Like everything- it depends. Sometimes the way the features are place will lend itself to a longer wheelbase, sometimes a shorter. The only constant will be pure breakover at a pinnacle of an ascent. But I’ll bet there will be lots of armchair youtube expert opinion on it.
So speaking from experience, i wheel in a 03 Jeep TJ, my wife a 2010 4 door JK, my buddy a 2022 jeep JT Gladiator. And let me tell you what.... I will do a obstacles and make it look easy, and they both will struggle. Then my wife will hit a obstacles and make it look like nothing and me and my buddy will fight to get up it. Then there will be another one that he walks right up with 0 issues and me and my wife struggle hard on. So, like you said, it all depends on the obstacles, they all favore different wheel base, just depending on the line you take and the angles. Also, the jeeps are lifted not to far off from one another TJ is on a 4" with 36" JKU is on a 3.5" with 38" JT Gladiator is on a 3.5" with 37"
There is no perfect wheelbase. 2 door Wranglers have a great wheelbase for tight trails and switchbacks. Gladiators have the long wheelbase which helps with ride and stability on steep ascents and descents. 4 door Wranglers have a nice balance between the two. It all depends on what you need, want, what type of off roading you do, etc.
To me, the shortbed Comanche has the perfect wheelbase for offroading at 113 inches. My Comanche made short work of two obstacles in Moab where wheelbase is critical - Mickey's Hot Tub and Potato Salad Hill.
I have a dodge on 37s, which has within 3 inches of the same wheelbase, its actually surprising how good the length is especially in moab, in colorado where the rocks get tight it might be a little too much though.
No. Most would say that "serious" off road vehicles have a wheelbase of about 100 inches. It's difficult to achieve huge breakover angles on the gladiator (beyond 35° or something like that) without increasing the ride height 6 inches +. This increase in height then increases rollover potential. You'd have to lift a lot and widen alot - and people do. Of course it can be done and there are a lot of people doing it it's just going to take more work to make the Gladiator have good angles than it would a two-door Wrangler, a Jeep Renegade, or even a Cherokee Trailhawk. I have a 28 degree break-over with my setup(modified). A gladiator would have to be 4-6 inches higher than me to do the same thing.
I have trailing arms on my diesel JT and it is a fking terminator in the desert and its been all over moab, rubicon, big bear and the non guaranteed body damage trails in johnson valley.
2020, they are basically the same except wrangler offers a 392 anf 4cyl turbo. Wrangler gets all of the engines while gladiator only gets v6 and diesels.
Same, my friend has a gladiator but he takes his TJ unlimited offroad. I can't even get him to take his gladiator to Silver Lake dunes and is wide open there.
You need to watch some of the videos from Ozark Overland Adventures and Story Till Now. Then tell me the Gladiator is viable off-road or not. And even if you still don’t think so, I’d still disagree with you.
Not sure I agree. I've had JK, JLU, and gladiator. In tight spots and sharp break over the gladiator hurts a bit, otherwise it has taken everything I can throw at it and is WAY more comfortable than the others when not crawling.
You get them to have fun not tow, o top of that it can tow as much as a light truck, like a ranger or sone Tacoma 🤡 take your shit attitude somewhere else
