I bought a 1990 Cherokee as a replacement to my 2003 Nissan Frontier. The Cherokee has four doors, which is great now that I have my daughter. But I do miss the bed of the Nissan always ready to throw stuff in it. I am planning to make a bed extender (like pictured below) to carry longer items such as lumber. Is it safe to drive with the rear hatch open? I am concerned with fatiguing the hinges from the hatch bouncing around. Anyone have experience with this? Perhaps make a bracket to latch the hatch to, attached to the bed extender?

 

username is appropriate

 

owners manual tells you not to cuz of exhaust fumes.

 

Exhaust fumes do not concern me. I can ride with the windows down for that period of time. Only possible damage to the vehicle. Home Depot is a 10 minute drive from the house.

 

You should have replaced your nissan with a 4 door pickup. Cherokee is an Suv, not a truck. Your idea could possibly work, but it doesn't seem like a good one in all honesty my friend

 

It doesn't matter if you have the windows open, exhaust fumes will get sucked in, this 100% a bad idea.

 

I drove my ZJ with the rear hatch open and all of the windows down, still had an unbelievable amount of exhaust fumes making it into the passenger compartment.

 

ETA:

 

$59 every time I want a 2x4?

 

It seems you needed a truck more than anything. The xj is not designed for what it seems you want to use it for.

 

I see. So what about guys that pull the hatch and doors? Do they all die of CO poisoning?

 

Rationalize all you wish. Everyone is telling you its not a good idea. But your probably going to do it anyway. The back of the xj is what? 3 feet? Your "bed extender" is gonna need a lot of extension. Doesn't seem safe for other drivers

 

windows down makes it worse

 

ive hauled 16' 8x8s on the roof

or

3 sheets of ply and dozen 2x6s

put it on the roof

 

I work at what many would call a ma and pa home improvement store but it is large. The owner will not allow us to load a vehicle if their items stick out more then 40% past the vehicle for safety reasons. I have loaded 10 foot 2x4s on the roof of an xj twice and it worked great. The guy has a full coverage roof basket so they are safely secured. I have only seen a bed extender like the ops only one time. The guy wanted to load 16 foot pieces of lumber on a little Mazda truck. He argued that his extender was safe but the owner would not let him be loaded.