Lower Jeep interior temps

Tycarver

Tycarver

TJ Enthusiast
Joined
Sep 5, 2019
Messages
370
Location
Florida
trust me I know I have the worlds hottest setup for my inside but wanted to see if anyone does anything to make the interior of there Jeep a little cooler.

I have a all black Jeep with a black soft top and no carpet. It’s hot as the devils insides as you would assume. I just got my AC in perfect working order and changed from the neoprene seat covers to some bartact seat covers ( amazing) and I ordered the front carpet from bedtred it will be here on Monday. But I’m wondering if anyone has any other ways to help cool down a all black Jeep in 100degree Florida heat.
( I take my doors off when I can but rain is unpredictable in Florida so I leave them on unless blue sky’s)
 
Brian83 said:
Lizardskin Ceramic coating
Click to expand...

I just ordered some Lizard Skin to do the cabin area of my TJ. With my V-8 I feel more heat inside the Jeep than I did before. Since mine is mainly a trail Jeep I am not going to add the sound deadening coating and I'm not going to do the cargo area just the front.

https://lizardskin.com/
This isn't going to do anything for the heat you get because of your dark colored top and paint but it might help. They do make insulation you can put inside your top.

https://hotheadheadliners.com/colle...-tj-soft-top-headliner?variant=32094211899458
 
Wildman said:
I just ordered some Lizard Skin to do the cabin area of my TJ. With my V-8 I feel more heat inside the Jeep than I did before. Since mine is mainly a trail Jeep I am not going to add the sound deadening coating and I'm not going to do the cargo area just the front.

https://lizardskin.com/
This isn't going to do anything for the heat you get because of your dark colored top and paint but it might help. They do make insulation you can put inside your top.

https://hotheadheadliners.com/colle...-tj-soft-top-headliner?variant=32094211899458
Click to expand...

the headliner is amazing! I thought they only made that for hardtops. Does anyone have any experience with those?
 
I had thought about buying one to help in the winter time with the cold. I'd read some reviews about it and they were all good. If you get one make sure and let us know what you think of it.
 
Wildman said:
I had thought about buying one to help in the winter time with the cold. I'd read some reviews about it and they were all good. If you get one make sure and let us know what you think of it.
Click to expand...

I will look into it and think about it.
 
Buy a bunch of melamine foam insulation:
https://www.secondskinaudio.com/melamine-foam/
The foam is the same insulation used on bullet trains and other high end transportation. It has great thermal and acoustic insulation properties.

Treat every void you can find.

Particularly, take apart the doors, and line as much of the exterior door skin as possible with it. Insulating your doors makes a small but noticeable difference in summer and in winter. I was able to get about 90% coverage on mine.

Pull up the center console and fill every non-functional void in the console as thoroughly as possible. You're trying to cover as much of the transmission tunnel as possible under the console. All of my foam is attached to the underside of the console and not the floor.

If you have time, insulate in the dash as well. Insulate any A/C ducts, as much of the firewall as possible, and anywhere else heat could enter. Even the A-pillars can take a bit of insulation.

You can even take some pillow stuffing and shove it in voids like the header bar.

You could also insulate the tailgate and a few other voids if you really wanted to.



Buy some small pipe insulation, and insulate the A/C lines from the orifice tube to the firewall, and maybe the return line to the compressor.

Install a heater core bypass valve to reduce the amount of heat leaking in from the heater core. These valves are common in new cars because they improve cooling during the summer.

If you have a winch, relocate the control pack to ensure the condenser gets as much airflow as possible. A body lift will also reduce the profile of the winch over the condenser. Move lights, steering coolers, and anything else out of the way.
 
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I just sound deadened/heat shielded my all black Jeep. I used Second Skin sound deadener and www.carinsulation.com head shield. I had the Second Skin laying around from another project. But from time to time they sell what is called "B" stock. It's like seconds. Just as good IMHO. I have a box of it. And I can't tell the difference between it and the real deal. The Second skin provides quite a bit of heat shield. As it's aluminum faced. But the heat shield is an actual heat shield. With two sides of aluminum.

The heat shield went down super easy. I thought that was going to be harder than the sound deadener. But it was not. I used some general spray adhesive. (Check out my build thread for more info.) And it went down quickly.

I would suggest this heat shield over spray as spray tends to get moisture underneath it after a while and causes rust. Don't ask me for a link. I've seen it on YT of guys trying to remove it and other forums. The problem is it's very hard to prep the entire tub surface - is my theory anyway. Every corner and crevice you spray has to be prepped for the spray to get a good grip. AFter it dries you have no idea what is sticking and what is not. You don't see this often because few guys have had a Jeep or truck that long to see it rust. But it was enough for me not to go there. Besides I think the sound difference between actual sound deadener and spray is quite large. But YMMV. Both are a bitch to take out. So keep that in mind.

