2024 Jeep Gladiator Mojave X First Test: Jeep’s Best Fast Weapon For the Dirt

Even with its V-8, the outgoing Wrangler 392 is not the best fast Jeep in the dirt—that crown goes to the Jeep Gladiator Mojave.

When the Jeep Gladiator pickup truck arrived in 2020, it filled a void left since the days of the Cherokee-based Jeep Comanche. The new Gladiator was 100 percent truck and 100 percent Jeep, and it featured two special flavors: the tougher-than-rocks Rubicon and the faster-in-the-dirt Mojave. Jeep recently treated its Desert Rated pickup truck to a suite of modern upgrades like those found on the 2024 Jeep Wrangler. How does the revised 2024 Jeep Gladiator Mojave X trim place the go-fast off-road truck among other trail-tuned midsize pickups? Let’s find out.

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What Is the Gladiator Mojave?

Where the Jeep Gladiator Rubicon is tailored to crawl over hardcore rock trails, the Gladiator Mojave has the go-fast goods to help maintain speed in the dirt and absorb harder hits. From the curb, your Gladiator Mojave can be identified by its orange tow hooks, Mojave hood decals, and the scooped performance hood—but the upgrades are more than skin deep.

The truck’s suspension truly separates the Mojave from other Gladiator models. Up front, the remote-reservoir Fox 2.5 shocks offer more cooling capability than the dampers typically found on the Gladiator. Plus, they’re accompanied by a pair of hydraulic jounce shocks mounted within each front coil bucket. Like the units found on the Colorado ZR2 and Tacoma TRD Pro, these bumpers help cushion the final inches of upward suspension travel and provide more performance than rubber or foam. In the back, the 2024 Jeep Gladiator Mojave X maintains a linked suspension-arm setup with another pair of Fox piggyback reservoirs. The Mojave’s front suspension is lifted an inch compared to the stock Gladiator and features a 1.0-inch-wider track width.

Following recent updates to the Wrangler platform, the Gladiator now benefits from a modernized yet still rugged interior. Though the 12-way power seats take longer to adjust than the outgoing manual seats, they help to position the driver correctly to see out of the Gladiator and onto the trail. The 12.3-inch Uconnect screen is also much more than a frivolous tech upgrade. The wider screen expands the cabin visually while offering deeper colors and improved visibility in direct sunlight (read: with the roof and doors removed). The jury is still out on the subscription-only 3,000-trail database.

Off-Road+ truly makes the 2024 Jeep Gladiator Mojave X a dirt weapon. One press of the Off-Road+ button on the center stack quickens throttle response, adjusts the transmission’s shift points, and all but completely disables traction and stability control to allow for the most wheelspin. You can also engage the rear locking differential in this mode. With the Gladiator’s transfer case in 4Auto or 4-Hi, Off-Road+ gives drivers the most freedom to steer with the rear and have the most fun on open and bumpy terrain. While in 4-Lo, Off-Road+ is the best combination to keep traction while still powering through slower-speed obstacles.

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How Does the Gladiator Mojave Compare?

As the only midsize pickup truck on the market with live axles front and rear, the 2024 Jeep Gladiator Mojave has an inherent disadvantage when compared to trucks with independent front suspension. When traveling over high-speed bumps, even with the larger Fox shocks and jounce bumpers, your Gladiator Mojave will hit its limit before the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 Bison.

With hydraulic jounce shocks in the rear, the Toyota Tacoma TRD Pro behaves in a slightly different manner in fast dirt sections but feels no more or less capable at speed than the Mojave. Hard hits in desert whoops and washouts will engage the Gladiator Mojave’s front hydraulic jounce bumpers with a loud “clonk” signaling the suspension has reached the end of its travel. Compared to the Gladiator Rubicon, the Mojave can tackle bumps at nearly twice the speed before feeling harsh or out of control. Credit to the Fox dampers.

Where Jeep’s Gladiator Mojave notably excels is with hardcore trail strength. Even though it was bred to handle faster dirt trails, it can still crawl rocks—and does so better than independent-front-suspension trucks because of its brawny live front axle. Jeep’s Mojave is only held back in the rocks by its lack of a disconnecting front anti-roll bar and a front locking differential.

Opting for the 2024 Jeep Gladiator Mojave over the Willys (one trim level down the ladder) takes you from $46,890 to $58,230. Choose the Mojave X (which adds off-road cameras, steel bumpers, body-color hardtop and fenders, full-time transfer case, and more) and the sticker is $18,000 more than a Willys (our test truck was optioned to $70,130). This seems like a lot to ask for a truck without a front locker, disconnecting anti-roll bar, or selectable drive modes, especially considering the built-to-the-hilt Chevy Colorado ZR2 Bison (35-inch tires, Multimatic spool-valve shocks, and the best armor package of any midsize pickup) costs just more than $60,000.

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Why Buy the Jeep Gladiator Mojave?

Numbers don’t lie, and the 2024 Jeep Gladiator Mojave is not the most powerful midsize pickup truck, the quickest, or even the best equipped to tackle the faster bumps. Why spend the money? The Desert Rated truck is still a rugged rock crawler and it’s still the only convertible midsize that encourages removal of doors, folding the windshield forward, and taking a raw hit of the great outdoors—you know, that whole Jeep thing. The Wrangler 392 is a faster Jeep on pavement, but drive across a trail washout at faster than 20 mph, and your spinal column will feel the compressive effects of the heavy V-8 and limited shock damping. With its Fox shocks, hydraulic jounce bumpers, and Off-Road+ Mode, the Jeep Gladiator Mojave might not be the all-around best desert-bashing midsize truck, but it is the best Jeep product yet for chasing speed in the dirt.