Straight off the showroom floor, the Jeep Gladiator comes with enough off-road hardware to handle terrain that would make most pickups turn around. Apparently, that wasn’t good enough for Maxximum Industries. Clearly living by a “more is always better” mantra, they laughed at the pitiful four driven wheels and added another pair of wheels.
That’s right, the company took a 2020 Gladiator and transformed it into the enormous six-wheeled creation you see here. An additional axle, custom suspension, and 42-inch tires make the finished truck difficult to mistake for anything Jeep actually sold.
Despite appearances, Maxximum didn’t stuff a fire-breathing V8 under the hood. The Gladiator still has its 3.6-liter V6 and eight-speed automatic transmission, making the running gear surprisingly ordinary compared with everything surrounding it.
Now somebody else can put this six-wheeled monster in their driveway, as Barrett-Jackson has listed the custom Gladiator for sale with an asking price of $184,900 and 62,465 miles showing.
Maxximum Didn’t Just Add Two Wheels
Converting the Gladiator into a 6×6 involved extensive work underneath. Barrett-Jackson says Maxximum installed a custom 9-inch center axle with an output shaft, while the axles are fully trussed and use 5.13 gearing.
Up front is a long-travel four-link setup with 2.5-inch King coilovers, custom dual-rate springs, remote reservoirs, and King air bump stops. The rear axles receive their own four-link arrangements with 2.0-inch King coilovers and remote reservoirs.
The truck rides on beadlock wheels wrapped in enormous 42-inch Maxxis tires. Solid 6061 one-ton steering links and TIG-welded suspension mounting points further illustrate how far removed this thing is from a standard Gladiator.
Built For The Apocalypse
The exterior is equally extreme. Custom chromoly bumpers, aluminum fenders, and rock sliders are joined by a full-size spare-tire carrier and a 12,000-pound Warn winch.
Up top, there’s a chromoly roof rack carrying a KC light bar, spotlights, and limb risers. Maxximum even integrated RotopaX water canisters into the custom hood, while a PA siren system adds another item to an already lengthy equipment list.
Inside, one of the more noticeable changes is a carbon-fiber steering wheel, and a custom trailer-brake controller has also been fitted.
Six Wheels, $184,900
Interestingly, all of that hardware hasn’t been accompanied by a huge horsepower upgrade. The 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 was factory-rated at 285 horsepower and 260 lb-ft in the 2020 Gladiator, although Barrett-Jackson simply describes this truck as V6-powered.
At $184,900, this isn’t exactly a cheap route into Gladiator ownership. Then again, buyers shopping for a six-wheel-drive Jeep on 42-inch tires probably aren’t cross-shopping base-model pickups. Other than the Mercedes-AMG G 63 6×6 and various 6×6 trucks built by Hennessey Performance, there’s not much to choose from.