Reviews for TACTIK Locking Hood Latches 07-18 Jeep Wrangler JK

I've had these installed for about a year now.
They lock. They look just like the picture. Very positive latching operation. The locks are NOT complicated but they do their job well enough for the price.
My main issue is the rubber bump stop. It is far too thin, and over time it has flattened a little, allowing the corners of my hood to rub on the corners of the fender, chipping the paint completely away. This could be a misalignment of body panels on my Jeep, but its a noticeably thinner rubber bumper as compared to stock.

Nice latch, well built. BUT, as you can see in the photo someone sent, there is no room between the latch and the fender and I found the latch difficult to open since there is nothing to get hold of.

Everything fine except missing hardware
Might need to install rubber pads to keep latches from rubbing paint
Closes really tight with all adjustment

Not good quality, I purchased this item two weeks ago and now it’s broken!!

I wanted to like these. Install seemed like it would be easy, but the top latches just aren't adjustable enough. Even having them as low on the hood/as loose as possible, the bottom latch clamps tight enough to bend my hood, and holds it in place so tight I can't get the hood back up if I wanted to. I'm not sure if it's a manufacturing issue or what but one of the latches catches on itself such that it won't actually shut enough to lock. This happens even when not under tension. Right now I'm left with one latch that's so tight I'm probably going to need power tools to get it off and one latch that won't even shut all the way, making the lock useless.

Well, of the few dozen Jeep mods I’ve invested in, this was easily the worst and most frustrating. And it should have been one of the simplest. I’ll skip the part where the first shipment was broken (great customer service by Quadratec) and get to the replacement set. It’s supposed to be an adjustable latch mechanism but it’s adjustable by only a mm or less. And it came nowhere even close to working for me. I had to sit on the Jeep hood to be able to get the latch to catch (even fully adjusted) and when it closed I couldn’t get it open again. Took 30 minutes to finally force the thing open. Just really a poor fit. May work for a Jeep JK but was way off for my JL. And then there are things like it doesn’t even utilize all the holes in the Jeep (which the stock set uses for alignment) so aligning the latch is a pain and if you look closely you can see the unused holes. Just poor overall execution on this one.

Received these hood latches for my Gladiator Rubicon and installed them. I got the latches closed with some effort. When I attempted to unlatch them I couldn't not do so by hand. I had to pry them open using a lot of force to do so. They were so tight that my hood was pulled down and touching the fender. With the stock latches there is about a 1/4 inch gap between the hood and the fender.

I contacted Customer Service and they were very helpful and sent me another set of Tactik hood latches. There was some question as to whether I got the correct set the first time. The box does not list the Gladiator JT on it, just the JK & JL. I attempted to install just one latch and found the same issue as before. The latches appear to be about a 1/4 inch too short to latch easily. I will be returning the second set as well for a refund.

The second Customer Service Rep ask what type of hood I had. He mentioned that the Rubicon hood (with the stock vents) could be built a bit different then a stock hood on other Gladiators (Sport, Willys, Overland, etc) and may not be designed to fit the Rubicon (or Mojave) hoods.

Tactik rating = 1 Star for poor design and improper fit.
Customer Service rating = 5 STARS Awesome Service

Worst product I've purchased from Quadratec. I spent more time making this work than installing a lift kit. Had to elongate top latch slots and use a smaller bolt to make it possible to open the latch bu hand. I also needed to bend the bottom locking slot up because it was rubbing when closed. Buy the adjustable latch instead.

I waited 5 months to receive these back-ordered latches. The latches may work for a JK but are not well suited for a JL without modification. I attempted to install the first one and there was no way I could close the hood tight enough for the body installed rocker to latch over the catch installed on the hood. I had to slightly grind down the top of the catch (1/16 inch) to get it to latch. The only other option is to ream your mounting holes on the Jeep and there was no way I was going to do that.
Then when I latched it, first there is not enough room on a JL to comfortably unlatch the lock because of the groove between the body and fender. My hands are too large to fit down and pull the latch free. And second the pin on the rocker came out. I decided to return these and find another solution.