Gabriel Silveira
08/27/2021 2:50 PM
Clarín.com
Cars
Updated 08/27/2021 2:50 PM
The
Jeep
Gladiator is a pickup that began to be sold this year in our country and the most famous 4x4 brand imagined the perfect plan for the first units of owners who bought one to debut.
But the pandemic and new restrictions delayed the event.
It was necessary to change the location (it was going to be done in Córdoba) and some operational issues.
And everything seemed to have lost its original inertia of enthusiasm.
Even more so when knowing that the destination would be Patagonia, which until that moment had not received an inch of snow in the vicinity of Bariloche and Villa La Angostura.
But almost like a gift from fate, the snowfall was present a few days before and lasted during the two days that the experience lasted, which not only gave it a unique framework, but also increased the complexity of driving and demanded the capabilities of this. pickup.
The mud was the protagonist at the beginning of the experience with the Jeep Gladiator.
Three of the new owners of this pickup participated in the adventure, which in our country is offered in Overland (US $ 93,000) and
Rubicon
(US $ 99,000)
versions
.
A truck that only inherited the name
Jeep already had a pickup named Gladiator in the past.
In fact, it
was produced in Argentina in the 1960s and 1970s
, in Córdoba, by Industrias Kaiser Argentina (IKA), a factory that today produces the Renault Alaskan and Nissan Frontier trucks.
But this edition of the Gladiator has nothing to do with the previous model or with other pickups on the market.
The basis of this vehicle is the Wrangler, probably the 4x4 with the greatest capacity to move through difficult terrain.
And that's where the spirit of this truck goes.
It is a model that includes a four-wheel drive system with a transfer case, which allows multiplying the power of the engine to get out of more complex situations or to go through them more easily.
The good clearance of the Jeep Gladiator makes it easy to get through videos.
The Rubicon version, which than the one that participated with 4 units of this experience, is also equipped with more elements for off-road practice, such as
specific tires
, Fox shock absorbers, mechanical differential locks and a detachable front stabilizer bar, among others.
On the first day of the experience, the theme was mud and an area of little maneuvering on a path through a forest in a private field.
In the first situation, the first heavy snowfalls of the year, which fell a couple of days earlier in the vicinity of Bariloche, generated deep and thick mud after melting on dirt roads.
The specific mud tires (
Mud Terrain
) that the Gladiator Rubicon mounts made that transit almost a walk, when with any other vehicle (or tire) the safe driver would have had much more work and more of a complex situation.
The four Jeep Gladiators who participated in the adventure overcame the obstacles without problems.
The second "test" of the day for the Gladiator made it a bit more difficult.
The forest path through which it was circulated was not very trodden, so there were areas with a certain amount of snow.
But the most complex were the reduced maneuvering spaces.
This pickup is a long vehicle, since it
measures more than 5.5 meters long
, and its turning radius is not one of its virtues.
Therefore, moving between trees made it necessary to do more than one maneuver in several turns.
White where you look
While the participants of the experience rested for the night, a great snowfall fell on
Villa La Angostura and the Road of the Seven Lakes
, which completely changed the perspective for the second day.
In fact, the route almost had to be aborted, since a small avalanche on Route 40 forced to take a detour to reconnect with the route a little further on.
Snow washed over the landscape on the second day of the Jeep Gladiator experience.
The
asphalt was icy
, especially in areas where the sun had not yet set.
The Gladiator march, along with many other Wrangler units, moved slowly but surely through a landscape that had turned completely white.
The destination was to enter the lands of Lake Hermoso Mountain Park, a new complex in the area of the water mirror that just stands out for its beauty.
From then on, almost the entire route was done in "low", to avoid complicated situations.
There was a lot of snow and the roads that had been set for the roadmap were completely covered.
And every few meters, that deep nine footprint would turn into a
mud slush
.
But until that moment, all Gladiators advanced without major inconvenience.
In fact, as the day was sunny, in the truck that the
Clarín
chronicler was traveling
, it was decided to
remove part of the roof
(one of the qualities of this vehicle) to live the adventure more intensely.
The tires on the Jeep Gladiator Rubicon were key to getting through the snow and mud.
It should be noted that the pilots guiding the caravan were in charge of explaining in each position what was coming and how to overcome it.
At a certain point the march stopped.
The amount of fallen snow had complicated a climb, not very steep but extensive, which made it necessary to
overcome it with speed
.
Therefore, it was necessary to disconnect the "low" and prepare to overcome it with the "high" 4x4.
The climb initially did not demand as much, but it did require rhythm.
The performance of the 285 horsepower V6 engine could be sustained with the automatic gearbox (8-speed) positioned in the manual option, passing between third and fourth.
What we had not anticipated is that the colihues (thin reeds with leaves, typical of that area of Patagonia) that lined the path were laden with snow and, therefore, arched over the path.
It was enough for the Gladiator to get a little out of place for
large volumes of snow to enter the cabin
, which only raised the level of adventure a little further and added to the fun.
Fun that in the case of the guests to the experience ended once we got off the Gladiator.
While for the owners it will be repeated every time they want it.
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