Me thinks the Canada Wave is makin' a comeback..
been debating the hard top issue now, I have to work this weekend but i'll likely tuck it away in the next week or so.
As for jeep waves, I passed about 8 today, an old CJ, about 4 TJ and a couple JK, got a wave from all of em. Getting more waves from the TJ now that i have the JK a bit modded out.
Cheers
JKDad
As for jeep waves, I passed about 8 today, an old CJ, about 4 TJ and a couple JK, got a wave from all of em. Getting more waves from the TJ now that i have the JK a bit modded out.
Cheers
JKDad
Hey Tunes... That's what I did in my last place... Picked up one of those 800lbs electric hosts from Princess Auto for 100 bucks... Built the rack out of a couple pieces of 2x4, piece of 4x4 and 3 hooks and it worked great... Back the Jeep right in.. hook the rack to it and hit the up button... It doesn't get any easier than that.... 
Damn new house I don't have the clearance in the garage to do it.... Should have paid way more attention...
Damn new house I don't have the clearance in the garage to do it.... Should have paid way more attention...
Hey Tunes... That's what I did in my last place... Picked up one of those 800lbs electric hosts from Princess Auto for 100 bucks... Built the rack out of a couple pieces of 2x4, piece of 4x4 and 3 hooks and it worked great... Back the Jeep right in.. hook the rack to it and hit the up button... It doesn't get any easier than that.... 
Damn new house I don't have the clearance in the garage to do it.... Should have paid way more attention...
Damn new house I don't have the clearance in the garage to do it.... Should have paid way more attention...

I was going to go with 2X4 instead of metal channel but not sure how strong the butt joint would be for the crossmember
I assume you up them on their side (i.e. 4 inch up and down)
that makes for a long "J" bolt to get thru with clearance.
I was just on my way out the door to pickup the hardware.
maybe I'll go re measure the garage and checkback here first
There are the steel racks out there to purchase for this and you could build one out of metal... The hard tops aren't really heavy, so I just used some scrap lumber I had laying around the place.. The set up worked great for the hardtops of both my TJ's and JK... If the damn new place had more clearance I'd still be using it...
Sorry guys don't have any pic's of the set up but this is what I did..
1) I built a box frame out of some 2x4's in the rafters of the garage to reinforce and make them more stable.. I then mounted the hoist to the top of those so that the weight was sitting and being carried on top and not relaying on some carriage bolts, I then fed the cable down thru the middle of the frame (It's a little over kill, but wife's car sat under the hardtop, frame and hoist, so I would have never heard the end of it if something had of happened
)
2) To build the rack, I stood 2 pieces of 2x4 (one for either end) on their sides (that way you get next to no flex at all) I mounted the 2x4 to the ends of the 4x4 using some lag screws (I pre drilled the holes then then lagged it all together). The 2x4's can be of equal length or not.. My front piece was longer then the rears. For the back you don't need to span as much distance.
3) To attach the rack to the hoist all I did was use a single heavy duty eye hook (If I remember correctly it was a 3/4inch'er). Once I found the balance point (now that was fun) I drilled a hole and ran the I hook thru using a couple of washers (one on either side of the 4x4) and a lock nut.. I notched the 4x4 to make sure the top of the eye sat more or less flush (I know, some of you will say this weakened the 4x4, I took maybe an inch worth of material out and considering the hardtops aren't that heavy to start off, didn't see or have an issue).
4) To attach the hardtop to the rack I just used 3 (2 for the front and 1 for the rear) of the heavy duty Crawford storage hooks (you know the ones with padding on them) I drilled the 2x4's and just screwed them into place.. The hooks attached to the front of the hard top just ahead of the windows (at the side, you could use the front lip of the hard top also but my 4x4 wasn't that long. For the rear I just one hook in the center.
It sounds allot more difficult then what it really is to build...
Hope this makes sense
Sorry guys don't have any pic's of the set up but this is what I did..
1) I built a box frame out of some 2x4's in the rafters of the garage to reinforce and make them more stable.. I then mounted the hoist to the top of those so that the weight was sitting and being carried on top and not relaying on some carriage bolts, I then fed the cable down thru the middle of the frame (It's a little over kill, but wife's car sat under the hardtop, frame and hoist, so I would have never heard the end of it if something had of happened
) 2) To build the rack, I stood 2 pieces of 2x4 (one for either end) on their sides (that way you get next to no flex at all) I mounted the 2x4 to the ends of the 4x4 using some lag screws (I pre drilled the holes then then lagged it all together). The 2x4's can be of equal length or not.. My front piece was longer then the rears. For the back you don't need to span as much distance.
3) To attach the rack to the hoist all I did was use a single heavy duty eye hook (If I remember correctly it was a 3/4inch'er). Once I found the balance point (now that was fun) I drilled a hole and ran the I hook thru using a couple of washers (one on either side of the 4x4) and a lock nut.. I notched the 4x4 to make sure the top of the eye sat more or less flush (I know, some of you will say this weakened the 4x4, I took maybe an inch worth of material out and considering the hardtops aren't that heavy to start off, didn't see or have an issue).
4) To attach the hardtop to the rack I just used 3 (2 for the front and 1 for the rear) of the heavy duty Crawford storage hooks (you know the ones with padding on them) I drilled the 2x4's and just screwed them into place.. The hooks attached to the front of the hard top just ahead of the windows (at the side, you could use the front lip of the hard top also but my 4x4 wasn't that long. For the rear I just one hook in the center.
It sounds allot more difficult then what it really is to build...
Hope this makes sense



)

