Anyone use one of these or have made your own?? I'm looking for ideas/plans on making my own?

 

Type in "Hardtop Hoist" in the search and you should get a few threads. I am in the process of making my own hoist for my wife's JK hardtop. There is a few good idea's from fellow JK owner's.

 

I made my own with iron fence posts from Home Depot. They are cheap and lightweight. I fabricated them in an I pattern so I have 4 points of contact on the hardtop. I have an eye hook in each corner. I then position 2 2x4's under the front and rear of the top also with eye hooks. The front eye hooks clip together and the back two are connected by a custom length strap I made. I then attach my boat winch that is mounted to the wall and ran through a pulley from the ceiling and hoist it right up. I can remove it by myself in about 5 minutes. I also put eye hooks in my garage ceiling so I can hoist it all the way up, like the eye hooks with straps, and it leave it there through the summer while the soft top is on. All hardware was about 50 dollars, with about 35 of that being the boat trailer winch.

 

I just framed it with 2x4s. Wrapped foam around the boards, used eyebolts and rachet straps to hold frame to top. Added a pulley to the frame and ceiling joist. Then ran a heavy piece of boat rope through the pulleys and then through some eye bolts that redirect the rope across my ceiling and then down the side wall to a $20 hand winch from northern tools. Once its cranked up, I use 2 more rachet straps to hold it tightly against my sloped ceiling. Works like a charm! Cost me about 70 bucks and 2 hours of my time.

 

Friend of mine had the same general idea about the frame work to lift it off but he also had a $49 harbor freight 12v winch and he uses his lawnmower battery to raise it when needed and again when he puts it back on. Guess when we get past 60 we are a bit lazy!

 

Thanks, any pics? Do you leave the top hanging in the garage?

 

I used a Harken hositer. Easy to put up, easy to use single handed on and off the Jeep. Hardest part of the install was finding the rafters. Pics in my gallery.

 

From the home page, click on Write Ups - the top sticky has a whole list of write ups fellow JK-ers have done for the rest of us. There are a couple of write-ups dedicated to the hard tops and storage.

Personally, I used - https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-write-ups-39/my-sub-%2420-hard-top-storage-solution-1035/ - and it worked great. More specifically, I went with Wayoflife's in post #3 of that thread.

Instead of just using the straps on the front of the top, I put another 2X4 across there instead. So, 8 bolts, washers, nuts, 2 2X4s, and a pack of straps, the "lift" is done. The only draw back being you have to lift each corner a couple inches at a time. The huge benefit is that I can pull the Jeep into the garage, slide the 2X4s under the top, and get it off all by myself.

And yes, I lift it as high as I can and it stays there all summer. Just make sure you open the back window before you drive the Jeep out of the garage. The spare will catch it and your top will be in several pieces if you don't.

By this time next month, my top will be off. If you still need photos, pm me then.

 

Just currious....does anyone know how much a 2-dr hardtop with the front two pannels removed weighs?

 

That is my thinking how easy it is to lower the top with these style straps to get it to line up nicely. I guess to only do it 2 or 3 times a year you get a routine. However, I am leaning towards the T-shaped style hoist, but I do like WOL's with the 2x4 and straps....easy to pull off...but not sure how easy it is to pull down and place on Jeep again.