Smittybilt overhead GEAR writeup
04-13-2010, 07:02 PM
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Smittybilt overhead GEAR writeup AND rear also
Just a little teaser before I do a writeup this weekend. This console is a great idea, however it's executed with Smittybilt's typical quality (read with sarcasm). Sorry about the crappy iphone pics, i'll get better ones this weekend.
Last edited by lonestar12; 04-22-2010 at 12:15 PM.
Where did you get it, Quadratec?
04-18-2010, 02:25 PM
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GEAR overhead
I checked with quadratec and they were out of stock for awhile.
I ordered from another vendor and they are due in on Tuesday. I'll get something up this week.
I have a hardtop as well and interested how it will fit.
I ordered from another vendor and they are due in on Tuesday. I'll get something up this week.
I have a hardtop as well and interested how it will fit.
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04-18-2010, 05:36 PM
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how hard is it to reach your freedom top latches with the overhead gear setup in the way? Is it easy to fit your hand up there? I hope so, I need some more storage.
Thanks
Thanks
04-18-2010, 08:53 PM
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I haven't downloaded the pics yet but I'll at least put up some info for now.
The front of the rack uses the two screws from the footman loop to mount a bracket that the rack bolts to. The angle of the bends in this bracket weren't sufficient enough to be able to close the latch for the hardtop, so I had to put it in a vice and beat it with a hammer until I had the angles adjusted so the latch would fit. Also, the footman loop isn't centered, it's offset to the left, which means this rack slants toward the driver's side. The driver's side sun visor touches the rack and the passenger's side has about two inches of a gap. The rear of the rack sits on the sound bar and is secured with hose clamps. It feels pretty secure and hasn't moved or rattled since I've mounted it. The rack feels like it could easily stand up to having something heavier than the bags mounted to it, i.e. a radio.
The molle material works like it should, but the bags smittybilt gives you are retarded. You can pretty much find these exact pouches online. One of them is a map bag with a fold up map pouch that fits inside. Honestly, I have a gps, this one is stupid. Luckily the map pouch is removable and you can fill it with whatever else. Another pouch is a shotgun shell holder. MAYBE, you could use it to put sockets in, but I've got a separate tool kit, and I don't want sockets falling on my head when I open it. There's a flashlight pouch, it's long enough to accomodate bigger lights like a maglite, I've got a small surefire and it only fills half of it. There's a plain utility pouch and two more identical pouches that I'll post pics of later. Again, not the best selection, but you can buy all sorts of molle pouches online to fit your needs.
View is greatly diminished with the pouches. The rack doesn't interfere at all with your view, but depending on what type of pouches you mount, you can kiss your rearview mirror goodbye.
Accessing your latches is more difficult but certainly not impossible. I have average sized hands for a 6 ft tall dude, and I can reach above the rack to move the latches, but it is cramped.
My conclusion so far: obviously not the best designed, but it gets the job done. I needed the extra space and I got it.
On to the rear.
The rear for a JK is a solid rectangle of molle fabric that's attached to the tailgate by drilling 3/32" holes and securing with self tapping screws. The screws felt pretty solid, but time will tell how well they hold. I have two of the pouches mounted right now. One is big enough to hold this:
http://www.4wheelparts.com/prodDetai...eep-parts=true
and in the other I have sundries like gloves and my winch controller. The first time I mounted the bags I mounted as far down as I could, but with the weight of their contents they hung too low and hit the bottom frame of the door and the tailgate wouldn't close. After I moved them up a few inches they cleared fine. The rear came with two pouches only, but thankfully they're more useful than the ones from the front.
One note, if you have the stock mounted sub, the area that it is adjacent to on the tailgate is unusable.
Conclusion for the rear: simple, effective. Gave me more room to securely carry things that I always like to have with me. Only concern is how well the screws will hold up.
