mcsunflower

Hi, All

I drive a '13 JK with soft top and I love it. I currently live in sunny, hot, southern AZ but we're considering a move to snow-covered, frigid, Leadville CO. Wondering if I'll need a new top. Is there some kind of insulation for the softie? I would really hate to give it up for a hard top but concerned about how it will be when it's -20.

trouty33

I run mine without any insulation at all in PA. I know some people that use the sunshade or something similar and put blankets on top of it between the sunshade and the soft top.

klucas31

I live in Windsor, ON, Can. and just went through the "Polar Vortex" Winter with mine. We had a new snowfall record and temps as low is -25 Celsius, which when you get down that low is very similar to Fahrenheit I believe. Regardless, it was fricken cold lol.

I had zero regrets with just using the softtop and it help up quite well. Once the heater gets going it's a sauna in there. The newer soft tops actually trap the heat quite well. I was usually turning it down after a 5 or 10 minutes of driving.

One thing to note is that you might want to be careful with scraping the windows at those temperatures. I didn't have any issues at all but I've heard of them cracking and breaking when frozen. You probably just have to be gentle and treat em with care. Although it's also interesting to note that for some reason I never found myself having to scrape em that much. I dunno if it's the plastic or what but snow and ice never seemed to accumulate much on em.

My advice to you would be to give it a shot with the soft top if that's something you wanna keep. Then after a few months of Winter if you decide you wanna switch to hard you can always do that at any time.

HillCountry_Cowboy

I added the Bestop headliner kit to mine for extra insulation. It about 1/4 inch thick foam with fabric on one side and fits perfectly on the underside of the top. Installation is a bit of a pain but once it's in there it's good.
They're about $59 if I remember right. Google Bestop headliner kit and you'll find who sells them.

TMO84

Live in New England and also went through the wrath of the Polar Vortex this winter. Bought my 2013 JKU in June and wondered how well the soft top would fare. 5 months of snow, cold, and ice didn't pose any significant issue. No leaking, no cracking. I was happy not to worry about it. I did periodically wipe the snow off during storms if the snow on top exceeded 6+ inches just so the weight didn't ruin it.

SiliconTi

I have an '08 soft top. I have no issues until it is really cold. One trip at -14F was brisk while cruising at 50MPH and the heater running full bore, but anything above 0F is fine. I hear the newer soft tops insulate better. BTW, this is the first Winter I had an issue with it due to the unusually cold weather.

mark_c

Just be carful removing ice from the windows. They could rip open if ice were to puncture it.

wandrur

I've had two Jeeps with softtops in Colorado. Totally fine. As mentioned, be cautious if you scrape or anything, and keep in mind that the windows become very fragile in the cold. Tossed an empty plastic Pepsi bottle to the back of my 2000 and broke a six inch hole in the back window.

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