Wardrobe malfunction exposes JL Wrangler rear

[Spank]

I certainly could be mistaken, but this sure looks like a wiper blade to me.

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[Billy]

I certainly could be mistaken, but this sure looks like a wiper blade to me.

At least I can take that one off and plug the hole, since the motor and mount are not incorporated with the hinge.

 

[Spank]

At least I can take that one off and plug the hole, since the motor and mount are not incorporated with the hinge.

Yeah, if that's the wiper blade, surely they've built it in a manner that's literally plug and play.

 

[Billy]

Yeah, if that's the wiper blade, surely they've built it in a manner that's literally plug and play.

Unplug and remove...

 

[The Great Grape Ape]

I never noticed that box above the dude in the blue hat (disposing of the body) but that makes sense. I think it's kinda dumb to mount the wiper motor there, given the moment on it relative to window hinges & an added need for spring rate in the struts, as well as a head knocker when accessing the cargo area. I think it belongs on the tailgate like most other SUVs and could be only functional when the hard top is on and plugged in (and not included on soft top models).

The main reason I noticed it was because along with the giant wiper motor blocking my view in the hard top being a long-time pet peeve (can we use a smaller motor if it's gonna be in my sightline?) for not only myself, but my major warrantly repair issue with the JKUs (don't use JK enough to cause this) has been replacing 3 and repairing 2 rear windows due to defroster connector snapping off because as a hockey player and skier, Imopen that rear window about 200 times in winter (4-8 times a week for hockey / 5-6 tines a week for skiing) so as soon as I saw a new defroster cable setup in that rear window and a new wiper motor location, I was like 'WooHoo!'.

If I could find the thread where that image is from, you'd see I'm not alone with the joy at the wiper motor relocation.
For some reason the news article links to the forum for details, don't go to the corresponding forum thread anymore.

That wiper motor and the spare tire blocking view are why all my Wranglers get the 430 back-up cam mod, and prior to that a Magellan 1700 & 6230.

 

[The Great Grape Ape]

Unplug and remove...

Now you just need to attach a waving hand to the motor and make new friends while out Jeepin'.

 

[Billy]

Now you just need to attach a waving hand to the motor and make new friends while out Jeepin'.

The new automated Jeep wave.

Or it could be a waving "birdy"...

 

[The Great Grape Ape]

Speaking of the waving birdy, and mounting signage/signalling at that spot...

A friend of mine just put in an LED 'pre-programmable phrase' banner display in the rear window of his Sequoia (no surprise) so he can communicate that very thing (especially to tailgaters on icey road in the mountains), a couple of us at the table were all envious and planning to add the same ability to advise/train other... less mindful/prepared/trained/Awake/SOBER drivers out there.

To my dissapointment, I realised you can't really do the same in the Wrangler because of the spare tire being in the way.

However, if there were unlimited resources for this project, then adding a long fast moving LED arm projecting from the spare tire mount like the floating message clocks would accomplish the same task.

Oh, I could see that being a VERY popular mod if you could ever commercialize it.

But it likely wouldn't survive a Wrangler's typical abuse.

Likely just as easy to imbed the standard LED sign array into the plastic of the rear bumper like they do for road maintenance Wranglers in Northern Ontario, although those just have arrows scrolling left/right.

 

[Billy]

What kind of fluid do those use? :cwl:

 

[Bill P]

I'm not seeing such a drastic 4" rear tire drop from the pics but trying to find good comparison. But maybe so based on these?

It helps they slimmed down the third brake light and the spare does seem to sit lower on the rear bumper. That should improve how wide you need the tailgate open in order to lift up/down the rear window. On the JK it's annoying having to almost fully open the tailgate to open or close the rear glass.

 

[Kevin]

Hoping thinner pillars also means lighter hard top. However the difference might have to come from lighter materials, it does not look like they have shaved the pillar by too much.

 

[YFD_322]

Did anyone mention the new license plate mount? Or is that temporary.

 

[Billy]

Hoping thinner pillars also means lighter hard top. However the difference might have to come from lighter materials, it does not look like they have shaved the pillar by too much.

Glass is heavy.

 

[jeepney123]

I wish they would have went with a full barn door design.

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