2020 Jeep Gladiator Mojave Suspension Flex Test: How High Can It Climb My RTI Ramp?

I drive a 2020 Jeep Gladiator Mojave up my RTI (Ramp Travel Index) ramp to measure how much its suspension will flex in a simulated off-road frame-twist situation. The Mojave is a new version of the Gladiator that is tuned for typical high-speed desert use. It's front suspension has been raised one inch, which levels the truck and creates an extra inch of compression travel up front. Special 2.5-inch Fox remote reservoir shocks with internal bypass circuits are fitted, along with special hydraulic front bump stops. The shock mounts on the frame and axles have been strengthened, the rear axle tube is thicker, and the front knuckles use cast iron instead of the aluminum found on the Rubicon. These changes give the Mojave the ability to attack the kinds of whoop-de-doos and washboard you get in the desert.

It's not meant to be the sort of rock crawler the Rubicon is, so it gives up a few features to offset the cost of those fancy shocks: It only has a rear locking differential, the transfer case is 2.72-to-1 instead of 4-to-1 and it has a fixed front stabilizer bar that lacks the Rubicon's electronic disconnect mechanism. This last item is the main focus here, but we're also keen to see if the suspension has other surprises that change how it'll perform in this test.

There's also a written version of this 2020 Jeep Gladiator Mojave Suspension Flex Test with numerous photographs and detailed explanations you can scan at your leisure at Autoblog.com:

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/05/07/2...

Traction is critically important when driving off-road, and the best defense against getting stuck is having all four wheels on the ground at all time. Sure, a hiked up wheel makes a great social media photo, but it's a sign that there isn't enough suspension flex for the terrain. It usually means someone's about to get stuck. Locking differentials and tricky electronic aids can sometimes get you through, but having all four wheels on the ground will still give you maximum traction and control.

The idea of an RTI ramp is simple. It creates an artificial but repeatable frame-twist situation that allows you to safely reach the point of maximum suspension flex and quantify that through a simple measurement. Numerical scores are based on a vehicle’s performance on a 20-degree ramp, an angle that was chosen some time ago and works well for stock vehicles.

Why am I doing this? I love this stuff. I'm a former suspension development engineer that spent most of my career developing off-road focused trucks and SUVs. Later, I somehow found my way into auto journalism, and for several years I created a popular photo feature called a Suspension Walkaround for Inside Line, a now-defunct offshoot of Edmunds.com (no relation). Today I have resumed writing these features under the name Suspension Deep Dive for Autoblog. I'm also doing video versions here on this channel.

But I'm also known for a series of RTI blog posts and Instagram shots featuring numerous off-road vehicles posing on this very RTI ramp. I didn't know where to buy such a ramp when I first got interested in doing this, so I designed one myself, bought all the metal, cut it to size, and had a friend of a friend weld it together. My previous employer was tired of it being in the way, so it's now with me at home, where I'm starting to re-build my database with new vehicles. I'll be keeping track of everything I measure and will be calling my database the Flex Index.

I never seemed to have the time, the equipment, or the confidence to get in front of the camera, but I got over that by hosting at least 80 professionally-produced videos over the last three years on the Edmunds.com You Tube channel. If you like this video, tell your friends, click subscribe, share links, give it a like and check out the other videos on my channel, which is simply called Dan Edmunds. And I take requests. I can't promise that I can get my hands on every new off-road oriented truck or SUV, but the odds are good. And the more views I get, the more horsepower I'll have when requesting off-road vehicles to examine.