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Per a Jeep dealership the JL is not water tight/expect it to fill with water during water crossings!

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James

James

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Yea cause Im sure you've done so many water crossings in jeeps , and in range rovers too right?
What is with the trolling?
You board?
Considering I do 80+ days a year off road, yeah I have done a lot of water crossings in my jeeps, this does not mean I’m an expert, there are a lot of folks who know more and others who know less than myself.
And your off road experience consist of?
The rover has been returned on its lease, it is not a real off road vehicle. Beside that how does trying to clown someone post add to the topic?

If you bothered to read the last post I did today regarding this subject you would be up to date instead of skimming and trolling.

Just giving it back!
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BillG

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Show me the phrase “watertight up to thirty inches” in the warranty. Not an online sales brochure. What you keep quoting says body openings seal tightly. That means nothing. A pickle jar sealed tightly to my girlfriend, is just snug to me. It’s a relative term.
They are sold and marketed as all weather mats, nothing more. If you are going to cross deep water, put the plugs into the body tub itself. That’s where they were when any testing was done.
I’m not trolling, just don’t quite understand how you can read a sales pitch and take it as a guarantee.
I suppose it’s akin to “ if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor “
 
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old8tora

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By the way, I’m in direct Communications with one of the folks who tested and designed the new JL
As far as my ongoing case with FCA, it has been mind boggling that so many folks who either work at a dealerships/ Jeep care or FCA have so little knowledge regarding the JL water fording capabilities.
(1) the person who water tested the new JL , in a river rapids crossing , now has "Immersion Foot" , and nearly drowned inside the Jeep , lol .

(2) ["so many folks" , "so little knowledge" .] Actually , all of them have experienced their own Jeeps leaking , lol .
 
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old8tora

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don’t quite understand how you can read a sales pitch and take it as a guarantee.
I suppose it’s akin to “ if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor “
Spot on , @BillG . Also akin to Jeep advertisement in Outside magazine : "expands your world to reveal adventures far and wide ... free yourself to go in every direction" . Yep , that's a "guarantee" , all right . lol .

Famous last words : "I'm ready for any flash flood ; IF my Jeep is guaranteed to be water tight ; I'll just float out of this box canyon." lol .
 

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old8tora

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Show me the phrase “watertight up to thirty inches” in the warranty.
Not in any warranty written by any FCA lawyer . Lifetime max warranty says not responsible for improper use by operator , lol . Wouldn't that include driving into ocean surf , during a hurricane , to prove it is water tight ? lol .
 

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Hey folks,

Here is an update. Sorry for not being on here for so long, I have been building a cabinet storage system for my JL and it has completely consumed my time. When I’m finished I’ll post it on this form.

The JL is guarantee to be water tight up to 30”. Period! There is no further discussion regarding this part. This is a fact, this is how it was designed and the floor mats have a design flaw that FCA is aware of. These are facts! So anyone who chimes in saying the JL is not water tight is either unaware, don’t care to learn about the capabilities or just trolling this tread.
Please take the time to learn the capabilities of the JL if your going to chime in saying it is not water tight.
By the way, I’m in direct Communications with one of the folks who tested and designed the new JL, they have a lot of new products in the works for this platform.

For the folks who chimed in about scratching, denting, getting it dirty or getting mud or water inside of your JL while off roading.
I’ll do no less than 80 days off roading each year, my jeeps have always taken a beating, got dented, scratched, dirt and water inside. Not one of my jeeps ever flooded while entering water, not once, never! If yours does you need to do some serious maintenance on your rig.
Everyone of my previous and current jeeps are well taken care of. Prior to each trip a complete rundown is done to make sure there are no problems during my trip, when I get home my Jeep gets a complete detail including the undercarriage, motor area and a rundown of the vehicle prior to it being parked until the next trip. If something was damaged during my trip I get it replaced or repaired.

