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Haha glad you enjoyed it!

Hey, thanks for commenting. So honestly the stock fox suspension was great, was a really nice ride when daily driving and offroad. I would say the pros of the billstein mopar kit would be better long term performance thanks to the reservoir shocks (less likely to have shock fade or issues with excessive heat on longer outdoor excursions), there is less sag when loading up the Gladiator front to back (we towed a larger airstream trailer and there was pretty minimal sag in the rear which was nice as the fox shocks were squishy), offroad it performs great as I'm easily able to flex out the Gladiator (pretty much I'm really just restrained by the Gladiators break over angle then any issues with front or rear flex), as it's subjective but i actually prefer the ride of the bilsteins overall as it's more of a grounded ride where everything is smoothed out; i felt at times with the fox shocks that they would bounce a lot when driving on normal roads, not a bad thing but my preference is for the smoother solid feeling ride. Cons: If your looking for a cushioned ride that will absorb rough roads or offroad envs for more comfort and less bouncing and tossing then your probably going to want the fox shocks for sure they have more play by design (especially if your not going to tow or load up your Gladiator with lots of weight more often then not), outside of that i can't think of any other cons outside of maybe price vs sticking with thr standard fox shocks if you have them or picking a set of takeoffs from Facebook marketplace or something. You can't go wrong either way they are both good for the money, of course there are other versions or brands that could be better just depends on your needs. Hope that helps, I am really enjoying the bilstein shocks really no complaints outside of the ride being less comfortable offroad then the fox but generally more capable as well so I'm fine with that, as I usually airdown somewhat if the terrain is bad enough so it's not that big of a factor.

So I've made a couple of additional updates since then (winch, skid plate, bed canopy) and i get around mid 18s with daily commute / highway with an average range of around 380ish miles and when offroad i get mid 16s mpg. Before I did these additions based on the setup time during this video I was getting an additional mpg both normal daily communities and offroad so 19 / 17 mpg respectively. Nothing ground breaking but I'd say it's pretty respectable; our wrangler has a smaller fuel tank so I'm impressed with the range i get but yeah I wouldn't say it's super economical, never really is with larger tires and a lift. Hope this helps.

@@departureoutdoors Your running 35” tires?

Yeah 35 in BFG KO2s E rating tires and a mopar 2 inch lift using the new Bilstein shocks kit

Hello, thanks for the feedback. I'm really just reading what the sign said and the various guides / Wikipedia. Definitely easy haha, but I do know that the average person not from the mountains or a city slicker may be in over there heads, so giving them a warning of sorts can only help. Of course I'd encourage anyway to get out and have fun, but I'd just hope they do it safe and know what they are getting into, I've seen a number of videos and posts of people taking this road or roads like it, because of Google maps mistakes and getting stuck or scared or popping a tire etc, which isn't good for them or those who want to enjoy this road. I do understand where you are coming from though and technically most roads are doable by almost any vehicle it's just recommendation and in the case your referring too that's more of a youtube thing, using key words like 4x4 help people who want to see stuff like this discover the video.

Bad feedback is feedback, appreciate the comment. I'll try to do less music or perhaps tone it down some. I do this for fun and still new at it so I'm still working on coming up with a good balance of things. Thx.

Hello, yes for sure. The entire alpine loop is doable in a fullsize truck, I've seen a few do it. However there will definitely be parts of the trails that are a little tight and you'll want to be on alert for oncoming traffic and plan where to pull over or what not to ensure you don't have to backup far to let others by. Outside of that, assuming your specifically talking about engineer Pass, I'd suggest if your starting from Lake City that you take Animas Forks Pass or road after coming down from the top of Engineer Pass as opposed to continuing directly on Engineer Pass to Ouray as that last stretch of the trail is switchbacks that connect to The Million Dollar Highway and its pretty tight in places and you can end up in some very offcamber situations that wouldn't be amazing in a fullsize truck. Still doable but I personally wouldn't want to do that last part in a fullsize.

Yeah I heard about the closures that really sucks, I had plans to do Black Bear myself this year but guess I'll have to wait haha. Really appreciate the kind comment, yeah it definitely is a lot of work to shoot these type of videos, but we enjoy it since the end result is awesome to look back on and we're happy to share it with others! Glad you were able to make it out there though, 19 days sounds like such an awesome time!

