I swapped a ventless tailgate on my first LJ and honestly didn’t notice any difference at all with either hard or soft top.
Tailgate Vent Delete?
- Thread starter JMT
- Start date
Don't ACs work best by recirculating air in a closed system? That is why they also work well as dehumidifiers.
This is absolutely why I went through the effort of getting a vented tail gate.
Yes, on recirc a closed system is most efficient. On "normal" ac the " old" air has to go somewhere. Imagine if someone farted... You wouldn't want that trapped in the Jeep with you. You want it blown out, with fresh air blown in. A closed system keeps that fart in there with ya, just recirculating the fart over and over. Works for bo, halitosis, and gym socks too. Anyone that has ever owned a soft top can attest... The top will stay inflated at highway speeds if you have normal blower on, (which also allows wind pressure into the cab), but if you switch to recirc, the top deflates.
If you are only concerned about efficiency, and not farts, then recirc is best.
Doesn’t make a difference for closing the doors
I don't have a hard top anymore, but I've considered doing this experiment (taping off the vent) to see if it changes the way my soft top flaps at speed.
It works best with the coolest possible intake air, which isn't the interior if it's been sitting for hours in a parking lot on a July afternoon. I usually start with outside air until the interior comes down to about ambient temp and then switch to recirc.
there's also heat, which doesn't have a recirc mode.
In an emergency Fart situation, Roll down the window STAT!
I remember when I got my ‘04 Rubi, and couldn’t understand why the sailcloth top everyone raved about seemed louder than the soft top I had on my ‘99. With that Jeep, with the fan on 3 I could see the side windows puff out and the top was quieter on the highway.
Once I realized the issue was the vents in the tailgate, I did an experiment. I had an SPL meter and took the Jeep out and measured the noise. Then I used gaffer’s tape to cover the stamped vents on the inside and took it back out. I wish I could remember the readings, but it was measurably quieter with the vents blocked. And there was the same visual confirmation… At a fan setting of 3, the side windows puffed out and there was less visible movement in them when driving.
So, long-story-short, I think you’ll be pleased with the results.
I suspect you're right.
I had a 99 TJ (no vent in the tailgate) with a Trektop NX. It was the first and only frameless top I'd ever had but my impression was that it fit quite well. The noise didn't really get obnoxious until 70+ with a headwind, or 80+, which I only ever reached by accident.
My 06 LJ (with vent) came with a hardtop, but I bought a Trektop for it and sold the hardtop. The front section is actually tighter than the one on the TJ was (it's quite a bit more difficult, occasionally even painful to get the plastic tabs out of the door surround channel when I want to flip the sunrider), but at about 45-50 it's flapping enough to slap the support arch and at that point it's intolerable. It's worst with a window open, like the tailgate vent just equalizes the pressure whereas not having one would either create a positive or negative pressure and buffer the flapping. I end up going without the arch 95% of the time because at least then there's nothing for the cloth to slap. But then I feel like I have to put it back in if it ever sits in the rain.
Same, but 4 or 5 cubic feet of displacement in ~20 milliseconds makes me wonder if they might be on to something. I wonder if newer cars and trucks that have even more air bags have some kind of ventilation provision?
They do. It's usually hidden behind the rear bumper fascia or between the cab and bed.
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