Upgrading hood latches

Muddyninja1

Muddyninja1

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Joined
Jun 17, 2018
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Ohio
Ok...I've checked through the posts on here, and con not find the info I'm looking for. So I need some help. I know someone else has probably already done this.
Is it possible to put JK hood latches on a TJ? The reason I ask this is because I want to put 2018 JL hood latches on my TJ. I've seen videos of guys putting JL latches onto JKs with a bit of drilling. My thought is....if JK latches can be put on a TJ, then JL latches can be put on a TJ.
So.....anybody do this yet???
 
I've never seen it done, but the JK hood latches are longer than the TJ I believe, so you'd have to do some drilling most likely.
 
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Muddyninja1 said:
Ok...I've checked through the posts on here, and con not find the info I'm looking for. So I need some help. I know someone else has probably already done this.
Is it possible to put JK hood latches on a TJ? The reason I ask this is because I want to put 2018 JL hood latches on my TJ. I've seen videos of guys putting JL latches onto JKs with a bit of drilling. My thought is....if JK latches can be put on a TJ, then JL latches can be put on a TJ.
So.....anybody do this yet???
Click to expand...

The Jk latches are longer TJ latches. Go with Daystar if you want the stock look but a little tighter. Or go with Drake Off-road for bother aesthetic and function.
 
Had the drake ones and foud they were a pain to get lined up when the hood was 10,000 degrees from the sun and motor. Steingnyager (probably misspelled) offers the best of both worlds. Stock operation with heim joint retention.

—
There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
 
Well, I understand there are aftermarket options out there. I'm not wanting to "do what everyone else has done." I like the look of the 2018 JL hood latches. I guess I'll be the first on this one. They are on back order from Jeep. But I'll let you know how it turns out.
Screenshot_2018-06-14-17-02-49.png
 
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Sweet, can't wait for the results. By the way, untill they come in, a black zip tie around the rubber will eliminate hood flutter for basically free. Keep your shorts clean till the parts arrive ;)

—
There must have been a time
when we could have said no.
 
I saw a guy do the JL to Jk latch conversion on Reddit and I wondered about the same thing.

But looking at it now, it won't work. The JK and JL latch mechanisms are both parallel to each other. On the TJ they are perpendicular.
 
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No, I haven't given up. The "base" of the latch is different and I'm going to have to disassemble them, turn the base 180 degrees and reassemble them in order for them to work on a TJ. Probably get to it next month, I'll let you know if it works.
 
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TJ_2000 said:
The Jk latches are longer TJ latches. Go with Daystar if you want the stock look but a little tighter. Or go with Drake Off-road for bother aesthetic and function.
Click to expand...
I highly recommend AGAINST Drake Off-road.
I have them. They are made with very soft/cheap metal. Mine stripped, and customer service ignored me.

Yes, they look great, which is the reason I bought them. But both my Drake hood latches and Drake gas cover build quality is very poor. Like sub-Chinese quality poor. I would not buy again.
 
I'm not a fan of most of Daystar's products but their hood latch kit that replaces the stretchy robber part works well. I installed a set several years ago after one of my OE latches broke and they work well. They're slightly stretchy but not enough to allow the hood to flutter like the OE latches do.
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
I'm not a fan of most of Daystar's products but their hood latch kit that replaces the stretchy robber part works well. I installed a set several years ago after one of my OE latches broke and they work well. They're slightly stretchy but not enough to allow the hood to flutter like the OE latches do.
Click to expand...

So the OE latches do allow some hood play? When I'm driving at highway speeds with some wind I always get some flutter and noticed my brothers 97 TJ has a different hood latch. You're saying I could replace the rubbers and eliminate the flutter?
 
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Schwifty Rich said:
So the OE latches do allow some hood play? When I'm driving at highway speeds with some wind I always get some flutter and noticed my brothers 97 TJ has a different hood latch. You're saying I could replace the rubbers and eliminate the flutter?
Click to expand...
Yes the OE rubber latches stretch enough to allow the hood to flutter in windy conditions. After one of mine broke I replaced both with Daystar's hood latch kit. They are significantly less stretchy so there's no more hood flutter.

When mine broke I was on a 350 mile trip and I had to use an extra-strong bungee cord I happened to have with me to hold the hood down for the rest of the trip. The hood goes bonkers with just one side latch holding it down.
 
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Sunder said:
I highly recommend AGAINST Drake Off-road.
I have them. They are made with very soft/cheap metal. Mine stripped, and customer service ignored me.

Yes, they look great, which is the reason I bought them. But both my Drake hood latches and Drake gas cover build quality is very poor. Like sub-Chinese quality poor. I would not buy again.
Click to expand...
If they are as you say " Like sub-Chinese quality poor " that is saying they are REALLY BAD. As normal Chinese stuff is a lot of times junk. And I know Chinese junk, we were playing horse shoes once on the Rubicon as we had some down time so we set up a horse shoe pit. Well during one of the games one of the shoes went a bit long and hit a rock and BROKE. Can you believe you can break a horse shoe, well you can when the box says " Made in China" 😂
 
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Plumber1 said:
If they are as you say " Like sub-Chinese quality poor " that is saying they are REALLY BAD. As normal Chinese stuff is a lot of times junk. And I know Chinese junk, we were playing horse shoes once on the Rubicon as we had some down time so we set up a horse shoe pit. Well during one of the games one of the shoes went a bit long and hit a rock and BROKE. Can you believe you can break a horse shoe, well you can when the box says " Made in China" 😂
Click to expand...

Oh yea as Jerry says Buy American :)
 
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Not all of the Chinese stuff is junk. Some of it can be quite good. My Chinese-made Trucklite knockoffs have performed exemplary (lets face it, the original lights created a very low bar to surpass), at a very attractive price point. But at the same time, I still hang on to my old halogens, just in case something goes wrong.

As has been mentioned here before, the problem is consistency. The quality control for a lot of these products are sub-par, so two people can order the same product, but it may only perform well for one of them.

For the really cheap stuff, where the product can almost be considered disposable, or you have spares you can fall back on, it's one thing, but when you're protecting your windshield from a hood that has aspirations of flight, do you really want to take that wager?
 
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Tim Redman said:
but when you're protecting your windshield from a hood that has aspirations of flight, do you really want to take that wager?
Click to expand...
Funny, because the same should be asked about something as important as headlights (your example being headlights) and wheels.

(Not relating to hood latches, but headlights) Even if some Chinese products receive rave reviews, if they, “knockoff,” someone else's hard work, engineering, and design, the knockoff should not be advocated for.

As Jerry, “says,” “when given the choice, buy American.”
 
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