has anyone made some way of opening the hatch from the inside. being stuck in water aint to fun. if anyone has or ideas on the subject lend me a hand thanks

 

Quite interested here, for different reasons though

 

Haha

 

When I took off my rear hatch panel to put some new speakers in I thought of a way to do this, either by a tailgate latch or a piece of cable. I am putting components in the front and moving my diamond audios to the back this weekend so I will take a look and draw something up. I am converting my back area to use when I go camping and putting some goodies back there for other reasons then water.

 

About the first week i had my xj the outside handle quit working all the way. you could feel it pull but it wouldnt unlatch. luckily i have experience with door systems in vehicles. It would probably be quite a pain to put a tailgate handle in. However if you are familiar with small wire rope (like whats on a winch but very small) at home depot you can get the ferrules and wire there. if you take your inside panel off, and pull the handle, you'll see simply what moves what direction. All you have to do attach your cable to that, in whatever fashion works for you, and find a suitable handle, or have one machined if you want to get that deep into this lol, and attach your cable to that. I would probably drill a small hole in the rear panel, with a metal passthrough or grommet you can probably find at grainger, or a local hardware store (NOT HOME DEPOT) you need a real hardware store. Hope that gives you the idea, i would say you could do this project with a finished look for under $50. Any DIY'er shouldn't have any problem completing it either. just use your imagination!

Sorry not too detailed, if i do this mod, i will take pics and do a write up. As for now i have no reason to do it. I fixed my exterior handle.

 

im gonna do this soon , i was pretty much just gonna find a small steel rod and run into the latch and drill a hole in my trim panel and be done with it , when all done it should work the same way as a manual door lock would work , it seems simple enough , ive simular things on other vehicles