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Every time we post a video, someone says we should have just bought a Jeep. FINE. This time, we put our CHEAPEST side-by-side against a modified, $50,000 Jeep Gladiator to show you exactly why we love UTVs. Let’s go!

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Sports
Transcript
00:00 (engine revving)
00:02 - Aaron, we are out at Windrock
00:08 at one of the busiest weekends,
00:10 and we're here because of, I would say one comment.
00:14 - Yeah. - Why don't you just buy a Jeep?
00:15 - Why don't you get a Jeep?
00:16 We are going to answer that question today.
00:18 - Yeah. - This is because of you all.
00:20 - Every time we publish anything about a side-by-side
00:23 and we get down to the price, inevitably,
00:25 the question is, well, why wouldn't we just buy a truck
00:28 or a Jeep or a 4Runner or a Tacoma or whatever?
00:31 Well, we're gonna show you.
00:32 We're gonna put these two rigs back to back.
00:34 We have the worst rig in our fleet.
00:36 This is the Tuk Tuk.
00:37 You've seen it before.
00:38 I've rolled it three times in 30 seconds.
00:41 (engine revving)
00:43 It is a machine that cannot be killed.
00:47 It's also not for this.
00:49 This is a utility rig.
00:50 It's for like moving salt licks around, primarily.
00:52 - Yeah, going to your tree stand.
00:54 We put 32s on it and said, "Hell with that."
00:56 Pulled the sway bars off.
00:57 And we went wheeling.
00:58 And y'all said, "Why didn't you just buy a Jeep?"
01:00 - Well, we're gonna show you.
01:01 So we brought out a buddy of ours, John Kerry,
01:03 and his beautiful Jeep Gladiator.
01:05 It's one of the nicest Jeeps around.
01:07 He's got some excellent modifications on it
01:08 that make it really well-suited to do all-around duty.
01:11 We're gonna put these two rigs head-to-head
01:13 on one of our favorite trails, Trail 22,
01:14 we got here at Windrock.
01:15 It's a blue trail with some teeth.
01:17 - Yeah, it's got a little bit of everything,
01:19 mostly rock crawling and not for the faint of heart,
01:22 so, or the faint of Tuk Tuk.
01:23 - Yeah, so let's get at it.
01:24 - All right, and for this extravaganza,
01:26 we've brought in two guest drivers.
01:28 The first is our Windrock ringer, our East Tennessee Stig.
01:31 He's called the Twig.
01:33 He was forged in the fires of Windrock.
01:35 Some say he never leaves,
01:37 and he's driving the Tuk Tuk today.
01:39 Twig, is the Tuk Tuk gonna beat the Jeep?
01:41 - I like that confidence.
01:43 - Yep, man, a few words. - I like that confidence.
01:44 - Love it.
01:45 - This is John Kerry.
01:46 John brought out this amazing machine.
01:48 John, this thing is beautiful.
01:49 Tell us about your rig.
01:50 - What we have here is a 2020 Jeep Gladiator Sport S,
01:53 mostly fully loaded.
01:54 It has the MaxTow package.
01:56 Wanted to eventually build a rig.
01:58 This was sort of outside of getting a Rubicon
02:01 and build my own rig.
02:02 This would be the better way to do it.
02:03 - But it's not stock though.
02:04 Like you've changed some things here, right?
02:05 - Couple of things.
02:06 - Okay, what you got?
02:07 - I worked very closely with Ken Farley, Dr. Death Wobble,
02:09 Expedition Vehicle Outfitters.
02:11 Actually, a lot of the kits, parts that are on here,
02:13 came from their Gladiator build that they did.
02:16 And so with the help of TeraFlex and some other folks,
02:18 it has a CT2 kit on it, Alpine CT2, with Falcon 3.3s.
02:23 We have forged front arms.
02:26 We have TeraFlex wheels.
02:29 And we also have Milestar Panigone XTs.
02:32 - So like all the right stuff.
02:34 - Right, well, at the end of the day, it's a daily driver.
02:36 I have to commute with this thing.
02:37 So there's a delicate balance between,
02:39 do I go crazy or just enough?
