2019 Jeep Scrambler JT Pickup: Here's What We Know
Jeep has officially been coming to Moab, Utah, for the Easter Jeep Safari — a 4x4 love fest sponsored by the local Red Rock 4-Wheelers Jeep club that sets up various trail rides in the area over the course of a week — for the last 10 years, bringing a number of concept vehicles put together by its internal Skunk Works squad on the team's own time (meaning a lot of late-night, after-hours wrenching sessions).
We've been to just about every one of these relatively low-key safari drive events, and it seems like every year there is at least one "pickup truck"-like concept vehicle — maybe it's a heavily modified Ram 1500, maybe a stretched Renegade unibody, maybe an imposing FC concept or maybe something completely custom with a utilitarian flare. No matter what type of custom, resto-rod wonder-truck it might be, there's usually one — except this year.
Less than a year after the official announcement of the debut of Jeep's return to the truck segment (can you believe it's been almost 30 years since we've had a Jeep pickup — and longer, if you want a ladder frame?), Jeep decided not to offer any hints about what's coming.
Or did they?
The only concept vehicle that vaguely resembles a pickup truck this year was the Sandstorm, which was really a Wrangler Unlimited with an open bed and a custom dual-shock (at each corner) desert racing personality, monster tires, manual transmission and Hemi power under the hood. But it also had a powerful underbody-mounted air compressor with an external hose fitting near the rear of the bed area. (Hmm.) Additionally, it also had a Mopar-made, bed-mounted spare tire carrier to make it look just like those Raptor-ish desert racing pickups you might see in the Southwest.
As we said, nobody at Jeep would talk much at all about why no pickup concepts made the cut this year, but we did have interesting conversations with some Mopar folks, who obviously have quite a bit to gain with the addition of a Jeep pickup truck — whether it's more Jeep than pickup or more pickup than Jeep. Either way, Mopar wins.
On the subject of Mopar, it's been very busy lately, with the introductions of arguably the two most modifiable vehicles in the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles portfolio-the 2018 Jeep Wrangler JL and the 2019 Ram 1500. Both, although quite new, have more than 200 Mopar parts available for each as they ramp up to full production capacity at their respective plants. Likewise, both are offering overlapping old (previous-generation) and new (current-gen) versions at the same time, giving customers a choice between upgrades and significant price differences — not coincidently, both Wranglers and Ram 1500s have two separate production facilities. To the best of our knowledge, no one else has ever done that before, at least not to this extent.
You should also know that FCA has been quite deliberate over the last several years about moving many of the important Ram and Jeep personnel back and forth between the two brands, very likely to help spread the personalization aspects of each brand's core values. Just as the Mopar folks weren't shy about talking about Ram and Jeep parts, Jeep's people weren't shy about discussing the aspects of overlap between the average Jeep buyer's attitude about his or her vehicle and the attitude of the average Ram half-ton buyer. This, no doubt, is where Mopar is probably drooling over the possibilities.
Not only has the Wrangler, Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 had huge successes with limited-edition packages, but they're also some of the most customized vehicles around, and you can bet a Jeep Scrambler pickup could potentially allow for twice the customization and personality-focused add-on features covering both the off-road and pickup sides. Whether that starts with a hidden air compressor and hose in a small storage pocket of the bed or a bed-mounted spare tire rack in a Mopar Baja Blaster special-edition Scrambler, we'll have to wait and see, but you get the idea.
Put another way, the debut of a Jeep pickup (finally) allows FCA to create a single vehicle that could potentially deliver two hugely strong personalities: one more Jeep than pickup, the other more pickup than Jeep, serving two incredibly important constituencies. Of course, the potential of doing neither side of that equation very well also exists (and the automotive landscape is littered with examples). The important thing to watch is to see if the new Scrambler will be credible to Jeep faithful first; then we'll be watching to see how many pickup enthusiasts are lured over.
Additionally, beyond the fact that Jeep is getting back into the pickup game (which many thought long overdue), we assume there have been quite a few internal arguments about whether Jeep should be allowed to make a pickup at all. For all practical purposes, Ram is the pickup brand for FCA and Jeep is supposed to be the SUV brand; will Ram be making an SUV anytime soon? It's crossed our minds — quite a few times recently — whether or not representatives of the Ram team are invited to any Jeep Scrambler meetings or how many design discussions included a possible Ram mid-size pickup. Similarly, if Mopar is involved, is it pushing to make more off-roading parts or extra towing kits? This could get muddied quickly unless both teams have a clear definition of the Wrangler pickup and the right people in the right places to protect those boundaries. We'll find out once we see the new truck perform.
On our most recent trip to Moab, we had the chance to meet the lead Jeep person on the Jeep JT, Brandon Girmus — a guy we're predicting you'll be hearing about for a long time to come. He was raised on a farm in Nebraska, where he grew up watching his dad drive Super Dutys and John Deeres, but for now, Brandon's in charge of making sure FCA gets this new Jeep pickup right. The priority, of course, is to make sure his team is making sure this is first and foremost a Jeep, meaning it will be exceptionally good off-road like the Wrangler Unlimited, have a strong and adaptable ladder frame, and deliver strong, traditional Wrangler core values. In short, from what we gather, there will be no doubt this new vehicle will be more Jeep than pickup when it debuts.
But that doesn't mean it won't fit in nicely with the other mid-size players in many of the same important categories. Even though the Wrangler's max towing capacity is 3,500 pounds, each Jeep engineer we spoke with understood the standard for the class — the price of entry, basically — is closer to double that number.
(As a side note, we can tell you it was encouraging to hear the Jeep engineers talk a lot about important issues like payload capacities, gearing, gross vehicle weight ratings, peak torque and hitch strength — maybe not surprisingly, they seem to get it.)
As you may have gathered, it's no accident that Jeep was quiet about why it didn't have any pickup concepts for us to drive in Moab, and that was probably the loudest message of all about how important this vehicle is to them. Getting this wrong could mean damage not only to Jeep, but also to anyone else who makes an FCA pickup truck — and that means Ram.
Maybe that's why Jeep brought what seemed like more FCA employees than ever to Moab to get out with other Jeep owners on the exact trails and terrain its products were designed to challenge and conquer. If you've ever been on a Jeep trail ride or attended a Jeep Jamboree or Camp Jeep and happen across one of the many off-road clubs out there, you know they're not shy about offering opinions and suggestions or talking about their own Jeep. In that way, they can be similar to some of our own regular commenters here on PickupTrucks.com — both your harshest critic and most loyal advocate, delivering some of the most brutally honest insight around. Getting that kind of quality feedback is priceless, so we applaud Jeep for taking its employees to this year's Easter Jeep Safari to learn more about how to use its own Jeeps and talk to the ground troops. And we can only hope that education and exposure to the real owners and users of its next important vehicle launch will result in as few compromises as possible — because if there are any, we'll find them.
According to Automotive News (subscription required), the new Scrambler should be in dealerships by April 2019, which we hope means we'll get a chance to drive it before the end of 2018. We'll no doubt be seeing more spy photos of the pickup as it gets closer to finalizing engine software and multiple package suspension details, and you can bet we'll pass them along to you as fast as possible. In the meantime, we'll keep pushing Jeep on how many changes to the Wrangler frame and chassis it's making (we're guessing they're adding about 16 inches to the center section of the frame and maybe a cross-member or two), then keeping you up to date. More to come.
SpiedBilde images; Manufacturer images
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