It was super crowded for sure, seems like most outdoor activities in Colorado are now!

I hear you lol, it's definitely a crazy feeling seeing just how big of a fall it would be if you go over the edge. I have to say though the one on the top of Engineer Pass was the one that had me sweating haha. After that I felt a lot better about the others I've done. Glad you made it through in one piece ✌️

Isn't it! This was our first time out here and it blew us away, feels like fairytale or a hidden gem. Can't wait to go back!

Thanks! We shot these in August of last year, seemed to be a great time, weather was nice and cool and luckily no snow or bad weather.

I hear great things about the old fox shock 2in lift setup and honestly my past experience with fox always impressed me with just how smooth they ride. Great deal!

I’m looking forward to the instal and testing it out. Happy trails!

So the answers yes for basically for both states. Although to be honest I've never been stopped or ask to show my permit, but I do know the funds supposedly go to keeping the trails open and maintained in both states. Utah is more lenient of the two and you just basically get a print out card saying you have a permit in case some one asks you can verify. Colorado on the other hand will mail out or give you in person depending on how you get it a sticker that needs to be applied to the vehicle and so the chance of getting in trouble with state police or park rangers is most likely higher in Colorado. Pretty sure you can pick a permit up in Colorado at any Colorado Parks and Wildife location. Since I'm a local I pickup my yearly in state permit there since it's faster than waiting weeks via doing it online. But you could call them to confirm.

Not gonna argue that, it's basically a fire road here in the Colorado Springs area. A lot of the local trails to us aren't necessarily hardcore but they are still a fun drive with nice scenery so we are just documenting the trails we do regardless of the difficulty as some people actually prefer easier trails like this to take softroaders like subarus, bronco sports, tahous, standsrd trucks, etc and I want to shed light on all of them as we do them. We enjoy just being outdoors in the Jeep it's always a fun time ✌️

Yes it's a fantastic trail! It's call the perimeter trail in Ouray and it genuinely goes around the entirety of the town of Ouray passing waterfalls, rivers, cool mountain landscapes and vistas, you can see the Million Dollar Highway and even people doing the Ouray via ferrata as you walk next to a deep crevasse, etc. It's definitely a worth while hike and lots of opportunities to get off if desired at different points near the town or you can do the entire hike and end up basically back where you start the trail as the hike Is a big loop. ✌️

Hey, so at the time we didn't have a camping setup like we do now so we didn't end up doing any dispersed camping on this trip and ended up staying at a Airbnb in Lake City. I have looked it up though and I hear there is free dispersed camping options near Lake City at Upper Mill Creek, supposed to be kind of a open space area. There are also some Campgrounds within the town of Lake City in Mill Creek Campground and a RV park. Of course there are also spots near to lake city along Cinnamon Pass and engineer Pass that allow you to pull in and do dispersed camping so that could be a option as well, just depends on what your looking for. Some apps I'd recommend to help you guys find places to camp would be "ioverlander" and "The Dyrt". I believe apps like onx offroad may also give you some insight into areas you can camp but that's mostly specific to dispersed on trail locations only.

@@departureoutdoors OK awesome I appreciate the reply. probably gonna head out there beginning of next month and was wanting to do the trail. Just thought maybe since it probably takes about four hours. Might be a good idea to find a camp spot on the other side in Lake City so this helps out a lot thank you so much.! 😊

Oh course no problem and that's awesome I hope you have a safe trip and a fantastic time! It's an amazing trail and Lake City itself is a beautiful place.

Thanks, yeah really happy with how the drone footage came out! Think it really captured the beauty of the trail well

@@departureoutdoors absolutely. 💯

We filmed this the last week of August last year.

Thank you! That's awesome and yeah the trail should still be in a good condition when you get there then. Last year we did get some freakish snow storms that seemed out of no where so just be sure to check the weather as you approach your trip. Hopefully you have nothing but amazing weather, enjoy your trip! ✌️

Definitely the craziest one we have done and probably about the most we would ever do haha.

