I'll jump to the chase...I need some help deciding if I've made a mistake. This past Father's Day my wife (and kids) gave me a set of Rugged Ridge hood lifts (aka struts). It was a nice surprise and really the only Jeep thing she's ever given me. I have to say I'd never thought about buying a set for myself, they (my family) were all very excited and even helped me put them on.

Now fast forward to this morning, I was fiddling with my sPod and running some wires down the a-pillar when out of the corner of my eye I noticed that the gap where the hinges meet hood looked a little wider then usual. To be transparent, I never measured the pre-install gap, so it could have been that way all along. After cleaning up my mess, I jumped on the computer and did a little digging. It seems that there have been a load of folks that installed hood lifts and have ended up with bent or deformed hood hinges (mostly Teraflex kits).

So my question is...with the hood down and latched, how wide should the gap be? Mine is currently .50" on the driver's side and .437" on the passenger's side. If I give the hood a firm push, the hinges flex and the gap appears to sit properly. I know just about every JK will have a slightly different measurement, but there should be an average. Can some folks take a moment and snap a couple of picture or take some measurements and share them here?

Thanks -- James

 

Things like that bug me too, but to be honest nobody other than you will notice it.

 

In the past I've always done the hood struts on all my vehicles that didn't have them from factory. But with 3 JK's in my history or current ownership, I refuse to put those on. I was about to pull the trigger when I bought my first JK and then saw a post that showed that the connections to the struts where forcing the sides of the hood to bow out. So you might end up with even more issues if you leave these on.

 

Thanks for the reply...if I had just done a little research before I installed them I would have asked to to exchange them.

In any case, they're on. After closer inspection this morning it indeed looks as though the hinges are bent, but without some reference photos I can't be sure. Can someone with personal experience using these chime-in or maybe someone take a few comparison photos of their rig for me to see?



The hinge sure looks bent to me... I may look into some stringer hinge plates... not sure at this point.

Cheers -- James

 

Here are some photos of my hood with no struts...roughly 1/4" gap

 

I would have stuck wit having none at all. You can open the hood and lean it against your windshield and hook a bungee cord to hold it up invade your in high winds while working on your jeep. To me it's a worthless mod, but that just my opinion. The only thing I did to my stock hood was put a set of hood locks in place of the stock rubber junk. Not being an AH, but you should have left it like it was. I'm the type of person that even if nobody else noticed it, it would still bother the shit outta me...JMO

 

Thanks for the photos...looks about right, def pushing the hood forward.

 

I'm with you. I wouldn't have put them on if my wife and kids hadn't been the ones to give them to me. I didn't even know the mod existed until I opened the box. It's going to drive me nuts now... They're quietly coming off tomorrow. Then I'll see if I can bend the hinge plates back to square.

Thanks for the comment.

 

That's sucks, man. I would be torn between leaving them on because of the gift aspect, and taking them off due to the issue. What about a compromise - beef up the hinges?

 

I thought about that, I'm just not sure how to do it. It looks like the bend is a combination of the hinge plate, the thin-as-hell mount bracket, and the even thinner-as-hell sheet metal supporting it all. I spent the afternoon pushing and shoving the hood and I believe it's bent as far as it'll go. My current though is to simply shim it with .25 inch plate. It'll break my kids heart if they think their gift damaged my precious Jeep.

I'm going to sleep on it.