02:42 And I feel like right now we're at just enough.
02:44 - Yeah, and it wheels out here all the time, right?
02:46 - Yeah, we moved out here last year.
02:48 22, which we're on right now, is a commonplace here.
02:51 There's a little bit of a kink at the top
02:53 that has me slightly worried,
02:55 but that's another conversation.
02:56 - You're not alone.
02:57 I worry about the twig and the tuck tuck too,
02:59 I gotta be honest.
03:00 - Yeah, absolutely.
03:01 - So the big, the elephant in the room here, the tuck tuck.
03:04 As she sits, after I yard sailed it a few times in Utah,
03:07 five grand, maybe?
03:08 - Okay.
03:09 - What do you have in this thing?
03:10 - So I got this brand new in December of '19.
03:13 So new model year vehicle.
03:15 I think sticker on it was 39, 38, 39.
03:19 - Which is less than I would have thought
03:20 for Gladiator, honestly.
03:21 - It's a Sport S.
03:22 - Okay, yeah, yeah.
03:23 - It's got a Rubicon.
03:24 Outside of that, the CT2 kit.
03:26 I think with the 3.3s are probably upwards
03:28 of the price of the tuck tuck.
03:29 - Oh, okay, yeah, yeah.
03:31 - You know, Milestar tires, do the math
03:34 of sort of what retailer you wanna go to.
03:36 The Teraflex wheels are what, 400, 360 a piece,
03:40 something like that.
03:41 - Okay, so there's some coin here.
03:42 - A little bit.
03:43 I mean, the tent and the rack
03:44 and just other little things, nuances here and there,
03:47 but rounded up to 50.
03:48 - Okay, yeah.
03:49 All right, man, well, thanks for coming out.
03:51 I can't wait to see how this thing does.
03:52 Let's get at it.
03:53 - All right, sounds good.
03:53 One of the things I really like about the Teraflex wheels
03:56 is the air down procedure.
03:57 Super easy.
03:58 It's all integrated into the wheel itself.
04:00 So all I have to do, open up the valve all the way.
04:05 And by the time I do my full walk around,
04:09 every wheel is at 19 PSI.
04:11 It's all set up.
04:12 Also, what they don't know,
04:18 this has the extended travel kit in the back.
04:22 It's cycling over 16 inches of wheel travel.
04:25 So we definitely get a lot of droop.
04:26 - Once we got the guys situated, we headed up the trail.
04:29 It was a beautiful day, but it was super packed.
04:31 We saw all sorts of awesome rigs out on the trail.
04:34 A little old tuck tuck, pulling up the rear.
04:36 - Aaron, they have groomed 22.
04:40 - Yeah, yeah.
04:41 This is what's normally considered the first obstacle.
04:43 It's a nice steep, rutted hill climb into this.
04:46 Well, they left this alone, but the hill climb.
04:48 So I say we take a look at both rigs,
04:50 see what they look like.
04:51 Oh, here he comes.
04:52 - All right, here comes tuck tuck.
04:54 - We got those sway bars disconnected.
04:56 - We did get those sway bars.
04:57 Here comes the twig.
04:57 - Here he comes.
04:58 All right, twiglet!
04:59 - Baby!
05:00 - Woo!
05:01 (laughing)
05:03 Wheel lift, wheel lift.
05:04 - Hell yeah.
05:05 - That wasn't nothing.
05:06 Here comes the Jeep.
05:07 - Here comes the Jeep.
05:08 Let's see this girl go.
05:09 - Let's see her go.
05:10 She's pretty flexy for a stock rig.
05:12 I've been pretty, pretty impressed.
05:14 - He's carrying pretty good speed.
05:15 - Yeah, he's coming.
05:16 He's not hanging about.
05:18 All right.
05:19 - Dude, that's the thing about a...
05:21 - Whoa, he did get a wheel lift.
05:22 - Did he really?
05:23 - Yeah, yeah, a little one.
05:24 Little baby wheel lift.
05:25 - Zero drama.
05:26 - Nice.