Thank you and thanks for watching! 😁

Hey Chris, thanks! Yes that's one of the best parts about doing anything Mopar is that it's completely covered and they can't use the lift as an excuse to try and deny any warrenty service like I've heard others have to deal with in some cases with other aftermarket lift kits. Thanks for watching!

It always blows my mind when I look at old photos and read about the history of the San Juan area. They really must of been special people back in that time, I can only imagine the challenges they lived through.

@@departureoutdoors yeah, It just sucks that the harsh winters make it that it's hard for the buildings to survive. I don't think my future grandkids will have much left to see.

Yeah I hear yeah, I love history and wish more of it could be preserved for future generations, but yeah so many of the old cabins and what not on the trails in the San Juan's are in terrible shape and doesn't seem like anything is planned to be done about it from what I can tell. I just hope the trails themselves don't ever get closed in the future outright!

@@departureoutdoors Black bear Pass hasn't been opened since 2022... but Bodie Ghost Town in California, is in the middle of the desert and actually is super well preserved with many buildings still up in good shape, since it's so dry and snow doesn't really fall. That place is still going to be up for a while.

I think I've seen that in a TrailRecon video but im not positive. Actually funny enough haha, Black Bear just opened up today which is awesome news and I'm really hoping we or myself can sneak a trip out there to give it a go! It's been on my bucket list for a while now

Thanks haha

Thank you and I like your youtube name pretty cool haha. I've really enjoyed this lift kits performance so far, it's been a bit since I put a video out with the Gladiator but I've been doing a lot of driving with it and yeah only positive things to say. 35s are definitely the sweet spot between not losing much fuel economy, and retaining good road manners while gaining a lot of offroad capacity. Also, yeah i do feel like 35" tires really do make the Gladiator standout more / look amazing. Thanks for commenting by the way, I'm sure if you go with this or a similar build you will really enjoy it! ✌️

Thank you!! Yeah Im really happy with how it turned out, I always wanted to try and capture various trails and what not in Colorado in good quality. Appreciate you subscribing and the feedback! Hoping to do more videos like this soon! ✌️

Thank you! Yeah we wanted to mix it up and try something a little different. Still trying to find the right mix of talking vs focusing on the scenery and what not. Thanks for watching and for the feedback really appreciate it! ✌️

Oh boy don't say that lol, I've had my share of creepy ghost experiences, but I actually didn't notice that in person, I'm definitely going to have to rewatch that part of the video now!

Thank you! Really happy about how much this video has seemed to help a lot of people plan their trips to see this amazing place. Yes absolutely, Subaru's are very capable vehicles especially the wilderness trim even stock you should have all the capability and clearance you need for Cinnamon Pass as it's really not too bad, there's like one big incline in the beginning if your coming from Silverton to Lake City direction and really just be sure to keep a constant pace up, probably set it to rock or x-mode and you should be fine. Other than that just be careful on some of the tighter shelf road sections as the insane views can be distracting (just be sure to pull over from time to time to soak it all in) and there are maybe a handful of rockyish sections or pot hole like sections but pretty much all of that should be avoidable and/or doable just take it slow and plan your best route but yeah I've seen a lot of subarus of all trims on the trail and even on the much harder Engineer Pass, Cinnamon Pass is very doable and very worth doing. Hope you and your family have an amazing and safe time on the trail and I'm hoping you have the best weather conditions as well! Thanks for watching and if there is anything else I can help with just let me know ✌️

Lol, to be honest I don't like talking to a camera were both pretty introverted so it definitely doesn't come naturally at all, but it's just a fun branching out for both of us and just our way of documenting our fun trips while sharing our experiences and lessons learned with others who may have interest in hearing about it. I do think it would be better if we scripted what we were going to say some lol so we wouldn't talk over each other but again it's really just us doing it for fun so we try to just be ourselves and unscripted as much as possible (also woth fulltime jobs it can be a lot of work so we try to not suck the enjoyment out of our trips by making it work). Doesn't always make for great commentary though I'm sure. Maybe something we can work on or get better at overtime possibly. Thanks for commenting and watching our videos, means a lot!

Hey thanks! It's the AEV 2.5 inch lift with the bilstein 5100 shocks. They sell two versions of the aev lift one with bilstein 8100 shocks and then the 5100s which we have. Both of those can be either a 2.5 or 3 inch lift. But yeah we are very happy with the 2.5 inch aev lift, it's pretty exactly 2.5 inches from the stock rubicon height. It's been working out fantastic on the trails for us, feels solid and no complaints thus far!

