Its a stock ZJ roof rack. Im pretty sure you could just take the plastic end cap off the runner and cut it to fit the 2 door hard top and reattach the end cap then mount. Probably pick one up from a junk yard for cheap. Ive thought about doing the same thing after seeing how it looks on Jscherb's Safari Top.

 

Thanks. Supporting overlanding was part of my design criteria, that's why the roof rack is supported by the roll bars. Overlanding almost always requires either a roof top tent or extra cargo carried on the roof rack, and I think it's important to be able to support that stuff without having to by extra hardware like an exocage rack system

But I still don't think there would be enough demand for the Safari Cab to make it worthwhile to turn it into a commercial product.

The roof rack is from a ZJ/XJ Cherokee. I picked it because there's no rack out there with more aftermarket support - there are lots of accessories that mount up to it.

The roll bar tie-in brackets that transfer weight on the rack to the roll bars are specific to the Safari Cab.

The rack basket is made from two Harbor Freight receiver baskets, I made it 6 years ago. Back when I made it I started a thread about it: Budget roof rack basket - Expedition Portal

Here's the basic idea, more detail is in that thread:

 

And the other reason I chose it is because of how it looks - being a factory Jeep part it looks add a factory look to the JK Safari Cab. I used the same thing on my LJ Safari Cab for the same two reasons..



Also they're $15 and plentiful at my local u-pick junkyard.

 

Thanks Mavis!

Thanks for the info jscherb! I too like it because it looks like a factory rack and having seen what you've loaded on top of it, I know it can handle a good deal of weight.

 

If you mount the rack directly on the fiberglass factory hardtop, it's weight capacity will be fairly low. The hardtop has no internal structure to support weight so at some amount of weight the fiberglass will likely crack.

The Safari Cab has an internal rib structure to add stiffness, and the rack is supported with brackets that bolt to the roll bars as I showed in this post: https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-s...3/#post4244304

If you're mounting a rack directly on the factory hardtop without adding any internal structure or brackets, you should be very careful about how much weight you try to carry up there.

 

I hear ya. For now, I'm just looking to get a rack with cross bars up there to mount some snowboards to for this upcoming winter. I was just pleased to hear that the crossbars/rack themselves were able to hold the weight. I did see the brackets you made that bolt to the roll bars, very nice btw! I figured I would do the rack for now and then if I ever wanted to add heavier items like a basket/spare/accessories later on that I could make some support brackets similar to the ones you made, but for the stock JK hardtop. As always, thanks for the helpful info!

 

Also be careful about movement - if the load, even a light one, is moving around because of bumps in the road or wind, or if the board is longer than the rack and rocks a bit like a seesaw, that could flex the fiberglass and with enough flexing over time cracks could develop.

I believe the Cherokee owners manual says the roof rack weight limit is 150 lbs. That's on a Cherokee, not on a fiberglass JK hardtop, so don't go anywhere near that weight.

Also, when I carry heavier loads on my racks (like the roof top tent) I don't use the factory Cherokee crossbars - I use Surco XJ rack channel adapters and heavier crossbars - back to the reasons I chose the XJ/ZJ rack, there are lots of aftermarket accessories for the racks. Here's a photo of the Surco adapters with stronger cross bars on my LJ, this is what I mount the RTT on:



Lots of information so you don't get in trouble .

Good luck.

 

A few weeks ago I made up a proof-of-concept quick release "window" panel for factory hardtops:



I used a solid panel because I didn't have anything clear/tinted on hand. Since the proof-of-concept worked very well, I picked up a piece of tinted plexiglass and made a quick release tinted window:







Instead of the quick-release latches, it would also be possible to hinge the window; the hinge installation needs to take into account the curve of the window, but that's not too hard to do. Adding hinges and latches might look something like this:

 

All great points! I sure appreciate it! Trust me when I say that I have my reservations about loading anything more than 50 lbs on the stock hardtop. It's one of the reasons I prefer to load my mountain bike on the back of the Jeep. I don't want to incur any flex on that top. That's why another option I've considered is an exoskeleton style roof rack that mounts to the body/frame. The Gobi and Garvin racks look the best, but this Barricade one seems like a great buy at $399.99.



Thanks again for the tips

 

I've been wondering what steel smoothies painted to match my hardtop would look like so I "installed" a set with my paint program...