05:26 - That's right, that wasn't nothing,
05:27 but 22 turns up the heat,
05:29 and it wasn't long before Quig got out
05:31 to scope out the next little bit of run.
05:33 Not impressed.
05:35 Oh, buddy.
05:37 - This is gonna be exciting.
05:38 - This is always my favorite part.
05:40 - I know.
05:41 - Because it's wet, the rocks are super slick.
05:42 This isn't like Utah slick rock.
05:44 This is like...
05:45 - Slick slick rock.
05:46 - Slick slick rock.
05:46 - And it doesn't look like much.
05:48 It looks like just another pile of baby heads,
05:50 but this big guy here in the middle is big.
05:52 I'm sorry, Tuck Tuck.
05:54 - Here she goes.
05:55 - Come on, Tuck Tuck.
05:56 - It's going the bonus line.
05:57 - Yeah, it is.
05:58 - Woo!
05:59 Throttle, throttle!
06:00 (laughing)
06:02 - Throttle!
06:04 - Look at her go!
06:05 - Yeah, it might look less dramatic,
06:08 but I don't expect it's gonna be much easier.
06:11 - I'm gonna be honest.
06:12 - 'Cause it is tight, and he doesn't have any sliders.
06:14 - More importantly, he doesn't have any lockers.
06:15 - No, all that milk he picked up at the grocery store
06:17 is gonna be shook up.
06:18 It's gonna be butter by the time he gets home.
06:20 - He's gonna have to go back to the Apple store
06:21 on a warranty claim.
06:23 Here he comes.
06:24 - All right, all right, so he's going right line.
06:26 So I typically go right line here.
06:27 - Yeah, that's the way I would've gone.
06:28 - It gets tight, though.
06:29 - It does, it's super tight.
06:31 Woo, baby!
06:34 Come on, sweetie.
06:35 - Oh my God, majestic.
06:36 - Jeez.
06:37 I was like, "Ah!"
06:41 Didn't even care.
06:42 - Hell yeah, sorry about your dips, bro.
06:43 - Look at that, walked it.
06:44 - Before we go any further,
06:45 don't forget to like, comment,
06:47 and subscribe to our channel.
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06:50 It lets our bosses see how well we're doing,
06:53 and it makes sure that you know
06:54 every time we drop a new video,
06:56 you don't wanna miss it.
06:57 Hit that button.
06:58 - Well, Zach, it seems the inevitable's happened.
07:00 - Yeah, well, you know, pinch flats, you know,
07:01 you'll get that out here in the sticks.
07:04 - Yeah, you bring their wind rock ringer with you.
07:06 - Get that, you ain't got a knife?
07:07 Get outta here.
07:08 - Did you do this?
07:09 Did you?
07:10 - You know Twiggy never takes responsibility for things.
07:14 It's not in his nature.
07:16 - Stop, Jesus.
07:19 - We're not giving you any biscuits later
07:20 if you keep this up.
07:21 - All right.
07:22 - All right, shall we make a lot of noise
07:24 for a long time and see if it did anything?
07:27 That all looks good.
07:32 - Yeah, you know, it's important to bring
07:34 some of the places you've been with you.
07:36 - Got a little Utah in here.
07:37 - Yeah, a little Utah, a little leafy boys from somewhere.
07:40 - If anybody makes a decent air pump
07:43 they wanna send us, that would be cool.
07:45 (air pump whirring)
07:48 - With air back in all our tires,
07:56 we headed up to the next big challenge with the steps.
07:59 You got multiple lines here.
08:00 John very wisely sticks to the left.
08:03 It still presents a little bit of a challenge
08:05 with a rig with no lockers.
08:06 (air pump whirring)
08:09 Super loose, super sandy,
08:20 and here we've got traction control
08:22 probably fighting John a little bit.
08:24 Traction control kicks in in four high,
08:25 not something you've gotta deal with in a side-to-side.
08:28 Still, he makes short work of it.
08:32 - All right, so we just saw the Gladiator come up here.
08:34 This is a fun little obstacle on 22.
08:36 It's usually one of the more exciting ones.
08:37 There are a multitude of lines, right?
08:39 Far right is like aggro pro line.
08:41 - Yeah, sticky.
