The 2020 Jeep Gladiator in Photos

Also, it's fantastic. And in a truck like this one there's no need for a trailer. Beds, baby, they're not just for sleeping.

Anyway, about this Gladiator thing. It's a real truck. And by real truck we mean the kind with a ladder frame topped by a cab and a separate cargo bed.

The kind with two live axles. It's just not the monstrously big kind. It's what they call a mid-size, which means next to nothing since there are no mid-size trucks.

Call the Jeep what you want but know that it's not as big as a Ford F-150 or Chevy Silverado. With the Gladiator, we're talking about a truck that's roughly the size of a Chevy Colorado, a Ford Ranger, or a Honda Ridgeline.

It's available only with four full-size doors and a five-foot bed. Every Gladiator has selectable four-wheel drive and uses a two-speed transfer case.

Both hard and soft tops are available, and like its Wrangler brethren, its windshield folds down flat.

Four trims are available: Sport, Sport S, Overland, and Rubicon.

Every Gladiator at launch will be powered by Fiat Chrysler's Pentastar 3.6-liter V-6 rated at 285 horsepower and 260 lb-ft of torque.

A six-speed manual transmission is standard, but ZF's eight-speed automatic is optional across the board. A turbocharged 3.0-liter diesel V-6 good for 260 horses and 442 lb-ft, paired exclusively with the eight-speed automatic, is coming in 2020.

Jeep is keenly aware that its bread is buttered with the anachronism of stick axles, but that, alas, is a Jeep thing, endowing the Wrangler lineup and the Gladiator with usable suspension articulation and supreme off-road capability.

Those axles, however, necessarily burden the truck with recirculating-ball steering, something that departed from virtually every other production vehicle, oh, about 30 years ago. And that means the Gladiator is not blessed with laser-precise steering.

Couple that with the fact that its heavy axles compel it to do a dynamic tango on certain surfaces, and you've got a recipe for a modern-day Conestoga wagon.

Sure, other more contemporary suspensions might not dance so much on washboard terrain, but the truth is, if you're a truck person, this probably is not going to matter.

Inside, the Gladiator is a mix of modern design and necessary function, including a waterproof start button for when you forget your truck is a roadster.

Infotainment touchscreens come in either 7.0- or 8.4-inch sizes. Large secondary controls include knobs for volume and fan speed adjustments.

The 60/40-split rear seatbacks fold flat, and the seat bottoms fold up. When both are deployed to make a seat there's more rear legroom than in any other mid-size truck.

If a convertible truck with a pair of solid axles is your bag of tricks, know that they start at $35,040 and will be available about the time you read this. Gladiator Rubicons begin at $45,040.

Those might seem like precious prices because, well, they are. Witness our test truck's $55,485 final tally.