FunWagon
Well-Known Member
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- #1
Context:
I’ve owned a JK with half doors for 13 years. That’s a long time. It was like my second home. The half doors were on permanently. I owned a JL with half doors for only a week now, but already have a lot to say. Naturally I compare the JK half doors to the JL half doors.
Disclaimer: It is hard to describe in writing all the mechanics. A lot of details I had to leave out as too complicated to explain in writing.
In a nutshell:
Because the JL half doors are packaged as an add on and not factory installed there are a lot of adjustments to get it right. Also because of technological advancements there are more moving parts, which are more fragile, making them less durable and probably have a shorter life span.
EDIT: I absolutely love my JL. I just feel the JLs are more fragile than the JKs in many ways, although more technologically advanced. And honestly the JKs were more fragile than the TJs.
In more details:
The doors
The JL doors are very light and easy to handle. The JL doors have power mirrors and power locks, while the JK mirrors and locks were manual.
The JK doors came perfectly installed from the factory, so lock hinges and everything was perfectly aligned and door color compared to vehicle color was perfectly matched. Operation was smooth.
Because the JL doors need to be installed, you can either get lucky or not with how perfectly the door lock hinges align once you put the doors on. Mine were not perfect, but good enough for now that I didn’t want to mess with loosening the door hinges to adjust, which I’m guessing may be a two person operation to get it right. Note that unlike the full doors’ hinge bolts which are body colored to match, the half doors’ hinge bolts are black (not painted) since you mess with them and don’t want paint to chip off.
The two holes at the top of each JL half door where the uppers slide in are surprisingly disappointing compared to the JK’s half doors. On the JL they are made of bent painted metal with lots of gaps and opening for water (eg rain) to get into the door and who knows what. I already managed to scratch a lot of the paint off the inside of these metal walled holes (see pictures below) trying to adjust the uppers, but that’s a whole other story I’ll get to below. The JK holes where lined with heavy duty plastic, completely water proofed the door’s internals, and lasted 13 years with no problems.
The interior of the JL half doors is nice but again less durable and less functional than the JK half doors. The JK half doors had solid handles (doubled as arm rests) to pull the door in to shut the door closed. They were positioned further back on the door giving it more leverage to close the door. The JL half door has a small strap positioned closer to the front which provides less leverage when closing the door and is far less durable. They will probably not last 13 years like my JK’s did.
The uppers
The JL uppers have a bit more mechanical technology than the JK uppers, due to necessity of them being add-ons that may need adjustments for proper installation, but at the expense of more moving parts that are extremely fragile.
The JK uppers had two solid one piece heavy duty plastic “legs” that slid easily in a straight forward and simple way into the two holes in the half doors. It was very easy to use and lasted 13 years with no problems. The JL uppers have wimpy “legs” with lots of wimpy moving parts including a complicated mechanism with a little screw and nut to adjust the angle of the legs so the upper is more tilted or less tilted towards the roofline when in the door to prevent water leaks.
This mechanism sounds good on paper but is a nightmare to understand, use, and is super fragile, which again probably won’t last as long. And we are talking about your doors. A critical part of your vehicle.
I haven’t mastered the mechanism yet for adjusting the tilt of the uppers (and I’m an engineer by profession), and it definitely needs adjustment, but I did manage to significantly wear out the bolt mechanism on the upper’s legs trying, and scratched the paint off the inside of the pained metal holes on the half doors. So aggravating.
Let me give you some tips that are not included in the Mopar video or in the instruction manual, and in fact may be misleading in the video/manual. Common sense would say that the tilt angle of both legs of an upper should be the same, but it doesn’t say that and there is no easy way to tell if they are except when you put the upper into the half door it gets stuck inside so bad that you at a minimum scratch the paint off and at worst break the legs, if the legs have different angles. Same if you adjust it to tilt too much. There is no guidance on the maximum tilt it can handle, but it seems it will let you go further than it can handle.
After struggling trying to adjust one door and wearing out components and scratching pain of insides of half doors, I gave up trying the other doors. On the JK they just worked from the factory with no adjustment and never leaked.
Usability
With the uppers on the Jeep, the vertical divider in the window blocks a bit the view of the side view mirror. I cannot see the yellow triangle light in the mirror when a vehicle is in my blind spot, and it cuts off a bit of the view of the mirror. I am 6’2” tall, sit with seat all the way back, but with back rest vertical, not tilted back too much.
EDIT: I love, in both the JK and JL, that you can unzip the front of the plastic window, push the window out a bit to create a crack in the front side of the window channeling just enough air into the Jeep. Except in the JL the window divider causes the opening to be further back compared to the JK, which results in air blowing into my ears rather than my face like with the JK. With full doors when you open a crack in the window the crack is at the top, but with the half doors you can make the crack in the front (not top) which is so so much nicer.
In conclusion
I love my new Jeep with the half doors, but wish the half doors came installed properly at the factory and where more solid and with less moving parts.
