Reasoning
This Gladiator will be for travel. Traveling on unpaved roads, gravel roads, dirt, some tracks, etc. We want to camp away from the Subarus and Kias and whatnot, so traveling away from paved roads will always be a goal, we don't do rock crawling, therefore the size doesn't bother me too much for that. We wanted detachable just in case and these were basically the only ones that fit the bill.
We decided on normal width, but long.
Initial Quality Impression Before Installation
Bad. Cheap, straight plastic, nothing molded, nothing to go better with the lines of the vehicle, nothing to make them fit the installation areas better. The fasteners are non-metric, metric do fit, but not great. Why can't accessory manufacturers not switch over just like the vehicle manufacturers did? It's beyond stupid and leaves a bad aftertaste.
Comes as multiple pieces of plastic, some marked for position, others not, and multiple bags of screws and nuts. Again, cheap, inconsiderate, but not unheard of.
Installation
Relatively simple, but their video is only half helpful. There are brackets included in the kit that weren't explained in the manufacturers video I watched, figured it out by myself. Otherwise relatively easy and painless. Passenger side front was a bit harder to get to the OEM plastic trim holder to cut off, but again, not too bad.
The rear is more complex than the front, the flaps need to be assembled in multiple layers with the included hardware, I would have preferred if this was actually properly formed plastic and better attachment points.
The metal hardware in the rear attaches easily, the included and unexplaned small bracket is to stiffen the rear mount, it fits well, and makes sense once you see it. Multiple sizes of fasteners for the small bracket as well, worked with my metric kit, but I doubt it's metric hardware (again, hmpf).
The rear can be moved in/out a bit to adjust for wheel spacing, so setting it up just right was eyeballed and turned out okay.
The cut out on the front flaps for the Rubicon rock rail is tight, might want to scrape some material off to prevent rubbing if you're concerned about it rubbing off the powdercoating and then having rusting rails. I don't mind too much, since these will likely get nicks and scrapes anyways.
Looks
Leaves a lot to be desired, but if they do the job, in can live with it. Just from the looks department and the initial feel of the plastic parts, rating would be a 1 or 1.5/5 or so.
In Use
Since it finally stopped raining in California, at least for the time being, we have not had a chance to test them, but they look like they'd protect the body of the vehicle as well as following cars reasonably well with the stock 33" tires on the Gladiator. Larger tires might need wider flaps though.
The quick detach will probably work for a while and then muck up solid to be removed with pliers only. It's okay, I've added some thumbscrews on my list of "consumables" to add to the kit, don't have them yet, but will find some.
Overall
They are priced stupidly high for what they are and do, but okay, blame me for spending the money.
Should have gone with Weathertech and just replaced them if they ever broke due to not having quick detach.
Rating: 2.5/5 so far, not convinced by plastic quality, fit, price, mounting instructions, or looks; I might update my rating later on, but as of now, it stands.
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