This was at Rule Creek Spur trail near Divide, CO. Really fun relaxing trail.

Thank you so much, we filmed those videos last August (towards the end of the month) and yeah it was beautiful out there! Glad you enjoyed it and really appreciate the support, hoping to continue to put out more exciting videos! ✌️

Thank you, had some distractions recently but very much planning on getting some more videos out soon!!

Hey, I love how it rides on the road, it's my daily driver. I will say it could be personal preference, but subjectively fox is going to be a softer ride compared to this new mopar lift but I'm a big fan of how this Bilstein setup feels, these shocks are great, it may not be as soft as the fox shocks but I feel like it does a great job of absorbing the bumps and many potholes that Colorado Springs has. But yeah in my opinion its a much smoother ride overall and feels quality. In terms of do you need a track bar, no I still don't have one and I honestly don't feel I need one, dealer who installed it also didn't think it was mandatory. Maybe in future I may upgrade but right now we're looking to spend money in other areas and again the ride is great, nothing seems off or in need of correction at the moment, so I'm not feeling a need to do so. But honestly if you can get front and rear track bars or front track bar and relocation kit in the rear / something like that, then I can only imagine it improve things further and it seems to be the recommendation from most. If it helps though I'd reco installing the lift kit and testing it a bit to see if you feel it's needed for your situation.

@@departureoutdoors Thank you so much for the response!! I just bought the lift kit just as soon as i read your feedback. Thanks again!

Anytime, glad I could help. Hope you enjoy it!!

Hey Bill, yeah no problem at all, happy to answer that! So we put an AEV 2.5 inch lift on our Jeep Wrangler 4xe, 35in BFG KO2 tires and we added the AEV rear bumper so we could add the spare securely to the back and maybe in future run the AEV extended fuel carrier that can mount to it but we don't have that for now. Also you don't need the rear bumper, the Mopar tailgate reinforcement will work for 35 in tires as well and there are alternatives to that as well. In terms of going offroad the lift and tires enable us to hit 95 percent of the trails we are interested in doing without any problems at all, we almost never hit anything underneath anymore as the clearance is really nice now. We don't have beadlocks even though that would be nice but honestly I haven't found that I need that, I usually air down to 20 psi all around and if really needed I can go to 15 psi with no problems maybe could go to 12 but I haven't found the need to and don't want to go to low without beadlocks. In terms of road performance, yeah we love it. There are a lot of lift kits out there that use a variety of shocks so you can pick and choose what you care the most about. I'd say for pure comfort fox shocks are amazing or even the teraflex shocks but they can be extra pricy. The ones we have are more stiff that those two and some others as we want to be able to load up our Jeep and not have any sag and what not, but i actually love the ride quality with the AEV kit, it has Bilstein shocks and to me it has a solid ride, but yeah if your mostly daily driving it and will be running it empty then maybe fox or something like that will better suit you. One thing I would recommend you get with your lift kit though is a front stabilizer shock. We have the AEV one on our gladiator and with 35s and a lift it actually tracks so much better than our wrangler with the stock Jeep stabilizer. It's fine but it has a lot more slop, so we are definitely going to change that up, and once again there are a lot of different front stabilizers to choose from but I like the AEV one is really good for the price compared to others I have seen. But yeah overall we are very happy with our setup, it's a quality build and it performs off and on the trails so you cant go wrong, I'd just stay away from thr cheaper brands if and where possible like rough country as I've read a lot of bad reviews and the 4xe is heaver as it is so definitely want quality products to support it. Any other questions let me know!