08:42 - Far left is you'll get up it.
08:43 - Right.
08:44 - You know, pretty much anything will get up it,
08:46 but it's still a little challenging.
08:47 It's loose, there's some steps, all that fun stuff.
08:49 - Yep.
08:50 - I think old Twig, he--
08:52 - Twiggy wants it.
08:53 - Yeah, he wants it medium rare.
08:54 - Yeah, yeah, he's not taking the full pro line.
08:56 - Yeah, yeah.
08:57 - But we're gonna see some flex
08:58 and we're gonna see what the Tuk Tuk can do on the,
09:00 yeah, on the medium rare line.
09:01 - Let's see it.
09:02 - Let's have him up.
09:03 - Oh goodness, here he comes.
09:04 - Oh my God, he's going this way.
09:09 (laughing)
09:16 - Medium rare indeed.
09:17 (laughing)
09:24 - Let's have it, Tuk Tuk, let's have you!
09:27 - Yeah, baby!
09:28 - Twiggy, Twiggy, we got you something.
09:33 (laughing)
09:35 - Yeah, that's fair, that's fair.
09:36 - He may hate ducks, but he loves to wheel,
09:39 which is a good thing for this last reel challenge.
09:42 You've got some super off-hamber stuff,
09:44 big ruts, tossed right into the bank.
09:47 Twiggy makes good use of those Thumper Fab rock reels,
09:49 just sticks the thing right on there and lets it--
09:52 (water splashing)
10:00 - Rock to rock to rock.
10:02 (cheering)
10:04 - How's John and the Gladiator do?
10:07 Well, this is where we start to see a little bit
10:10 of difference between the two rigs on the trail.
10:12 (water splashing)
10:41 - John, thanks for coming out, dude.
10:43 It was amazing watching you wheel this thing.
10:45 - I appreciate the opportunity.
10:46 (laughing)
10:47 - It looks like you know what you're doing.
10:49 - I've wheeled a couple times.
10:50 - Yeah, yeah, man, this thing is an absolute school bus,
10:53 and you had it in places that I would have,
10:56 I would have thought about, I would have thought about.
10:57 - You know, having grown up in Southern California
10:59 and Johnson Valley and all over the place.
11:01 - Proper wheeling.
11:02 - Proper wheeling, and coming here is a little bit different.
11:05 You know, more dust, the rocks are a little different,
11:07 but I think it more is about understanding line choice
11:10 and kind of what goes on.
11:11 And also knowing just sort of momentum
11:14 and playing to what your rig is capable of.
11:16 - Talk about a perfect example
11:17 of just how capable these things are
11:19 with some well-considered modifications.
11:20 You know, lockers are pricey.
11:22 You know, a six-inch lift is pricey,
11:24 but you've got like, what, a two and a half inch on here,
11:26 maybe, but it's a good suspension, they're good tires.
11:29 It just, you know, it walked right up a lot of this stuff.
11:32 - Yeah, I think the big thing to take into account here
11:34 is putting upgrades on a rig
11:37 that will help you maximize your time out here, right?
11:40 A lot of the core focus of what it's been,
11:41 none of the truck has been suspension,
11:43 bigger tires, things like that,
11:45 and still making it a daily driver.
11:47 It's kind of a hard thing to want to go more.
11:50 - You always want more.
11:51 - 'Cause it is a very slippery slope, right?
11:52 Like, yes, lockers and go down the line.
11:55 - Look, we have 32-inch tires on a utility rig, man.
11:57 You don't have to tell us about it, you know?
11:59 Well, man, I can't say thanks enough again.
12:01 This was super cool.
12:03 You want to drive a side-by-side?
12:04 - Yeah, let's go.
12:06 - Thanks, man.
12:07 That's 22.
12:08 - That is Trail 22 done and dusted.
12:09 - Done and dusted with two very different rigs, right?
12:13 Like, I want to be very clear here.
12:15 We love Jeeps.
12:16 We love anything off-road.
12:17 We've had a pile of these things, TJs, JKs.
12:20 - CJs.
12:21 - CJs?