The front of the rack uses the two screws from the footman loop to mount a bracket that the rack bolts to. The angle of the bends in this bracket weren't sufficient enough to be able to close the latch for the hardtop, so I had to put it in a vice and beat it with a hammer until I had the angles adjusted so the latch would fit. Also, the footman loop isn't centered, it's offset to the left, which means this rack slants toward the driver's side. The driver's side sun visor touches the rack and the passenger's side has about two inches of a gap. The rear of the rack sits on the sound bar and is secured with hose clamps. It feels pretty secure and hasn't moved or rattled since I've mounted it. The rack feels like it could easily stand up to having something heavier than the bags mounted to it, i.e. a radio.
The molle material works like it should, but the bags smittybilt gives you are retarded. You can pretty much find these exact pouches online. One of them is a map bag with a fold up map pouch that fits inside. Honestly, I have a gps, this one is stupid. Luckily the map pouch is removable and you can fill it with whatever else. Another pouch is a shotgun shell holder. MAYBE, you could use it to put sockets in, but I've got a separate tool kit, and I don't want sockets falling on my head when I open it. There's a flashlight pouch, it's long enough to accomodate bigger lights like a maglite, I've got a small surefire and it only fills half of it. There's a plain utility pouch and two more identical pouches that I'll post pics of later. Again, not the best selection, but you can buy all sorts of molle pouches online to fit your needs.
View is greatly diminished with the pouches. The rack doesn't interfere at all with your view, but depending on what type of pouches you mount, you can kiss your rearview mirror goodbye.
Accessing your latches is more difficult but certainly not impossible. I have average sized hands for a 6 ft tall dude, and I can reach above the rack to move the latches, but it is cramped.
My conclusion so far: obviously not the best designed, but it gets the job done. I needed the extra space and I got it.
On to the rear.
The rear for a JK is a solid rectangle of molle fabric that's attached to the tailgate by drilling 3/32" holes and securing with self tapping screws. The screws felt pretty solid, but time will tell how well they hold. I have two of the pouches mounted right now. One is big enough to hold this:
http://www.4wheelparts.com/prodDetai...eep-parts=true
and in the other I have sundries like gloves and my winch controller. The first time I mounted the bags I mounted as far down as I could, but with the weight of their contents they hung too low and hit the bottom frame of the door and the tailgate wouldn't close. After I moved them up a few inches they cleared fine. The rear came with two pouches only, but thankfully they're more useful than the ones from the front.
One note, if you have the stock mounted sub, the area that it is adjacent to on the tailgate is unusable.
Conclusion for the rear: simple, effective. Gave me more room to securely carry things that I always like to have with me. Only concern is how well the screws will hold up.
04-20-2010, 01:02 PM
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Velcro instead of screws
I haven't downloaded the pics yet but I'll at least put up some info for now.
The front of the rack uses the two screws from the footman loop to mount a bracket that the rack bolts to. The angle of the bends in this bracket weren't sufficient enough to be able to close the latch for the hardtop, so I had to put it in a vice and beat it with a hammer until I had the angles adjusted so the latch would fit. Also, the footman loop isn't centered, it's offset to the left, which means this rack slants toward the driver's side. The driver's side sun visor touches the rack and the passenger's side has about two inches of a gap. The rear of the rack sits on the sound bar and is secured with hose clamps. It feels pretty secure and hasn't moved or rattled since I've mounted it. The rack feels like it could easily stand up to having something heavier than the bags mounted to it, i.e. a radio.
The molle material works like it should, but the bags smittybilt gives you are retarded. You can pretty much find these exact pouches online. One of them is a map bag with a fold up map pouch that fits inside. Honestly, I have a gps, this one is stupid. Luckily the map pouch is removable and you can fill it with whatever else. Another pouch is a shotgun shell holder. MAYBE, you could use it to put sockets in, but I've got a separate tool kit, and I don't want sockets falling on my head when I open it. There's a flashlight pouch, it's long enough to accomodate bigger lights like a maglite, I've got a small surefire and it only fills half of it. There's a plain utility pouch and two more identical pouches that I'll post pics of later. Again, not the best selection, but you can buy all sorts of molle pouches online to fit your needs.