Also if you get water or mud inside your Jeep a lot. I would not use either of the products I mention here. I would stick with the spray liner.

But if that's not an issue and if you wanted to try. I would put down the heat shield first. As it can be taken out in seconds. As long as you don't saturate it with spray adhesive. I was very conservative with mine. And I know it will pull up easy.

Also consider ACC carpet via Rockauto. The ACC website has great info. And you should send for samples. As the colors don't match the website. It's far cheaper than Bedrug. And it's a lot thicker and cheaper and I would think a lot more sound deadening. They sell a version with sound deadening mat on the back too. But it's more expensive. They have two levels of thickness. Essex and some other name for their regular thickness. I got the Essex. And it's sort of overkill. I would just go with their regular thickness. It's still a lot thicker than bedrug. Although bedrug would put up with being hosed off more often in my humble opinion.

If all you're looking for is a heat shield though. I would try that stuff I link above. It's cheap. Comes with aluminum seam tape. And goes down really nicely. It's rated to block 97% of radiant heat. I doubt that. But it's a far bit cooler in my Jeep this summer because of it. Stock carpet had aluminum heat shield on it too. In places. So it's super necessary. Every modern car comes with some sort of sound and heat shielding. No reason you shouldn't have it on your Jeep.
 
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Steel City 06 said:
Buy a bunch of melamine foam insulation:
https://www.secondskinaudio.com/melamine-foam/
The foam is the same insulation used on bullet trains and other high end transportation. It has great thermal and acoustic insulation properties.

Treat every void you can find.

Particularly, take apart the doors, and line as much of the exterior door skin as possible with it. Insulating your doors makes a small but noticeable difference in summer and in winter. I was able to get about 90% coverage on mine.

Pull up the center console and fill every non-functional void in the console as thoroughly as possible. You're trying to cover as much of the transmission tunnel as possible under the console. All of my foam is attached to the underside of the console and not the floor.

If you have time, insulate in the dash as well. Insulate any A/C ducts, as much of the firewall as possible, and anywhere else heat could enter. Even the A-pillars can take a bit of insulation.

You can even take some pillow stuffing and shove it in voids like the header bar.

You could also insulate the tailgate and a few other voids if you really wanted to.



Buy some small pipe insulation, and insulate the A/C lines from the orifice tube to the firewall, and maybe the return line to the compressor.

Install a heater core bypass valve to reduce the amount of heat leaking in from the heater core. These valves are common in new cars because they improve cooling during the summer.

If you have a winch, relocate the control pack to ensure the condenser gets as much airflow as possible. A body lift will also reduce the profile of the winch over the condenser. Move lights, steering coolers, and anything else out of the way.
Click to expand...

A good alternative to this is Noico on Amazon. @Chris used it. I think the foam came from Noico too. But maybe he will chime in. It's alot cheaper. And does basically the same thing. But Second Skin is second to none (pardon the pun) IMHO. It's like Dynamat but for a fair price.

Keep in mind. You can do your entire tub. But this stuff is just as effective if you just do certain sections. Like if you put down sound deadener in large panels just in the main parts of the tub. And the heat shield along the drive train/firewall/engine/exhaust/ cats etc. You'll probably get 75% of it's effectiveness. Or so the professionals say. But I also see professionals covering the entire floors of cars with the stuff. So who knows. I guess what I'm saying is you don't have to spend a ton on this stuff. Hell some guys use roofing material and foil insulation from Home Depot. But it's not good for you.
 
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Moab said:
A good alternative to this is Noico on Amazon. @Chris used it. I think the foam came from Noico too. But maybe he will chime in. It's alot cheaper. And does basically the same thing. But Second Skin is second to none (pardon the pun) IMHO. It's like Dynamat but for a fair price.

Keep in mind. You can do your entire tub. But this stuff is just as effective if you just do certain sections. Like if you put down sound deadener in large panels just in the main parts of the tub. And the heat shield along the drive train/firewall/engine/exhaust/ cats etc. You'll probably get 75% of it's effectiveness. Or so the professionals say. But I also see professionals covering the entire floors of cars with the stuff. So who knows. I guess what I'm saying is you don't have to spend a ton on this stuff. Hell some guys use roofing material and foil insulation from Home Depot. But it's not good for you.
Click to expand...
This is not like Noico at all. Noico, Dynamat, and all those other products are a Constrained Layer Damper. They are designed to absorb vibrations and add mass to panels. They add little to no thermal insulation.

