Got my Jeep and completed my first project

[bciocco]

I was shopping for a soft top jeep and came across a great deal on a Jeep that had a hard top and the soft top had never been used. I was looking for a soft top because of a lack of storage area for the hard top. We keep my wife's car on one side of the garage and two kayaks on a trailer on the other side. I was not going to move either of them outside.
I did some searching and found several options. I chose the simplest. I can always add a pulley and/or winch/motor system later.

Someday I need to clean out the garage.

The jeep is below; with the soft top on it.

Hard top

 

[phall92139]

I haven't said it yet but "welcome to our world," and good thinking for a solution all of us with hardtops face at one time or another.

I also don't have room in the garage for hardtop storage but I have one of those racks that holds it in a vertical position. Unfortunately, with the top on the rack it is too wide to fit through the side gate so I can roll it around to the patio. My solution: The street behind my house is a pretty busy thoroughfare that is at the bottom of a 20-foot bank. I built a double-wide gate into my fence facing the street so I can open it up, hop the sidewalk below and drive my jeep up the bank into my back yard. I remove the top and put it on the rack, then drive my jeep back down the bank and onto the street. I get a lot of looks doing this, have even stopped traffic on occasion, but hey, it works!

 

[JeepMonkey]

Did you buy a kit to do that? Looks like three 2x4's and 4 cargo straps. Can you still back the jeep under it? I'd like to do something similar, but I need to be able to keep the jeep in the garage.

 

[bciocco]

It is just 2x4s (1- 2x4x10 cut in half at the store and 1-2x4x96" cut to 62" at home), cargo straps, and screw eyes. Everything was 48.43 at Lowes, including a can of black Valspar Plastic paint for the flares (another project).

You can't see it, but there are two carriage bolts sticking up through the lower 2x4. They go in the holes that mount the top to the Jeep. I used the lift straps to lift the top off the Jeep. Then, after the Jeep is out of the way, I mount the board to the top, lift the top and move the hook from the top to the eyes in the 2x4. Then I lift the top by walking aroun and taking up the straps a little at a time.

I did have to shorten the standing end of the cargo straps and re-sew it with upholstery thread. If I had purchased hooks instead of eyes for the front, I could have just slipped the looped end of the strap (where it attaches to the buckle) over the hook and been done with it. I need to move one of the boards back a couple of inches to hit another stud. When I do that I may replace the front eyes with hooks.

I don't know if I can back the Jeep under it for parking (of course, I can back it under for top re-install). I am pretty sure I can nose the jeep under it. YMMV, due to your garage height and lift kit/tires you may have installed on the Jeep. I don't park the jeep in the garage due to the kayaks and trailer. They fit under it fine.
If I find myself removing the top often, I'll change it out for a winch system. If it is just a couple times per year, this should work fine.

 

[JimmyN]

bring the paint back and just do this. it is cheaper.

 

[southtj]

Nice cheap solution, looks good. I had the same problem when I first got my jeep but I didn't have a garage suitable for a lift and really didn't want to store it in the yard. So I sold it. I found that I really didn't need the hard top living in the south. The heat works great with the soft top on in the winter and there are days when you want to put the top down but don't want to deal with taking off the hard top. It really made me claustrophobic.

Oh, and welcome to Jeepz from another Charlestonian. :mrgreen:

 

[Turbogus]

I like your workbench~it's just as filled with kr@p as mine from past projects