Thank you so much, really glad you enjoyed the video. So in terms of Cinnamon Pass and doing it in what I assume is a stock sport wrangler perhaps and a stock 4-runner I'd yes yeah absolutely, the trail really isn't too bad so long as you take it slow, shift to 4low for most of the trail and air down your tires if possible and of course respect the shelf road sections (not bad just again take it slow and don't take your eyes off the road it's plenty big up there but don't want to drift too close to an edge). Only thing really I'd worry about in your case is the timing, I'm not entirely sure but I don't think Cinnamon Pass is completely passable yet but I haven't checked in a bit. I did see a photo a few weeks ago with a lot of snow up on the trail but a good portion seemed of the trail seemed to be cleared out. I'd double check and make sure the route is clear all the way to Lake City so you don't have to turn around or anything like that. I can't speak too much to the conditions when there is snow around I'd imagine it could potentially be more challenging and perhaps even dangerous. I'd join the San Juan mountain trail group and the San Juan mountain adventures group on Facebook to ask the locals there what conditions are like as it gets closer to your trip but you can also see videos of people who went up recently! Worse case I know they have posted of other trials in the area that are open like Yankee Boy Basin, etc so could help you all find some alternatives. Hoping the weather collaborates and that you all have a wonderful safe and joyable trip! If you have any other questions or are still struggling with getting the answers you need feel free to message again and I can do some more digging for you ✌️

@@departureoutdoors this comment was extremely helpful thank you so much!! 😁 I will join these groups immediately!! Thanks again!! Be safe and can’t wait to see more of you alls adventures!!

Happy to help and oh yes I did look recently out of curiosity and it does seem Cinnamon Pass is fully opened so that's good news, but still a lot of snow around the area so I'd just advice to keep tabs as you get closer to your trip to see if anything changes and check the weather as well.

If there is snow I will just turn around, thank you so much!! 😂

Oh good to know, love how 37s make a Gladiator look, nice you can continue to make use out of the spare tire holder still. Thanks for watching and commenting! Appreciate it!!

Just making sure she can hear me, it is not a crazy trail, we just went out to have some fun on a local trail with our new Gladiator. Nothing sinister here ✌️

Nope nothing that large, didn't get load range e for any particular reason outside its kind of standard for this size KO2 tire and also gives us more sidewall for if and when we do any rock crawling, just a little less likely we pop a tire.

Haha, if you find the video not to your liking, you don't have to subject yourself to having to watch, although we do appreciate your giving the videos a chance.

Thank you and thanks for watching! Yeah definitely say hi if you see us out there on the trails. All the best and congrats on your Gladiator as well!! ✌️

Thanks for watching and commenting!! Glad you had the chance to get out to the San Juan's, we actually were out there in August last year as well, maybe we crossed paths haha. It seemed like a fantastic time to be out there it was beautiful.

Haha, are you more of a toyota or ford person or something? I respect you sticking to your convictions 👍

Haha that is very true, it's just a local trail to us that we enjoy and our first trail since getting the Gladiator so really was just to make sure the 4x4 mechanism are working as expected and also see how it drives with the upgrades. Will plan more challenging trails to actually test the Gladiator in future when the weather gets better and we have some time. Thanks for watching and commenting!

It was stated in the video many times. Not everyone wants to smash rocks, like me, I like off roading and having the capability if the need arises. I have the same lift, love it!

Haha, yeah I thought I said it a few times. Yeah to be honest, I actually quite enjoy rock crawling from the little experience i do have doing it, although my wife isn't really a big rock crawling enjoyer, but we did just do Poison Spider and Fins and Things in Moab and we both had an amazing time doing that in our Wranlger during Easter Jeep Safari! The Gladiator isn't really intended on being a rock crawling rig for us, it's mainly to support the overlanding role that our wrangler doesn't quite fit well, although we do plan on taking it on some more serious trails to kind of find those limits on the Gladiator; I'm mainly just curious how it does vs our Wrangler which does so well, but yeah not intending on doing Holy Cross or anything like that. Great to hear you have the same lift and enjoy it, I've been loving it as well. All the best and thanks for commenting!!

Haha I knew i would be called out on that! Yeah I miss spoke when I said we had a true 35in tire and yes I don't think tire co marketing teams know math lol. What I was referring to when I said that was that my wife's tire is a 315/70R17 load range C and the tires we got for the Gladiator are the 35x12.50R17 load range E. Technically both are close in diameter with both being around 34.4 to 34.5 inches, but the 35x12.50 has a lot more sidewall or thickness being a 10ply vs the 6 ply. That's basically what I was trying to say lol. Thanks for watching and commenting though, I'm loving the Gladiator so far, it's such a cool platform! It feels like I've realized a childhood dream of mine being a Jeep / truck fantastic haha.

