Just looked under the rear of my overland and was surprised with the bundles of wire running underneath without some kind if bellypan to protect them. Is this normal on the non off road package jeeps or did they forget to install something?
The connectors are weatherproofed, wires are in cable loom, taped up to factory looks... looks legit to me. There are many more examples like that on many other vehicles. They don't pose a risk, as long as no one starts messing with them. The biggest reason wiring fails is because someone messes with the connector, compromising its weatherproofing.
Your O2 sensors are one other off-hand instance I can tell you about this kind of wiring. EVAP system can be as well, depending on where it is located on our model (haven't explored mine much yet).
Exactly. Skid plates will prevent anything from hitting them. But for 90% of people that never take it off road, they'll never see an issue. Also worth mentioning they are tucked up there pretty well, it would have to take a pretty well-placed (i.e. 1 in 1000) hit to the area to cause damage.
It seems like just a plastic cover/belly pan would be sufficient for protecting these wires from a kicked up rock or running over some brush. Certainly for rock crawling you might want a metal skidplate, but I'm surprise they are so exposed even if the vehicle may never see more than gravel roads.
I think you are being overly critical; I don't see much to be concerned about. Take a peak at some of the pickups on the road and you can usually see fuel lines and wiring harnesses in plain sight. Also, with the exhaust and the suspension arms in the way, what kind of laser guided rock or branch are you expecting to come in at the perfect angle with enough force to actually damage those wires? I don't even think the factory skid plates even cover that area.
If it really is concerning, you can always have something custom fabricated to protect these areas.
I used to own a Cherokee and currently own a Commander and Wrangler. All have similar "exposed" wiring. I have never caught it on trees or rocks off road. Nor have any heat-seeking sticks or stones managed to nick the wires.
If the WK2 had plastic belly pans covering the entire bottom, I'd bet it would pick up a couple MPG from aero benefits alone and it would be cleaner looking, but that does not make any sense to me in a vehicle that is ready for the trails. If Jeep did that, there'd be a hundred posts here of the "belly pan removal mod." Chrysler just saved everyone a step.
Easy answer. 99.9% of JGC never see the trails. Why would Jeep want to spend the money and then make us pay for something most of us will never use. And they have a solution. We can always order the optional pans.
If you find a aftermarket skip plate or pan for this let me know. I have factory skip plate on and they don't cover that section. Just this weekend driving to a hiking trail got a large branch kick back up to that section almost got caught to those wires. Actually one of those wire did got a slight cut to the outer wiring tape.
I really don't care of 99.9% of JGC never see the trails or not the bottom point is it's still a JEEP.
I didn't think it seemed that far fetch to run over or back over a branch or brush that may find it's way into that area.... I'll let you know if there is a option for covering that area.
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