehicle capable of actual hard trails. To get a Tacoma capable of running the rubicon trail/ Pritchett or equivalent is a huge under taking that requires a ton of money and a ton of work.

I would argue a lot of opinions in here come from people with Tacomas that aren’t modded even close to being able to run the trails the OP talked about. Watch you tube videos about Pritchett or the rubicon or similarly hard trails. It’s a big deal for Tacomas to do those and hardly any have. Meanwhile Probably as many jeeps run those trails in a week as Tacomas do all year. No joke.

Reliability sure Tacomas have it. I sold my last Tacoma with 345k miles. My current fairly heavily modded Tacoma has a 185k miles. But it is incapable of running those trails because I am not a fabricator and already spent more than $10k modding it to off road and it’s not enough. Just getting 35s in a Tacoma is a big deal.

So it comes down to what you need out of a vehicle. OP asked about overlanding and hard trails. It’s just easier to mod a Jeep to be able to do those hard trails.

if you want a truck that will last forever and only ever bounce down the occasional dirt road Tacoma wins. To be fair that’s 99.5% of TWers. You want the ability to be able to run much much harder trails without having to be a master fabricator Jeep has it.

For me personally I loved my Tacoma. But because I spent so much already on mid travel, I can’t justify starting down the long travel road ($10-15k more) on a vehicle with 185k miles. And I off road/camp 20 weekends a year and this year have driven over 1500 miles of dirt including maybe 15 “hard” trails ( top of the world and similar), and my truck is rattling itself to death. Sheet metal cracks all over, squeaks, rattles, constant maintenance. Have replaced CVs, tie rods, the steering rack. And I don’t drive hard. But I want to drive harder trails. I love harder wheeling. And am hamstringed by my current set up.

Had I know better earlier on I could have spent my money a little wiser, learned to weld, and made my truck F/R locked on long travel with 35s for only a little more than I spent now. But trails the OP mentioned are still almost too hard for a Tacoma like that. Tacomas capable of running say the rubicon/Pritchett are few and far between.

 

Didn’t the Jeep Gladiator just get ranked as the most unreliable small pickup by Consumer Reports this year?

I don’t usually agree with all of their assessments, but I will avoid vehicles that peg the meter like this.

I’ll admit, the Jeep looks great, and I might consider one if I had deep enough pockets and was looking for a weekend toy, but as a daily driver I’ll stick with my Tacoma.

 

Just to add to what @deekyn accurately states above, the question the OP needs to answer is: does a Tacoma OR +$20,000 in budget for modifications equal or beat a stock Gladiator?

Just rereading the OP’s post, he states the Gladiator is at the top of his budget and would be a stretch to purchase, leaving no budget for modifications.

FWIW, I hate to feel cash constrained. In your position I’d grab a Tacoma and mod it over time as needed.

 

I stick to about 8 rated trails with 33”. (poison spider, TOTW, Behind the rocks, eagle rock, red cone, etc). Front locker and 35” are coming soon though. So I got my eye on Pritchett and the Rubicon. I don’t run an overland setup though. I run light when I hit the harder trails. Just tools, recovery gear and a cooler


@Buttskevin21 Has run Pritchett, Coyote Canyon, and hardlines just about everything in a 3rd Gen. What’s your opinion Kevin?

 

Sounds like you have a plan. I would love to do the rubicon. I only watched Paul from Fab rats video. From watching it I was thinking first gen would be perfect. Travel light

 

Hey is that citrus WMA? are the cool trails open?

 

If you have money and you want something primarily for offroading (35+ inch tires) jeep is your best bet.

If its a vehicle you drive every day (35- inch tires) and I'd say tacoma

 

Haven’t done Eagle or BTR. But the rest you mentioned, I’ve done. I loved the red cone/ radical hill/ swan loop. Not very hard but so damn scenic. Been dying to hit some more 6s and try 7s but have had a hard time finding other taco dudes to go with because so few guys in Tacomas wheel that hard. Really want to run the trifecta in Moab. Also have 33s and no front locker and many 6s are easily doable, even in my heavy ass set up with a RTT etc. I have yet to do a 7. Pritchett and rubicon, though, would need a big level up for this truck and at 185k miles I’m not sure I want to drop that much more money on. But someday I’d love to do them in some vehicle.

Interesting thing is I’ve seen a few videos of gladiators with an overlanding set up on stock axles and 37s/38s run Pritchett and rubicon without breaking shit. That seems pretty sweet to me. Comfy camping and hard wheeling would be my ideal mix.

 

Tacoma was ranked the most unreliable and one to avoid in the segment by them in 2016 and 2017 I believe as well.

 

I haven’t had to winch on any of the big name trails even with hard lining them. I’ve had harder trouble at a local park (Tuttle creek ORV). Rear Locker and front MTS work pretty well.

I’ve ran the Rubicon on my JLU (before I sold it to my father). Honestly. I don’t think it’s a tough as it used to be. Armor, front locker, 35” and good lines I think a 3rd Gen would be fine.

I’m least familiar with Pritchett canyon. I watched the Sherpa crew and the Warfab guys get through it with 35” and 37” on YouTube. Some of them were running RTTs.

I’ve spent a lot of nights under the stars in my profession. So I’m not super into camping to be honest. I rather get an Air BNB camper for $65 a night and call it good.

 

I feel you. Though this summer I did a a couple weeks of wetland surveys that required camping. I have to say having the fridge, RTT, and awning was pretty nice. Especially since it rained 13 of the 16 nights I camped. And the wife and I prefer to camp over air bnbs at the moment.

 

Neither.

Aztec

 

I don't know about that but it's not like the old days where your beige corolla would run for 500k miles either.

None of that matters for someone who wants to spend a zillion dollars building an Instagram offroad overlander. If OP buys a gladiator and puts 20k into it he's not going to give a shit if stuff breaks he'll just haggle with the dealer and then sell it at 30k miles and buy the new (whatever) because that's what people with money do.

Poor people get the used tacoma with 102k on it and cross their fingers nothing breaks lol.

 

Well, like I said, the solid axle suspension is a functional difference. I'm not missing that fact. I was reacting to a previous post(s) making the blanket statement that a jeep is more capable off-road than a Tacoma. I think it is more nuanced than that.

 

I'm going to toss this out for entertainment purposes. I'm not claiming or disputing that the Rubicon can be run with a stock truck, as I've never gotten anywhere near the trail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGGRAXhxZVA