Spartan Gladiator, model years 2010 to 2019. Filed by Spartan Motors USA and reported to NHTSA on 29 June 2018. 865 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Spartan Motors USA (Spartan) is recalling certain 2010-2019 Spartan Emergency Response Gladiator vehicles. The protective sleeve for the cable that connects the battery positive terminal to the alternator can become brittle and allow the cable to chafe and arc.
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
Spartan's own number for this recall: 18020. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 18V440 is the number NHTSA gave the same campaign, and the number this page is filed under. They are one recall, written two ways.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 18V440 cover?
- Spartan Gladiator, model years 2010-2019.
- What is wrong with them?
- Spartan Motors USA (Spartan) is recalling certain 2010-2019 Spartan Emergency Response Gladiator vehicles. The protective sleeve for the cable that connects the battery positive terminal to the alternator can become brittle and allow the cable to chafe and arc.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- If the battery positive cable arcs, it can increase the risk of a fire.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Spartan will notify owners, and dealers will install brackets to move the cable away from any chafe points, and replace any damaged battery positive cables, free of charge. The recall began on August 27, 2018. Owners may contact Spartan customer service at 1-800-543-5008.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. Spartan calls this recall 18020, which is the number on the owner letter and the dealer paperwork.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “If the battery positive cable arcs, it can increase the risk of a fire.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 18V440 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Spartan Motors USA |
| System at fault | Electrical System:Wiring |
| Reported to NHTSA | 29 June 2018 |
| Model years | 2010-2019 |
| Vehicles named | SPARTAN GLADIATOR |
What the notice says today
The consequence
If the battery positive cable arcs, it can increase the risk of a fire.
The remedy
Spartan will notify owners, and dealers will install brackets to move the cable away from any chafe points, and replace any damaged battery positive cables, free of charge. The recall began on August 27, 2018. Owners may contact Spartan customer service at 1-800-543-5008. Spartan's number for this recall is 18020.
What it said before
This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.
This is one of 1,836 notices in the record whose component field names electrical system. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 41 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 18V440, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/18v440/
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
Other Spartan notices we hold
- 25V910: 2021-2023, 2025 Spartan Fire Legend, 2007, 2015-2026 Star Series, and 2019-2020 UST Body emergency
- 25V584: 2023-2026 Gladiator, Metrostar, FC-94, KME Panther, and 2024-2025 Predator
- 24V799: 2024-2025 Metro Star, FC-94, 2025 Gladiator, and KME Panther
- 20V492: one 2018 Gladiator vehicle equipped with Code 3 7x9 Stop-Tail-Turn Reverse All-in-One LED stop, tail, turn, and reverse lights
- 20V216: 2020-2021 FLT Utilimaster Truck Body
- 20V138: 2019-2020 Fire Gladiator and MetroStar Emergency
- 20V065: 2019 Utilimaster Sprinter
- 19V674: 2004-2020 Emergency Response Gladiator and Spartan
All 97 Spartan campaigns we hold · Every manufacturer in the record
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 18V440 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
abbccc4b - Consequence
565f569d - Remedy
6fbfc201
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 18V440 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Spartan Gladiator, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
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Owners of these cars
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