It's September and it won't be long till Old Man Winter gets here. I'm new to Jeeps and soft tops. I am looking for cold weather tips for the soft top. I think common since says don't try to remove snow or ice from the windows but what does everyone do. Start the engine and let the heater melt everything? I have seen 12 volt heaters on the internet that you can start to preheat the interior to melt everything away but are they practical? Just looking ahead at what's coming.
Thanks Everyone

 

You can of course wipe the soft snow off, but the frozen stuff you have to wait until your heater melts it. I tried to scrape my back window once up on a time with my finger tips and it was so cold that it popped and my hand went through it. Talk about feeling stupid. I was so emberassed that I finished defrosting my windows with the heat coming off my red face.
I don't know if I would want to leave a heater on in my jeep unsupervised. Maybe if it was a real whimpy one set on a milk crate in the back. I don't know what they have out there. They might have something made for it. I hate to say this, but JC Whitney has oddball stuff, they may have something like that.

 

Yeah, I'd had to do somethin stupid. What does everyone that has had soft top for years do? I kinda like the idea of the plug in heater so I don't have to idle it so long to warm it up. The amps on some of these heaters are so low, they couldnt possibly run down the battery. How about some of you Canidians chime in here! I know you have cold weather

 

Hello, I know I can get some answers on this forum.

 

guy, it's only been 3 hours. have some patience and someone will answer eventually

 

last year when I 1st got the JK, I parked next to a X that had a soft top and this was in the middle of the Winter and snowing like a SOB, the driver waved at me as I was going into the pizza parlor and I asked him the same question, he said that it was his third Jeep and he allways had a soft top and never had a problem with it ...meaning he parked out side and never had the soft top sag..one thing he mentioned is that he noticed that the plastic windows do take a toll with the salt, if you don't rinse them off when you drive over salt packed roads they will eventually turn "yellowish"...can not confirm that myself but I will keep the soft top as long as I can to see if indeed it makes a difference..good luck

 

In your statement you said "What does everyone that has had soft tops for years do?" I guess I should have added, I'm on my fifth jeep. This is the fifth jeep that started out as a softtop. I started changing to hardtops after the second one, because people kept slicing the tops open. So all of mine went through at least one winter with a softtop except this one. I let mine warm up with the engine running, except the time I got in a hurry and put my hand through the back window. Sorry I didn't tell you what I did in my first reply. What I'm saying is this isn't my first jeep, my first jeep was a CJ5 that I bought 26 years ago. Now that the heaters really work in wranglers, it doesn't take as long as it did with the 2 CJ's I had, but once I bought a YJ, I couldn't believe how well the heater worked. It only took a few minutes to defrost the windows. By the time I was finished scraping the wind shield, I could normally drive away. Hope that helpped.

 

I just tap the soft top window a few times on the non clear part. Most of the snow and even ice will not stick well to the plastic windows. That will get enough off to let the cab heat do the rest.

I had a soft top for 7 years in an area with -20 C winters.

 

here in Canada its called - automatic car starter - but I have a garage and my work has underground heated parking, so I'm good.....but I'll throw on the hardtop after the first couple of dumps of snow....my buddy keeps the soft top on his YJ all year (his hardtop sits in his yard )...automatic car starter is what he has now....

 

With my first 3 CJs, I relied on the defrofter/heaters to clear the plastic side curtains and rear window, the defrosters/heaters were phenomenal...
on my 4th CJ, I went to the glass sliders for about 300 bucks, and found they couldn't be beat...had them on my next 2 Wranglers...I will now be truly spoiled, because my Unlimited is my first Jeep I ever owned to have stock glass windows (and power at that)...I do miss the half doors, but these things are great!!!