Question: Utilizing aftermarket alarm & electric step rails after installing aftermarket half doors.?.

[JustinB]

Good Day All

A question please, for anyone who may have encountered this.

I recently installed aftermarket half doors on my 2021 JLU. After doing this my jeep lost the ability to sense when the doors are open/closed, obviously.
This prevents my after market alarm from triggering after an event (a door is opened), this also keeps my automatic step rails from automatically lowering/raising with the same event, this also keeps the radio on (~45 seconds) after exiting the vehicle. Another loss is the dome light function. I did know all this going into this project.

What I would like to do is install door sensors, ideas are much appreciated! Perhaps the magnetically activated sensors held via double sided 3M tape (so I'm not drilling into the after market doors [which isn't really feasible] or the interior of the vehicle). These sensors would be wired to a factory identical harness clip that would plug into the body's door harness connector. Basically, when I remove my factory doors (and unplug that harness), I could hang the aftermarket half doors and plug this new harness into the same body harness connector down in the kick panel.

Primarily, my concern is having the step rails lower/raise after the door is opened/closed. I do have a proximity sensor on the alarm, but to have and instant door trigger would be better, as well as having the radio shut off after opening the door (I know there's a setting in Uconnect for that, but I would prefer not having to mess with that each time I swap the doors around).

So... does anyone have any experience with this? Perhaps they have installed some sort of switch that allows for a negative trigger. Like mentioned, a magnetic switch attached with double-sided sticky tape placed in an elusive area ? I would think this new harness would only require 2 pins/wires.?. 1 pin/wire is connected to constant ground and the switch. The switch is an OPEN Circuit when the doors are closed. When the door(s) are opened the switch closes and completes the negative trigger circuit.

Am I missing anything?
Does anyone have a better idea?

Thank You in advance!
V/R
~justin

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[americonium]

Which half doors are you using? That might help with the decision if what to use...

 

[JustinB]

Which half doors are you using? That might help with the decision if what to use...

DV8. They are aluminum, about 1/4 inch thick.
Thanks

 

[americonium]

I would try to find a normally open plunger switch that could be attached to the latch area. It would provide a short to the system. The only problem is, I don't know if the system looks for a short, an open, or a voltage. I have Mopar tube doors. I may look into this myself.

 

[JustinB]

I would try to find a normally open plunger switch that could be attached to the latch area. It would provide a short to the system. The only problem is, I don't know if the system looks for a short, an open, or a voltage. I have Mopar tube doors. I may look into this myself.

Understood, thanks for the reply.
Yes, I'd be looking for a normally open switch, the switch does not allow ground to pass thru it when the door(s) are closed, I have some saved in my Amazon list. Most alarm systems look for a 12v trigger or a negative/ground trigger, with the negative trigger being the most common because it's just safer.
I wouldn't want the switch too close to the handle side, it's too susceptible to getting bumped and a thief may actually see it, not to mention running the wire backdown to the kick panel where I'd have to wire it all up anyways. I'm thinking the hinge side near the bottom somewhere. Somewhere where I can put my regular doors back on and not have to reposition switches.

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