"Just Jeepin'" (macintux)
08/20/2018 at 11:40 • Filed to: Jeep Experience, Jeep, Wrangler
7
20|
"Just Jeepin'" (macintux)
08/20/2018 at 11:40 • Filed to: Jeep Experience, Jeep, Wrangler | 7
| 20 |
Although I have been castigated in the past for comparing naked Jeeping to riding a slow motorcycle (except with reduced odds of being in a wheelchair the rest of your life), there’s really not much else to compare it to, especially once you drop the windshield.
Except, I suppose, if you’ve ever ridden in a Jimny with the windshield down.
Point being, it’s hard to explain if you haven’t done it. It’s like a convertible, just dramatically more so. Top off, doors off, windshield down, it’s just you and the world and a couple tons of metal carrying you above it all.
And boy does it attract attention. I saw a guy driving a cool beach buggy down the road recently, and he couldn’t take his eyes off my ride. I gave one older gentleman in a parking lot a triple take. How often do you get a triple take in life?
Recently I discussed the joys of riding in the rain. While not for everyone, I definitely recommend everyone try it once.
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And much like riding in the rain, there are some trials and tribulations that come with driving without a windshield. Part of it, of course, is in the name. Wind. There’s a lot of it.
In fact, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! starts at 40mph. 40! So, basically, any time you drive your Jeep with the windshield down on a public road you’re experiencing an F0. Cool, huh? Just make sure you’re wearing some kind of glasses.
So while there are a few other important points to make about this particular craziness, let’s talk about what comes with the wind.
Temperature
One of my biases is against fully buttoned-up Wranglers in warm weather.
Nonetheless, I understand that not everyone can tolerate 90º weather, even with the top off. Or especially with the top off, given that the sun at 90º tends to be a pretty harsh experience.
But for me, that kind of weather means exactly one thing: windshield down! I’m fine with it down at lower temperatures too, but the effort involved usually isn’t worth it until the thermostat is going to be stuck in the 80s for a while.
Wind chill is a real thing, even at those temperatures: if we pretend for a moment that the North American wind chill formula applies at 70º, driving at 50mph lowers the effective temperature to below 65.
Anyway, 90º + 40mph winds to the face makes for a pleasant temperature experience...for me. But I also find 50º relatively unpleasant, so your windage may vary.
Noise
What was that? I can’t hear you over the wind.
Bugs
Yeah, bugs are a thing. A big, ugly thing when you get smacked in the face at 65mph. I don’t know how motorcyclists do it, although I imagine a lot of those who drive at high speeds with no windscreen wear goggles.
Don’t drive at night with the windshield down, except perhaps in heavily urban areas. After dark is when the flying bugs really come out.
I like to joke that the most important rule to driving with the windshield down is to not sing to the music you can’t really hear anyway.
Rocks
Don’t drive behind a dump truck. Or any large truck. Or, really, anything at all at high speeds if you can avoid it.
Doesn’t this look like fun? It is!
I’ve driven as fast as 65mph with the windshield down, but that wasn’t entirely voluntary. This past weekend I was on a charity ride with motorcycles and Jeeps, and a few times I had to drive that fast to keep up with the caravan.
You absolutely do not want to get hit by a rock at 65mph.
Hats
One of the most important reasons that people have different levels of enthusiasm for the naked Jeeping lifestyle is, simply, hair.
I started shaving my head once it became apparent my hair was entering very early retirement. But while I don’t have hair to worry about, skin cancer is a concern. And, jumping ahead of myself a bit, besides trying to avert skin cancer, just trying to manage visibility on a sunny day with no hardware around you is not easy.
Plus, rainy days are much easier to manage with a good hat, no matter what your windshield status.
So baseball caps are a vital part of my Jeep life. But, wind makes them harder to hang onto, so I like cheap baseball caps. I don’t care if they get dirty from spending so much time wet, and I don’t care much if they blow away on a highway when I can’t retrieve them.
Fortunately, Michaels (a popular retail store in North America) not only carries cheap baseball caps, they carry yellow ones that perfectly match my Jeep (and a lot of my Jeep outerwear such as my rain jacket and wind breaker), making me a committed customer for life.
(If you don’t have long hair to use to anchor your hat, I recommend hook & loop attachments. You really want your hat to be as snug as possible at high travel speeds, because losing one at speed is both inconvenient and makes you a litterbug.)
Sun
As I mentioned, dropping the windshield not only takes the convertible experience up several notches with regard to wind and general openness, it makes the sun much harder to manage.
On TJs and JKs, dropping the windshield means losing the sport bars as well (unless you have an aftermarket sport cage) so not only do you lose the windshield frame and sun shades, you lose the bars to the left and right of the driver’s seat that often do a pretty good job of blocking the sun.