View is greatly diminished with the pouches. The rack doesn't interfere at all with your view, but depending on what type of pouches you mount, you can kiss your rearview mirror goodbye.
Accessing your latches is more difficult but certainly not impossible. I have average sized hands for a 6 ft tall dude, and I can reach above the rack to move the latches, but it is cramped.
My conclusion so far: obviously not the best designed, but it gets the job done. I needed the extra space and I got it.
On to the rear.
The rear for a JK is a solid rectangle of molle fabric that's attached to the tailgate by drilling 3/32" holes and securing with self tapping screws. The screws felt pretty solid, but time will tell how well they hold. I have two of the pouches mounted right now. One is big enough to hold this:
http://www.4wheelparts.com/prodDetai...eep-parts=true
and in the other I have sundries like gloves and my winch controller. The first time I mounted the bags I mounted as far down as I could, but with the weight of their contents they hung too low and hit the bottom frame of the door and the tailgate wouldn't close. After I moved them up a few inches they cleared fine. The rear came with two pouches only, but thankfully they're more useful than the ones from the front.
One note, if you have the stock mounted sub, the area that it is adjacent to on the tailgate is unusable.
Conclusion for the rear: simple, effective. Gave me more room to securely carry things that I always like to have with me. Only concern is how well the screws will hold up.
The front of the rack uses the two screws from the footman loop to mount a bracket that the rack bolts to. The angle of the bends in this bracket weren't sufficient enough to be able to close the latch for the hardtop, so I had to put it in a vice and beat it with a hammer until I had the angles adjusted so the latch would fit. Also, the footman loop isn't centered, it's offset to the left, which means this rack slants toward the driver's side. The driver's side sun visor touches the rack and the passenger's side has about two inches of a gap. The rear of the rack sits on the sound bar and is secured with hose clamps. It feels pretty secure and hasn't moved or rattled since I've mounted it. The rack feels like it could easily stand up to having something heavier than the bags mounted to it, i.e. a radio.
The molle material works like it should, but the bags smittybilt gives you are retarded. You can pretty much find these exact pouches online. One of them is a map bag with a fold up map pouch that fits inside. Honestly, I have a gps, this one is stupid. Luckily the map pouch is removable and you can fill it with whatever else. Another pouch is a shotgun shell holder. MAYBE, you could use it to put sockets in, but I've got a separate tool kit, and I don't want sockets falling on my head when I open it. There's a flashlight pouch, it's long enough to accomodate bigger lights like a maglite, I've got a small surefire and it only fills half of it. There's a plain utility pouch and two more identical pouches that I'll post pics of later. Again, not the best selection, but you can buy all sorts of molle pouches online to fit your needs.
View is greatly diminished with the pouches. The rack doesn't interfere at all with your view, but depending on what type of pouches you mount, you can kiss your rearview mirror goodbye.
Accessing your latches is more difficult but certainly not impossible. I have average sized hands for a 6 ft tall dude, and I can reach above the rack to move the latches, but it is cramped.
My conclusion so far: obviously not the best designed, but it gets the job done. I needed the extra space and I got it.
On to the rear.
The rear for a JK is a solid rectangle of molle fabric that's attached to the tailgate by drilling 3/32" holes and securing with self tapping screws. The screws felt pretty solid, but time will tell how well they hold. I have two of the pouches mounted right now. One is big enough to hold this:
http://www.4wheelparts.com/prodDetai...eep-parts=true
and in the other I have sundries like gloves and my winch controller. The first time I mounted the bags I mounted as far down as I could, but with the weight of their contents they hung too low and hit the bottom frame of the door and the tailgate wouldn't close. After I moved them up a few inches they cleared fine. The rear came with two pouches only, but thankfully they're more useful than the ones from the front.
One note, if you have the stock mounted sub, the area that it is adjacent to on the tailgate is unusable.
Conclusion for the rear: simple, effective. Gave me more room to securely carry things that I always like to have with me. Only concern is how well the screws will hold up.