This stuff is a very lightweight open called foam that is treated to be hydrophobic. It's the same material as Magic Eraser. It does much less for acoustic attenuation than other materials, but has a very high R-value per inch of thickness, better than the fiberglass insulation in your house walls.

As for sound attenuation keep in mind that perceived volume is logarithmic versus power. Every time you double the apparent volume, 10 times as much acoustic energy is required. Doubling power translates to about a 3dB increase in sound, or only moderately perceptible. Thus, if you have a product designed to block sound (not a CLD or absorber), 50% coverage will only reduce sound by no more than 3dB. It's the opposite of diminishing returns.

As for constrained layer dampers, only about 25% coverage is needed, focused primarily on large flat panels. That product is only designed to dampen the flex of those panels. Additional CLD does little good (diminishing returns).
 
Noise does not concern me, but I'm interested in reducing heat transfer from the cats, and especially from the hard top. What's recommended for the hard top? "Hot Head" is a bit expensive, but it looks nice. I'm also thinking of painting the top (only) of the outside of my hard top with white RV roof coating - similar to the white tops seen on school buses - the radiant heat coming in from the Florida sun is ginormous!
 
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pagrey said:
Install the carpet before you do too much, the difference is huge.
Click to expand...
X2, just reinstalling the carpeting will make a huge reduction in interior temps. The catalytic converter gets EXTREMELY HOT and it's directly under the floor just to the right of the transmission tunnel.
 
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Jerry Bransford said:
X2, just reinstalling the carpeting will make a huge reduction in interior temps. The catalytic converter gets EXTREMELY HOT and it's directly under the floor just to the right of the transmission tunnel.
Click to expand...

I only ordered the front carpet think I will notice a difference with just that or am I going to need to order the rear also?
 
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Just a front carpet, providing it has at least the insulation ability of the factory carpet, will be enough to make a big difference. The couple times my front carpet was out the interior was way hot, so much that I'll never take it out again.
 
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I have a black Jeep in a very hot and sunny climate. Triple screwed, Jeep + Hot+ Sun. Everything you can do helps. My steps:
  1. Replaced torn and worn rubber gasket over opening for shifter and new shift boot
  2. Stripped out entire enterior and cleaned the bejesus out of it
  3. Installed peel and stick foil backed sound deadening/heat shield in cabin are
  4. New carpet
  5. Boom Mat in hard top
  6. Replaced the entire AC system
  7. Replaced the entire exhaust with new (huge temperature reduction here)
  8. Made sure all cab gaskets and seals were tight
My TJ AC is not arctic cold, never seen one that was. My system or nature of the beast I don't know. All of the above helped. Biggest improvements for me were the shift tunnel seals, floor insulation and exhaust. Boom Mat was a huge contributor as well. I also travel with bottles of cold water. Cooling my innards helps too!
 
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From Florida as well, feel your pain. Matter of fact just came back from 8 hour round trip through FL... sweated off good 10 pounds for sure.

I do have a soft top headliner from hotheads, it works. But, i am skeptical of it. Part of me thinks it is as good as it can get with soft top, and another part of me thinks that i can make my own, much better for much cheaper.
However, i do have tan color top, so if i feel like a fried chicken with mine, you are X10 times worse with your black.

Noico, Dynamat or Kilmat will not do jack shit for stopping heat. They will simply absorb the heat, and will be just as hot as your tub. Who ever suggested that nonsense, go ahead and make a video of yourself driving in 100 degree heat with that noise insulator and then give it a touch around transmission/engine area... so that we all could have a good laugh.

You need heat insulator, something with foam or fabric, similar to under the hood liner (but without fiberglass).
Something like original carpet or this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K9X452Q/?tag=wranglerorg-20

@Steel City 06 has also provided two links to things that look like a good heat insulator.

I do have a Bedrug, it is a carpet made out of foam. It works, but not any better than any other carpet. I also have a thick floor mat on top of it, and my floor is still very warm to touch, even with constant AC blowing there.

One interesting thing that i have noticed is that with carpet, things are not that much better than with bare tub.
I put in that Bedrug carped few month ago, and this is my first summer with it. The only difference im feeling now, compare to are tub, is that there is no longer a very hot surface next to the pedals, but overall there is still just as much heat coming from underneath. Before the carpet, tub used to work as heatsink. Now that heat radiation is blocked by the carpet, but heat is heat, it has to go somewhere! So as a result, now all the heat is radiating under the center console, and center console has become a new heater.
Heat radiation simply transferred from one place to another. If i stick my hand into console crevices, it is an oven in there. And if heat used to concentrate just around firewall - pedals - shifter area, now it has spread all the way to rear leg area. I cant even keep a cup of ice in cup holder without it all melting away before i notice.