12:22 I've literally lost count of the number of CJs
12:24 that I've owned.
12:24 - Yeah.
12:25 - But there is something different to wheeling these things,
12:27 and I got to stress it enough
12:28 that this is the worst one we own.
12:31 - Right, this is easily our sketchiest rig.
12:33 (engine rumbling)
12:37 - Hold on, hold on, hold on.
12:40 - Woo-hoo-hoo!
12:41 It has been through the ringer and back,
12:43 but our point is,
12:44 you can go pick one of these up for next to nothing,
12:47 throw a couple axles in it,
12:48 turn a couple wrenches, buy a set of tires,
12:50 and you're out here doing-
12:51 - Yeah, doing everything one of these will do.
12:52 - Everything and more.
12:54 There were lines the tuck-tuck hit today
12:55 that the Jeep maybe could have hit,
12:57 but it's just a matter of willingness, right?
12:59 - Yeah.
13:00 - You're not gonna throw your $50,000 rig
13:01 at some of the steps we threw the tuck-tuck at today.
13:03 - Absolutely.
13:04 - That's the fun of wheeling, right?
13:05 It's that type two fun,
13:06 and you don't wanna have to worry.
13:07 Like if you flop it over on its side-
13:09 - No big deal.
13:09 - Just flop it back up and keep going.
13:11 - You don't have to call mama.
13:12 You just put it back on the trailer.
13:13 It's fine. - Right, exactly.
13:14 There you go.
13:15 Again, there's a time and a place.
13:16 Jeeps are wonderful things.
13:17 - This thing is quiet.
13:18 It's comfortable.
13:19 He has heated seats.
13:21 He's got a heated steering wheel.
13:22 - Jazz music.
13:23 - He's gonna get in this thing,
13:24 drive it home, pick his kids up,
13:25 and take them to soccer practice later.
13:27 You can't do that in this.
13:28 But it's worth pointing out,
13:30 if you are pressed for time,
13:31 we have done Trail 22 in as little as 40 minutes.
13:35 And we've done it in tuck-tuck.
13:36 A full-size rig, it's gonna take a couple hours.
13:38 - Yeah, at least.
13:40 If you're good, a couple hours.
13:41 - Exactly.
13:42 - In one of these, you can hit, what,
13:43 five trails at Windrock in a day.
13:45 In a Jeep, you're hitting maybe two
13:47 if you're doing really well.
13:48 And we've seen people out here
13:49 take a whole day to hit a trail
13:51 that took us a morning.
13:52 And the other thing is,
13:53 you come out here for a weekend with your family,
13:55 you wanna maximize it.
13:57 We get to come out here every day of the week
13:58 that we want to.
13:59 We're blessed in that respect.
14:00 But most people have to make the time to come out here.
14:03 And if you make the time to come out here in your Jeep
14:04 and you break an axle, that's a bad weekend.
14:07 - It's a bad time.
14:07 - And you know, in a side-by-side,
14:09 you don't have to worry as much about that.
14:11 But this is why we're always coming back to this.
14:13 And this is why we will argue with you
14:15 till the cows come home
14:17 when you tell us we could just buy a Jeep.
14:18 Yes, we absolutely could and have,
14:20 but a Jeep is not a tuck-tuck.
14:22 - Jeep is not a tuck-tuck.
14:23 Thanks for hanging out with us and wheeling with us.
14:24 If you liked this, be sure to like, comment, and subscribe.
14:27 Check us out on UTVDriver.com,
14:29 where there are five days a week
14:30 with news and reviews, buyer's guides, galleries,
14:33 more videos like this.
14:34 We wanna see you there.
14:36 You can also check us out on all our social media channels.
14:38 We are on TikTok, we're on Facebook, we're on Instagram.
14:41 We wanna talk to you, we wanna see your rigs.
14:43 We'll catch you there.
14:44 (upbeat music)
14:46 Oh man, how was the day?
14:53 Dusty.
14:54 - Time to clean up.
14:55 - All right, yeah, let's pack up.
14:56 Has anybody seen, anybody seen Twig?
14:58 Where, what?
14:59 From whence he came, I guess.
15:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]