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2020 Jeep Gladiator: How to fold down the windshield

Just unscrew a few bolts and away you go

The 2020 Jeep Gladiator has one of the coolest features of any truck on the market – a fold-down windshield, just like its Wrangler sibling. We're going to show you just how easy it is to flip it down and do some wind-in-your-teeth offroading – check out the video above for a demonstration.

To start, we are going to remove the front roof panels. These front panels have to come off in order for us to lower the windshield. The driver's side front roof panel needs to come off first because of how it overlaps the other panel. Turn the clips, then unclip the frontmost one, as shown in the video. Lift off the roof panels, taking note of how the pins slip into the holes in the frame. It helps to have another person there to grab the panels as you lift them off, but it's not strictly necessary. They not heavy, just awkward, and since they're painted you want to be careful about where to store them, too.

Then grab the little toolkit out of the console under the armrest. It's nice and compact, and includes everything you need for this job. There are four bolts along the top of the windshield frame. You'll need to move the sun visors around a bit to get at all of them. Use the Torx bit on the provided ratchet, and remove them. We loosened them all before removing them just to make sure nothing got caught or stripped.

Before folding down the windshield itself, remove the wipers. Pull off the little plastic cap, and then use the provided socket and ratchet. They should come right off.

After the wipers are off and all the bolts are removed, carefully lower the windshield. It's not damped by any sort of spring or anything, so if you drop it it's going to slam against the hood rests. It simply is held in place by gravity, resting on the rubber stops. Surprisingly it stays in place pretty well, but we hit some big whoops at a moderate speed and the windshield started bouncing on its mounts. You may want to explore some way to lightly secure the windshield to the hood, like a bungee or the like. Or you can just be extra careful with the windshield down.

Installation is the reverse of the process. All told, it's a simple procedure that should take you less than five minutes. We should mention that, under the rear driver's side seat, Jeep offers a handy little storage container for all the top hardware, including the windshield bolts. It has a foam insert with little holes to organize all the bolts. Use it so your hardware doesn't go missing.

That's it! Enjoy your offroad driving with the windshield down!

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