Hey thanks for commenting! It really depends on how you plan on using your gladiator / what your after I'd say. The Mopar lift with the Bilstiens is awesome and I feel a welcome update over the old Fox shocks that they used to use. The ride is really nice, it's stiffer than fox shocks but not in a bad way, I have the an AEV lift kit on my wife's Wrangler and it also has Bilstein shocks and I'd say these ride better, although to be fair these are technically better bilstein shocks than the 5100s we have on our wrangler, but I also feel they are tuned differently. The nice thing with the Mopar lift is the warranty and the fact that if you have warranty already with mopar or a Jeep dealership then you don't have to sweat them trying to say that an issue may be due to after market parts installed and some issue not being covered. I also like how the lift is closer to 3 inches than the listed 2 inches, wasn't expecting that. In terms of choosing between the two, again it depends, if your planning on doing hardcore rock crawling and really getting the most offroad capability possible from the gladiator I'd say go with the teraflex lift as it's a rock solid setup and the adjustable shocks I'd imagine would be very nice both on and offroad and I'm not sure the Mopar lift could compare in that regard. For me though, I didn't want to spend too too much, but I did want to improve the ride, have a stiffer setup to support more weight on the vehicle (want a topper on the back and more), something that wont sacrifice / compromise the towing ability (want to get a travel trailer eventually) and didn't want to sacrifice too much of the mpg as I'd rather the gladiator have as much range as possible for our longer trips, but also wanted something that will be capable enough for most offroad trails. Since we have a Wrangler as well, I'm leaving the Wrangler as our main rock crawler since it's better at that stuff anyway, although that's not to say the gladiator can't do 90 percent of the same trails. I do feel like the Mopar lift is a good sweet spot to get more offroad capability but not sacrifice too much of the ride quality, on road behavior and utility of the truck. Hope this helps some, either way, sound like you'll end up with a killer build and very capable gladiator! ✌️

@@departureoutdoors thanks for your insight. Def not a rock crawler, more I. To overlanding and camping and long travel, I think going with the mopar will be a solid option for me as well, plus keeping that factory warranty, did you opt to add an adjustable track bar, I just hear a few things the mopar lift of missing a few components to be complete, such as track bar and rear track bar bracket. Yes same I want to do a topper as well, it’ll give you more hauling room for your camp gear as in stacking high.

Yeah I considered doing that, but ended up holding off. Wanted to see how it drives and performs before getting front and rear adjustable track bars. I also read that sort of thing about the Mopar lift, but I've read a fair amount of counter arguments as well. I know AEV which is who I went with for the Wrangler my wife drives is of the mindset that new trackbars aren't necessary for lifts of 2.5 to 3 inches, simply control arms pretty much. So that kind of swayed me. At the moment though I'm still of the mindset that I don't really need it, I feel like for a Jeep the Gladiator post mopar lift, tires and the aev steering damper drives great, haven't noticed any issues both on and offroad to this point. I may end up getting upgraded track bars in future but for now I dont feel like i need them. If something changes though I'll be sure to post a video on it, I know there isn't a lot of info surrounding the newer mopar lift.

@@departureoutdoors right! Gladiators just drive great in General in the Jeep world! Awesome looking forward to the video! Yes we have a 4 door wrangler Sahara unlimited 21, yes I heard mix reviews as well no track bar needed at 1.5 to 3 inches but idk I’m still a little skeptical, but yes I agree most brand name lifts at 2.5 don’t come with track bars.

Thanks for commenting! So I'm measuring a height of around 6 ft 3 inches post the Mopar lift and 35 inch tires at around 37 psi each tire of a max around 80 psi I believe. I don't think having the tire near max will change too much though in terms of being able to fit in a 7 ft garage as I also have the same size garage and I'm able to park the gladiator inside it.

@@departureoutdoors I was worried it wouldn’t fit in the garage 😄

Haha I hear yeah, I was also worried about that initially!

Absolutely, yeah we still have the Wrangler 4xe. We just traded in my wife's previous vehicle that gave us a lot of problems for this Red Gladiator, but yeah we are really enjoying the 4xe, it's not going away anytime soon.