JK/JKU Rotopax tailgate hinge mount

[USStrongman]

In short, I decided to move fuel and water storage from my roof rack and found this mount from Rotopax that fits any size FuelPax or RotoPax they make from 1 - 4.5g. Considering the price point for all of the RotoPax kit, I expected something nicely engineered. This is nicely made but someone didn't do their fitment homework.

The L shaped plate uses a tongue and groove with a single bolt on each hinge plate, to allow adjustability for larger tires to be mounted to the tailgate. The problem is the bolts (one on each hinge plate) require a 13mm Nylock nut on one side and a 4.5mm allen on the other. There is no way to access the backside to adjust the plate. If they had used a square carriage bolt and hole in the mount, this would be a non issue. I wound up using a pair of Vise Grips on the visible end of the bolt and an open end wrench to tighten/loosen the 13mm nut. (Hinge bolts in yellow, adjustable sliding bolt in red).



Next issue was a Jeep issue. The tailgate hinge mounts are designed with a "floating" bracket with inserts for the bolts to grab and mount to. Problem with this unit is there is no wiggle room to adjust the bolt angle to help grab the threaded insert on the bracket inside the tailgate. My daughter come out and she used a 2mm allen to lift the plate inside the tailgate into position via a vent on the bottom passenger corner of the tailgate so I could get the bolt to catch the insert inside the tailgate. Thanks Jeep for a massively awesome design!

Once we had it installed, I added the Pack mount and noticed RotoPax only sent 3 bolts, not 4. No biggie.

So I open the tailgate and notice it will not open all the way. It stops about 10° short of full open. And here is why. The extended hinge plate serves nothing more than as a way to cover the OEM hinge and make it a bit more aesthetically pleasing. Problem is, its too long and hits the hinge mounting bolts on the tub. It also took paint off of the top bolt and the hinge plate the very first time we opened it.

Bottom hinge


Top hinge


There is no way to adjust the hinge plate side to side as the hinge mounting bolt holes are fixed in place.



Function wise it looks terrific. This mount will allow up to a 35" tire and dual 1 gallon stacked fuel/water or a single up to 4.5 gallon RotoPax or FuelPax unit without hitting the tail light. The 4.5 gallon requires two RotoPax mounts instead of one as shown here.





RotoPax dropped the price on these to $69 from $109 a few weeks ago. I'm kind of thinking other people have had the same issue as this, which is why it's so inexpensive now. I am stuck wondering... do I take an angle grinder and remove about 1/4" off the end of the plate with it mounted or go through all of the hassle to remove it and have to try and realign the interior tailgate inserts again? What should have been a 1 hour install took 2.5 hours due to the issue with the poorly designed Jeep brackets with the threaded inserts inside the tailgate. Thanks @FCA for some bang up engineering!

On the upside, I'm looking forward to not having fuel stored on the roof rack any longer.

 

[smritte]

Nice review. I would bet they changed manufactures on the brackets and the tolerance got changed. I use to see that problem installing accessories at work. Personally I would trim the bracket and hit it with some wrinkle paint.

Here's my technique for keeping the grinder sparks from damaging paint in close quarters.
Cover with blue masking tape (leaves no residue), cover that with a layer of duct tape. The duct tape is your protection and the masking tape leaves no mess.
If i'm in an area with a cutting wheel and there's any chance of hitting the body, I use several layers of duct tape. I've cut lug nuts off with a disk cutter while their still on the rim. 5 layers of duct tape and haven't cut through if I tag it with a cut off wheel. If I just layer masking tape I have burned through and at the very least, heated it to the point where the glue left a stain on the paint.

 

[RideFlyDiveJeep]

So I used to have this exact plate. I bent them toward the hinge after checking the fit. It sucks cause it isn't the easiest on installs without 3 or 4 hands. Once they were inside they missed the hinge.

 

[USStrongman]

Nice review. I would bet they changed manufactures on the brackets and the tolerance got changed. I use to see that problem installing accessories at work. Personally I would trim the bracket and hit it with some wrinkle paint.

Here's my technique for keeping the grinder sparks from damaging paint in close quarters.
Cover with blue masking tape (leaves no residue), cover that with a layer of duct tape. The duct tape is your protection and the masking tape leaves no mess.
If i'm in an area with a cutting wheel and there's any chance of hitting the body, I use several layers of duct tape. I've cut lug nuts off with a disk cutter while their still on the rim. 5 layers of duct tape and haven't cut through if I tag it with a cut off wheel. If I just layer masking tape I have burned through and at the very least, heated it to the point where the glue left a stain on the paint.

Rotopax said they had not seen that issue before... and that was about it. I removed it all together and hit it with the angle grinder and painted the whole thing. My OCD was too strong not too! Thanks for the taping tips.