Jeep Convoy Concept First Look: Militarizing the Gladiator Pickup Nicely
This Gladiator is optimized for would-be weekend warriors.
For Easter Jeep Safari 2025, the brand is focusing entirely the WranGladiator universe, with three concepts that built around military, modern, and retro themes. The Gladiator-based Jeep Convoy concept goes for a generic military field-commander vibe, featuring canvas doors, a canvas top, and a bright-aqua interior accent color, inspired by military fighter jet interiors.
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The Jeep Convoy concept started life as an off-road-racing-optimized 2025 Jeep Gladiator Mojave with a 3.6-liter Pentastar engine and eight-speed automatic. Mechanical modifications were mostly limited to a modest lift that accommodates the 17-inch Warn wheels wearing 40-inch BFGoodrich Mud Terrain T/A KM3 tires, sized 39x13.50R17, all of which is optimized for wheeling over rugged terrain.
The entire front clip is new, rendered in carbon fiber, and designed to resemble the original 1963 SJ Gladiator’s nose, as the 2011 Jeep Nukizer 715, 2015 Jeep Chief, and other Wrangler/Gladiator-based EJS concepts have done. This one riffs on the idea by fitting a traditional seven-slot grille flanked by a pair of truly retina-roasting yellow LED off-road lights. When the going gets tough, there’s a 12,000-pound Warn Zeon winch.
The paint is a new satin cloud-cover type grey/white hue called Ghost Ops, which sets off the Chocolate Brown canvas doors and top/bed canopy nicely. (Note that new colors that debut at Moab have a pretty strong track record of making production, so keep an eye out for Ghost Ops soon.) Easter-eggs abound (pretty on-brand for the Easter Jeep Safari), including a “Jeep Truck Division” medallion where the “Trail Rated” one usually goes, a circular “Design-Operations, Jeep Division” logo on the tailgate in the vein of a Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm–type sticker. On the opposite corner of the 'gate (which featured vintage JEEP embossing) you’ll find “R.3-5P/3CT” in military stencil lettering.
Inside, you’ll find low-back seats in a distressed brown leather, with the entire floor and lower half of the dash painted in a bright aqua shade (Mil Spec O.D. Green) similar to that which Russian MiG fighter jets use in their cockpits (supposedly this shade offers high contrast to the black gauges and calms pilots down during high-stress operations). The entire cargo bed, including a bolted-in gear box are also RhinoCoated and painted in this hue.
All in, the Convoy is custom equipped “for long-range, off-road adventures,” be they civilian or military in nature.
I started critiquing cars at age 5 by bumming rides home from church in other parishioners’ new cars. At 16 I started running parts for an Oldsmobile dealership and got hooked on the car biz. Engineering seemed the best way to make a living in it, so with two mechanical engineering degrees I joined Chrysler to work on the Neon, LH cars, and 2nd-gen minivans. Then a friend mentioned an opening for a technical editor at another car magazine, and I did the car-biz equivalent of running off to join the circus. I loved that job too until the phone rang again with what turned out to be an even better opportunity with Motor Trend. It’s nearly impossible to imagine an even better job, but I still answer the phone…
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