(Worth noting: removing those bars and lowering the windshield is time-consuming and has serious safety implications. You really don’t want to roll over. Is this burying the lede?)
The new Wrangler JL has an entirely different roll cage that includes a frame around the cabin that’s always there even with the windshield down. This makes for a less open experience, but a safer and less sun-obnoxious one.
Visibility
It seems self-evident that dropping the windshield would improve visibility, at least when you’re not wiping bug guts off your sunglasses.
Sadly, that’s not really true.
I already mentioned the sun problem. And the wind problem. Both tend to make it a little more difficult to see what’s ahead of you.
Furthermore, you lose the rear-view mirror. That’s a big problem if you’re driving without doors, since Wranglers come from the factory with the side mirrors mounted on them. And if you’re wearing a hat and glasses, turning your head at high speeds risks losing both.
I have !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! that give me a very stable view (unlike many aftermarket side mirrors), but with one significant downside: they’re convex, which means while I have a very wide view of what’s behind me, it’s not good for recognizing, say, emergency vehicles until they’re directly behind me.
And of course I typically can’t hear the sirens over the wind noise. Danger, Will Robinson.
Anyway, your local laws may vary, but in Indiana we’re required to have at least one mirror with an unobstructed view to the rear. Common sense dictates you’ll want one.
Steering
This is closely related to visibility, but there are a couple of important issues worth noting here.
I recall reading about class A motorhomes and how difficult they can be to steer accurately because most drivers are used to having a hood to help judge their line. Well, dropping the windshield gives you the same effect, albeit a bit less so.
Also, when you’re off-roading, the header around the windshield basically makes it impossible to see anything as you’re cresting a hill. You’d think off-roading would be the perfect time to have your windshield down, but on a modern Wrangler with a lot of plastic around the frame, you’d be mistaken.
The JL addresses both of these problems: not only is the windshield easier to drop than any recent generation, but it’s easy to remove entirely. That, however, leads us to...
Legality
Is it legal to drive on the roads with your windshield down?
I’ll give my unambiguous answer regarding our Indiana state code: maybe.
The law is fuzzy. Indiana says all vehicles must be equipped with a windshield. It doesn’t say that it must be engaged .
So, I’m choosing to go with a liberal interpretation of the law, and relying on the apathy of the local constabulary.
I can’t, however, fully remove my windshield and expect to be able to say with a straight face I thought it was legal.
Again, your local laws will undoubtedly vary.
Should you do it?
Tough question.
Just kidding, of course you should. (But, if you kill yourself doing so, I never wrote that.)
You do need to be aware of the risks. And you don’t want to do it at high speeds for any great distance, lest your ears ring for days. (And ear plugs are morally dubious in this case given how much you really need to be able to hear emergency vehicles approaching.)
And if you own a Wrangler JK, well, good luck. It’s about an hour to lower or raise it.
But, yeah, give it a try on some country roads. You can thank me later.
CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
> Just Jeepin'
08/20/2018 at 11:42 |
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Honestly, I spec’d out a JK and JL how I want. They are within $2K of each other, I will be most likely buying a JL just for the windshield . My wife isn’t crazy about the folding windshield... but whatever.
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Just Jeepin'
> CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
08/20/2018 at 11:46 |
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She probably has a lot more hair to worry about than you do.
I met a couple at the charity ride this weekend. The wife was not at all enthusiastic about removing the doors at first, but now she’s the one driving to work every day with the doors off as long as it’s 50º or warmer and dry.
random001
> Just Jeepin'
08/20/2018 at 11:59 |
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I am finding it completely impossible to find a jeep that isn’t either overpriced, or ready to fall apart.
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Just Jeepin'
> random001
08/20/2018 at 12:03 |
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The depreciation curve on Wranglers is just insane. I feel your pain.
For me, as my sole vehicle, I was willing to spend just about anything (within reason) to get it. For someone who has others , and just wants a toy, I don’t know how to cope with that problem.
CJs are surprisingly not terribly-priced . Some people will want 10k+ for a nice one, but you can usually find one for $5k or a bit less, and in pretty good condition.
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random001
> Just Jeepin'
08/20/2018 at 12:05 |
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Yeah, I was looking for one as my only vehicle as well, but...damn...
TheRealBicycleBuck
> Just Jeepin'
08/20/2018 at 12:28 |
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All it took was one ride on the freeway without a fairing and I knew I would never join the ranks of naked bike riders everywhere. Not long after, I started commuting on my first fully-faired bike. Part of my commute brought me through some coastal wetland areas. I had to budget in time every morning to remove the gray sludge of dead mosquitoes from the brow of my helmet. Yuck.
Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
> Just Jeepin'
08/20/2018 at 12:28 |
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No mention of smell? That was one of the surprising things when I first bought my dune buggy is you can smell everything . That little stream by the side of the road may look nice, but as it turns out it isn’t a stream so much as a long pool of stagnant water. Bletch. Dog shit, dead animals, poorly running cars, the homeless... all the fun smells! On the bright side there is good stuff like flowers, freshly cut grass, and rain to smell... so you take the good with the bad.
Also yeah wind chill is a thing you have to get used to. My rule of thumb is if I am comfortable outside in what I am wearing, I need an additional layer before I set off in the buggy/ convertible . I imagine it is even worse without a windshield to hide behind!
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Just Jeepin'
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
08/20/2018 at 12:33 |
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I didn’t consider smell at all (perhaps because I struggle with allergies and rarely have a good sense of smell) , but you’re absolutely right.
There’s a cruise night in some small town in Indiana that I’ve since forgotten, and the one time I went there was raw sewage pouring into the street from some house where the family was clearly struggling to cope with it. Took me a day or two to get over that.
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Just Jeepin'
> TheRealBicycleBuck
08/20/2018 at 12:52 |
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But think of the countless generations of mosquitos you successfully prevented. You’re a hero!
While I was enjoying the charity ride Saturday I noticed a few butterflies that I probably would have killed with my windshield up that successfully flew through the Jeep, and I was feeling pretty good about that, but then one hit my roll cage with a fatal thud. Sadness.
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TheRealBicycleBuck
> Just Jeepin'
08/20/2018 at 13:20 |
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Better the roll cage than your forehead!
Even with a full fairing, I managed to hit and get stung by a vengeful wasp.
Censored
> Just Jeepin'
08/20/2018 at 14:49 |
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https://www.amazon.com/Headband-Sweatband-Headband-Crossfit-Moisture/dp/B01KYZ9OPM
These are a requirement from the females that ride in my jeep. We
have all 3 colors just to be fashionable.
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Just Jeepin'
> Censored
08/20/2018 at 14:57 |
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Maybe if I keep a stash on the dash I’ll start attracting volunteers.
brianbrannon
> Just Jeepin'
08/21/2018 at 11:13 |
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The motorcycle Jeep experience is getting stuck behind them on trails because they are too caught up in heweelin’ to pull off
and let faster vehicles pass
Matt West
> Just Jeepin'
06/14/2019 at 23:20 |
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“Naked Jeeping”, i nitially read that in a literal context... Did that on a dare senior year of high school in my YJ - albeit soft top and doors on . However last w eekend f ound my self windshield down in a torrential downpour (fully clothed this time) . Pro tip, don’t leave your windshield bolts at home. Rain hurts at speeds exceeding 30mph.
For the best windshield free experience , I bought a Vietnam war-era army helmet and wear that to the tune of “Fortunate Son”. Seriously the most fun to be had at the speed limit.
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Just Jeepin'
> Matt West
06/14/2019 at 23:30 |
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I always keep my windshield bolts with me, but I’d be tempted to put the windshield up anyway. Hold it tight and drive the back roads.
Glad I’m not the only lunatic around. I keep hoping this summer is going to get summery. I had the windshield down a couple of days but it’s been 50s-70s and rainy for several days now.
And it’s not going away any time soon.
https://oppositelock.kinja.com/do-i-cave-and-put-the-top-on-tonight-1835527027
deysg
> Akio Ohtori - RIP Oppo
09/01/2019 at 06:30 |
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Lol you smell pot all the time, surprised the cops don't drive jeeps
Federally
> Just Jeepin'
01/25/2020 at 21:26 |
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As a former motorcycle enthusiast I think my favorite part about the convertible Jeep is being able to be so exposed while still having a windshield lol
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Just Jeepin'
> Federally
01/25/2020 at 22:24 |
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Yeah, it’s more a rare treat vs something I’d want to do every day.
Ok, who am I kidding, if I lived somewhere warm enough I’d seriously consider removing the thing entirely.
You might like this series too: https://oppositelock.kinja.com/jeep-trucks-an-incomplete-history-part-1-1830453461
Mercedes Streeter
> Just Jeepin'
05/08/2020 at 10:20 |
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Oh man, how did I miss this series!?
Pretty much every motorcycle I've owned has been naked, so window down at high speed in a Wrangler sounds fun! I'd just wear my goggles and avoid driving too close to dump trucks.
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Just Jeepin'
> Mercedes Streeter
05/08/2020 at 10:24 |
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At some point I need to bite the b ullet and buy prescription goggles.
Glad you liked the posts.