Thank you all for chiming in on this subject.
Have a great upcoming 4th of July.
Anything you'd like to share how to keep water out? I'm not using the All-Weather mats, just looking for ideas to keep interior dry. I was thinking of the following to keep water out when dealing with door high water:

1. HVAC on high (I'm in a hard top)
2. Dielectric grease on door seals
3. Silicone around interior drain plugs
 

LLANERO

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Anything you'd like to share how to keep water out? I'm not using the All-Weather mats, just looking for ideas to keep interior dry. I was thinking of the following to keep water out when dealing with door high water:

1. HVAC on high (I'm in a hard top)
2. Dielectric grease on door seals
3. Silicone around interior drain plugs
4. Bilge pump :cwl:
 

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Could fill the interior with water to that point that would represent the 30” fording and see if it leaks.
Not a good test because of the way that the door seals might operate. In many cases, a seal can withstand more water pressure coming from the outside since it compresses the seals than from the inside if it is forcing the seal to separate. We're not talking about much pressure here though, but if *could* still work differently.
 

NavyVet1959

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I think the dealer is correct. Jeep isn’t watertight. The water fording literature points to electrical components being protected and there being seals but no claim the Jeep is watertight. Considering how much pressure water exerts at even a few inches it would be rather expensive to implement the types of seals needed to keep all water out. Best one can hope for is that water intrusion doesn’t affect what it contacts.
Actually, water does not exert much pressure at a few inches. It exerts 1 ATM (14.7 psi) at around 32 ft, so that's less than 1 psi per 2 ft.

One thing that you need to be concerned about with respect to water crossing though if the vehicle was completely watertight would be the added buoyancy of the vehicle, thus giving you less traction. I have no idea whether a Wrangler will float even if all the door seals and other entry points are taped up. It's possible that there is just not enough buoyancy in the cabin for it to float. I know for a fact though that the old VW Bug would definitely float because I tried to cross a bridge once where the water was flowing over the top of it and I ended up floating and my tires were acting as paddlewheels as I slowly drifted towards the downstream side but was still making headway across the bridge. VW even had an ad where they showed the vehicle floating. But even it wasn't 100% waterproof from what I understand -- eventually, it would start getting some water slowly coming in and it would sink.

The way that I read their 30" fording depth thing is that the vehicle will mechanically continue to run, but you might be in a bit of trouble cosmetically in that you're going to need to be stripping out the carpeting to clean it and maybe the seats are going to get messed up. But, if you don't mind the smell of a moldy interior on your vehicle, go ahead and have fun.

The really ridiculous thing as far as I'm concerned is that if you are wanting to buy a Jeep and have a question about some capability, if you go over to Jeep.com, they will tell you to ask the dealership. I've dealt with these dealership idiots before and you're lucky if they can even *spell* "Jeep". You would *think* that the manufacturer would know whether the changes that they made to the new version took away a previous feature that had always existed in manual transmission vehicles (i.e. push / bump start), but they said to check with the dealership and the dealership hadn't even seen any manual transmission JLs at that time, much less tried to push start one.
 

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NavyVet1959

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Yep , @BillG reads the sales brochure very carefully : Water FORDING , NOT water tight . Also , here we have the fine print disclaimer that "Do NOT attempt water fording unless depth is known to be less than 30 inches" , and damage "may NOT be covered by the new vehicle warranty" .

It does NOT guarantee water TIGHT . So much for relying on a sales brochure , while overlooking the fine print .

Actually , no vehicle , including an LST , is going to be water Tight .
So, what we really need is a *bilge pump*... They're not that expensive -- a Rule 500 gph one is only around $35. The doors probably don't leak *that* fast (unless you have the door off), right? Probably should put one for the driver and passenger side though. That's going to be sitting a bit lower under the vehicle, so maybe need a skid plate for it... :)
 

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If there really is a problem with water intrusion from the drain plug, I would have to consider possibly making a gasketed cover that fit over the opening from the bottom and had a bolt in the center of it and then some sort of cover that acted as a large washer that fit on the inside of the vehicle so that I could tighten it up enough to keep water from coming in.

But, I did not order the Jeep floor mats, so maybe this is not as much of an issue for me since I will be leaving the factory plugs in the floor?

Oh well... I'll figure it out if my JL ever comes in...
 

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Considering I do 80+ days a year off road, yeah I have done a lot of water crossings in my jeeps, this does not mean I’m an expert, there are a lot of folks who know more and others who know less than myself.
And your off road experience consist of?
The Army techs who wrote the operator's manual for the Army M-151 Jeep recommend a maximum fording depth of 21 inches . Perhaps you might use their conservative recommendation , ( rather than the too optimistic advertising brochure of 30 inches ) ?

(Even though I re-started mine in about 30 inches of water , but there was a LOT of water inside .)

Just suggesting , bro .
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