jvs one

I recently installed a 44014 Garvin roof rack on my JKU. I went with this one because its the only one available for the JKU that's off road rated, plus I though it looked cool. Anyway, love the rack, our dogs occupy the back deck of our JKU so between this rack and my hitch rack the pups have their room and we dont sacrifice cargo space or our beloved Jimmy Hoffa cooler. My question is this: I'm thinking of buying one of the hoist systems for removing my hard top. Will the weight of the Garvin rack prove to be an issue when hoisting the top off my JKU with the 4-point hoist system? Has anyone tried lifting the top using the Garvin rack itself? Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

Thanks!

jeeeep

the hoist has a 145# working load limit - how much does the rack weigh?

I'd be concerned about breaking the hardtop at the lift points with the extra weight - soemthing to look at..

Good luck

jvs one

the hoist has a 145# working load limit - how much does the rack weigh?

I'd be concerned about breaking the hardtop at the lift points with the extra weight - soemthing to look at..

Good luck

I have an email in to Garvin to see if they can provide any information. Fortunately I can remove all but the main rails by pulling 4 bolts but I'd rather not go through all that if I dont have to.

jvs one

I sent an email to Garvin asking whether or not I could use the standard hard top hoist with my Wilderness rack in place. Less than 2 days later i received an email from Ron Garvin himself. According to him, the hard top on a 2011 JK 4 door can be raised by attaching to the 44014 rack only. He said that with the backing plates the rack will easily support the hard top by itself. I am very impressed with how quickly he responded, nice going Garvin!

jeeeep

wow - that's good to know - show a pic of it hoisted up

jvs one

Well it worked great. I went to Harbor Freight and bought a 200/400lb electric hoist for $90 (and yes, spent the extra $19 for the lifetime replacement no-questions-asked lol). I mounted the hoist on the wall so I could save some space at the ceiling (wifey wasn't crazy about my hardtop at eye level). Then I bought a couple of pulleys (had to double up the cable for the 400lb weight rating on the hoist) and bolted those into a 2x6's lagged to the ceiling joists. I took a piece of Unistrut and cut one piece to 58" and one to 48", I wanted plenty of overhang, and bolted them together in a T shape using the Unistrut T bracket I bought (White Cap has all this crap). I wrapped the outside foot or so of the Unistrut and 3 Unistrut U-bolts in electical tape to keep them from scratching the rack. Using the U-Bolts, under the rack rail and up into the holes in the Unistrut, to affix the unistrut T to the top rail of the rack, I attached it at the left and right sides at the first vertical support forward of the back end of the rack, then attached the front end of the T as close to the front-most center vertical support as I could (had to pick a side). Using another U-Bolt, upside down this time, as a lifting hook, I took a guess at where the center-mass was, hooked up the hoist, hit the button and got really lucky. I managed to guess the balance point first try. No problem whatsoever pulling the top off and putting it back on solo with this cheapo system. In total I think I was in it about $150.00. Pretty psyched about that since the prepackaged electric top hoist runs over $350!

I think the hardtop is on for the season now (Colorado's getting a bit chilly and my JK is a daily commuter) but I'd be happy to take pics of the pieces if anyone's interested. Super simple to build and cheap!