My next step is to figure out what to put under the center console, to force that heat go somewhere else. Additionally im gonna purchase more of that insulating mat that i linked above, and somehow try to place it on firewall from under the hood. I know JKs have insulator there, so i wonder if it is sold anywhere.

As @Flivver250 mentioned, TJ AC is a joke to some extent, it needs some milk! I recently serviced and refreshed my AC components, it is still as good/bad as it was. This 8 hour road trip i took with my friend, she followed me in her Toyota sedan. It felt like a freezer in her car when i hopped in during one of the gas stops.

Weak AC and this retarded amount of heat coming from engine/trans area is a significant factor during the summers.
 
Flivver250 said:
I have a black Jeep in a very hot and sunny climate. Triple screwed, Jeep + Hot+ Sun. Everything you can do helps. My steps:
  1. Replaced torn and worn rubber gasket over opening for shifter and new shift boot
  2. Stripped out entire enterior and cleaned the bejesus out of it
  3. Installed peel and stick foil backed sound deadening/heat shield in cabin are
  4. New carpet
  5. Boom Mat in hard top
  6. Replaced the entire AC system
  7. Replaced the entire exhaust with new (huge temperature reduction here)
  8. Made sure all cab gaskets and seals were tight
My TJ AC is not arctic cold, never seen one that was. My system or nature of the beast I don't know. All of the above helped. Biggest improvements for me were the shift tunnel seals, floor insulation and exhaust. Boom Mat was a huge contributor as well. I also travel with bottles of cold water. Cooling my innards helps too!
Click to expand...

The exhaust was a noticeable change? I have wanted to get a exhaust done at a shop but always have a hard time justifying “just sound” in my head.
 
eastbloc said:
From Florida as well, feel your pain. Matter of fact just came back from 8 hour round trip through FL... sweated off good 10 pounds for sure.

I do have a soft top headliner from hotheads, it works. But, i am skeptical of it. Part of me thinks it is as good as it can get with soft top, and another part of me thinks that i can make my own, much better for much cheaper.
However, i do have tan color top, so if i feel like a fried chicken with mine, you are X10 times worse with your black.

Noico, Dynamat or Kilmat will not do jack shit for stopping heat. They will simply absorb the heat, and will be just as hot as your tub. Who ever suggested that nonsense, go ahead and make a video of yourself driving in 100 degree heat with that noise insulator and then give it a touch around transmission/engine area... so that we all could have a good laugh.

You need heat insulator, something with foam or fabric, similar to under the hood liner (but without fiberglass).
Something like original carpet or this https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K9X452Q/?tag=wranglerorg-20

@Steel City 06 has also provided two links to things that look like a good heat insulator.

I do have a Bedrug, it is a carpet made out of foam. It works, but not any better than any other carpet. I also have a thick floor mat on top of it, and my floor is still very warm to touch, even with constant AC blowing there.

One interesting thing that i have noticed is that with carpet, things are not that much better than with bare tub.
I put in that Bedrug carped few month ago, and this is my first summer with it. The only difference im feeling now, compare to are tub, is that there is no longer a very hot surface next to the pedals, but overall there is still just as much heat coming from underneath. Before the carpet, tub used to work as heatsink. Now that heat radiation is blocked by the carpet, but heat is heat, it has to go somewhere! So as a result, now all the heat is radiating under the center console, and center console has become a new heater.
Heat radiation simply transferred from one place to another. If i stick my hand into console crevices, it is an oven in there. And if heat used to concentrate just around firewall - pedals - shifter area, now it has spread all the way to rear leg area. I cant even keep a cup of ice in cup holder without it all melting away before i notice.

My next step is to figure out what to put under the center console, to force that heat go somewhere else. Additionally im gonna purchase more of that insulating mat that i linked above, and somehow try to place it on firewall from under the hood. I know JKs have insulator there, so i wonder if it is sold anywhere.

As @Flivver250 mentioned, TJ AC is a joke to some extent, it needs some milk! I recently serviced and refreshed my AC components, it is still as good/bad as it was. This 8 hour road trip i took with my friend, she followed me in her Toyota sedan. It felt like a freezer in her car when i hopped in during one of the gas stops.

Weak AC and this retarded amount of heat coming from engine/trans area is a significant factor during the summers.
Click to expand...

I have a roll of that heat insulation would it benifit to get spray adhesive and cover thebottom of the carpet with the heat insulation you think?
 
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