I’ve owned a JK with half doors for 13 years. That’s a long time. It was like my second home. The half doors were on permanently. I owned a JL with half doors for only a week now, but already have a lot to say. Naturally I compare the JK half doors to the JL half doors.
Disclaimer: It is hard to describe in writing all the mechanics. A lot of details I had to leave out as too complicated to explain in writing.
In a nutshell:
Because the JL half doors are packaged as an add on and not factory installed there are a lot of adjustments to get it right. Also because of technological advancements there are more moving parts, which are more fragile, making them less durable and probably have a shorter life span.
EDIT: I absolutely love my JL. I just feel the JLs are more fragile than the JKs in many ways, although more technologically advanced. And honestly the JKs were more fragile than the TJs.
In more details:
The doors
The JL doors are very light and easy to handle. The JL doors have power mirrors and power locks, while the JK mirrors and locks were manual.
The JK doors came perfectly installed from the factory, so lock hinges and everything was perfectly aligned and door color compared to vehicle color was perfectly matched. Operation was smooth.
Because the JL doors need to be installed, you can either get lucky or not with how perfectly the door lock hinges align once you put the doors on. Mine were not perfect, but good enough for now that I didn’t want to mess with loosening the door hinges to adjust, which I’m guessing may be a two person operation to get it right. Note that unlike the full doors’ hinge bolts which are body colored to match, the half doors’ hinge bolts are black (not painted) since you mess with them and don’t want paint to chip off.
The two holes at the top of each JL half door where the uppers slide in are surprisingly disappointing compared to the JK’s half doors. On the JL they are made of bent painted metal with lots of gaps and opening for water (eg rain) to get into the door and who knows what. I already managed to scratch a lot of the paint off the inside of these metal walled holes (see pictures below) trying to adjust the uppers, but that’s a whole other story I’ll get to below. The JK holes where lined with heavy duty plastic, completely water proofed the door’s internals, and lasted 13 years with no problems.
The interior of the JL half doors is nice but again less durable and less functional than the JK half doors. The JK half doors had solid handles (doubled as arm rests) to pull the door in to shut the door closed. They were positioned further back on the door giving it more leverage to close the door. The JL half door has a small strap positioned closer to the front which provides less leverage when closing the door and is far less durable. They will probably not last 13 years like my JK’s did.
The uppers
The JL uppers have a bit more mechanical technology than the JK uppers, due to necessity of them being add-ons that may need adjustments for proper installation, but at the expense of more moving parts that are extremely fragile.
The JK uppers had two solid one piece heavy duty plastic “legs” that slid easily in a straight forward and simple way into the two holes in the half doors. It was very easy to use and lasted 13 years with no problems. The JL uppers have wimpy “legs” with lots of wimpy moving parts including a complicated mechanism with a little screw and nut to adjust the angle of the legs so the upper is more tilted or less tilted towards the roofline when in the door to prevent water leaks.
This mechanism sounds good on paper but is a nightmare to understand, use, and is super fragile, which again probably won’t last as long. And we are talking about your doors. A critical part of your vehicle.
I haven’t mastered the mechanism yet for adjusting the tilt of the uppers (and I’m an engineer by profession), and it definitely needs adjustment, but I did manage to significantly wear out the bolt mechanism on the upper’s legs trying, and scratched the paint off the inside of the pained metal holes on the half doors. So aggravating.
Let me give you some tips that are not included in the Mopar video or in the instruction manual, and in fact may be misleading in the video/manual. Common sense would say that the tilt angle of both legs of an upper should be the same, but it doesn’t say that and there is no easy way to tell if they are except when you put the upper into the half door it gets stuck inside so bad that you at a minimum scratch the paint off and at worst break the legs, if the legs have different angles. Same if you adjust it to tilt too much. There is no guidance on the maximum tilt it can handle, but it seems it will let you go further than it can handle.
After struggling trying to adjust one door and wearing out components and scratching pain of insides of half doors, I gave up trying the other doors. On the JK they just worked from the factory with no adjustment and never leaked.
Usability
With the uppers on the Jeep, the vertical divider in the window blocks a bit the view of the side view mirror. I cannot see the yellow triangle light in the mirror when a vehicle is in my blind spot, and it cuts off a bit of the view of the mirror. I am 6’2” tall, sit with seat all the way back, but with back rest vertical, not tilted back too much.
EDIT: I love, in both the JK and JL, that you can unzip the front of the plastic window, push the window out a bit to create a crack in the front side of the window channeling just enough air into the Jeep. Except in the JL the window divider causes the opening to be further back compared to the JK, which results in air blowing into my ears rather than my face like with the JK. With full doors when you open a crack in the window the crack is at the top, but with the half doors you can make the crack in the front (not top) which is so so much nicer.
In conclusion
I love my new Jeep with the half doors, but wish the half doors came installed properly at the factory and where more solid and with less moving parts.
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