2020 Jeep Rubicon Flatbill Concept - 4x4 Experience

2020 Jeep Rubicon Flatbill Concept - 4x4 Experience https://youtu.be/KVvRggfok3o

For the past 53 years at Easter, the Jeep rabid converge on the town of Moab, in southern Utah, surrounded by red slick rock and some of the most iconic landscape the United States has to offer. For one week in April or March, depending when Easter lands on the calendar, Jeep vehicles with tires as monolithic as Courthouse Rock compete for the ohhhhhs and ahhhhhs of passersby. With the likes of Delicate Arch and the views that extend to infinity from Islands in the Sky in Canyonlands National Park as a background, this year’s event had 40 designated trails for wheelers to gobble up.

The launch of the 2020 Jeep Gladiator was the inspiration for this year’s safari as Jeep paraded out some epic concepts based on their new JT truck. While other car and truck manufacturers makes one-off show vehicles, Jeep’s concepts, save one, were based on production vehicles that are drivable and are more attainable for owners than one might think. Here’s five reasons why we found this year’s gathering so compelling:
Two of the six concepts Jeep built were based on the iconic Scrambler CJ8. While never officially a truck, the Scrambler was a long wheelbase CJ7 that gave it a pickup-esque box instead of a proper truck bed. Unlike the 2020 Jeep Gladiator, which is uber capable with a best-in-class towing capacity of 7,000 pounds, the original CJ series including the Scrambler couldn’t haul much.

The Gladiator Scrambler version has all the requisite retro decals in colors called Punk’n Metallic Orange and Nacho. It also sports a vintage Amber Freedom top and a custom roll bar in the bed. All it needs is a cassette player and your time machine would be complete. Perhaps Jeep should only allow XM satellite radio stations 80s on 8, First Wave and Classic Rewind to play in this one.

The Gladiator J6, by far one of the favorites of the group, is a true representation of the CJ8 Scrambler. Built on a Wrangler chassis with an extended wheelbase, this is a 2-door truck with a 6-foot bed. Start making it now, Jeep. This example, in a metallic blue paint that would make Michelangelo weep, isn’t equipped with the Ram 1500 rear suspension making it able to haul up to 1,600 pounds of payload, but Jeep confirmed that if this concept went to production, they’d put it under there. Again, why are we even waiting for this to happen?
No, not the world-famous slick-rock trail that serpentines through over obscene, ancient rock formations, but Mopar’s Hell Crate engine. Jeep got their hands on a 1968 military M517 truck and called it the Five Quarter, an historical nod to Jeep’s one-and-a-quarter trucks. They didn’t just do an engine swap, but an engine swap from hell. Bubbling under the sheet metal is that 6.2-liter supercharged Hemi V8 good for more than 700 hp.

The stripped down Five Quarter truck is full of insane details, like reserve fuel tanks for gin and tonic, low-back leather seats that look like they’re from an old flight jacket and 20-inch, 8-lug beadlock wheels wear 40-inch tires attached to a Dynatrac Pro-rock 60-milimeter axel up front and an 80 in the rear. For comparison, the 2020 Gladiator comes equipped with Dana 44s. Heavy duty? Hell, yeah.