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Jeep Gladiator Now Available with Half-Door Option for Open-Air Cruising

Ever look at someone with the doors taken off their Jeep and think, “Gee, I wish I could do that on my Jeep but I still want the relative safety that comes with having doors.” Now you can get the best of both worlds; the cool factor and refreshing breeze of the no-door look, and the safety of doors.

The Jeep Gladiator pickup offers a new half-door option, which launched earlier this year with the Wrangler, according to Fox News. The option comes as part of the Dual Door Group package with Jeep; it includes the standard removable doors with clip-in plastic windows, and the new half doors. The half doors are frameless and use zipper openings, and the option ranges from $4,590 to $4,990 depending on the type of fabric needed to match the window surrounds to the soft tops.

According to Fox News, the frameless half-doors are in direct opposition to the new Ford Bronco. The Bronco comes standard with frameless doors, but is much heavier than the Gladiator.

Why Do Jeep Owners Take Their Doors Off?

The Jeep started out as a U.S. military vehicle in 1940, and soldiers would remove the fabric roof and doors to make it easier to get in and out of in combat zones. Whether the modern culture of taking off the doors is a callback to the Jeep’s war days could be argued. But, the reason Jeep owners take the doors off now is usually because of off-roading.

According to Four Wheel Trends, there’s nothing better than off-roading in a Jeep; it’s what they were made for, after all. “Once you have gone off-roading without doors or a roof, it is hard to back,” says FWT.

But, there are a lot of reasons to keep the doors on, as well. The most obvious reason to keep the doors on a Jeep is the safety factor; when it comes right down to it, if you get in an accident, having no doors will cause more problems. While the soft top and doors don’t really offer much protection from an accident, “some protection is better than no protection,” says FWT; the fabric doors and roof can protect you from minor accidents on the road. Without doors, if you get into a major accident, there’s much more risk involved.

The doors and roof also protect from weather conditions. I’ve never been able to parse out what doorless Jeep owners do in freak rainstorms. Do you just let your interior get ruined? With a roof, there’s no need to spend all that extra money on getting your interior fixed if you get caught in a storm.

Everything comes down to a matter of preference regarding doors or no doors. That’s what’s so great about the half-doors; all the breezy freedom during off-roading without the safety issues.