Hi everyone - first post on here - hoping for some advice:

I bought a 2013 Jeep Wrangler Freedom Edition (2door) last year and totally love the wrangler experience!

HOWEVER- I'm 6ft 7" and am struggling a little with legroom and headroom on long journeys, so I bought the new JK 2 door version of the Misch big boy seat extenders which work great, however my head still hits the sound bar...in fact moreso.

To be honest at this point (not to mention living in the pretty flat state of New Jersey)I don't plan to do any off-roading and don't do more than 70mph on the Highway on a good day; therefore my first question is: has anyone relocated the Soundbar and more importantly the beam under it four or so inches further back? Do you see any problems in doing this? One concern I had was the screws for the freedom panels however I've seen several posts by folks saying you don't need them anyway...

When I took my seat out to fit the big boy brackets, I contemplated lowering the seat somehow but at best I'd get two inches and I basically thought it would be a lot easier to just move the sound bar back four to six inches than it would be to start fabricating the rather complex looking seat mount.

Really appreciate your thoughts on this!

Also if you know of any good fabrication shops in monmouth county I'd happily take the recommendation.

Thanks!

 

You could just remove it and add speakers to the roll bars in the back near the 90 degree bend.

I second your thought in not modifying the seat bracket

 

Interesting. I agree, just yank out the sound bar. You might find the paint to be a different color or just primed under there. People who have removed the foam padding have found different colored roll bars under it. Other than the dome light and speakers, you might have the satellite radio antenna up in there somewhere. Assuming you have satellite radio...

Take photos and post them up. Good luck.

This member pulled his sound bar to upgrade his stereo. Maybe send him a PM for more info.

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-e...s-pics-283481/

This too:

https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/jk-w...ar-mod-285630/

 

Thanks so much for the speedy replies! I do so love the spirit of community the wrangler engenders..

I don't intend to roll the car for the reasons mentioned above - but should I really just remove the beam? A 4x4 place in Philly tried to put the fear of death to me, saying that the roll cage would likely fold-in if I ever was unfortunate enough to roll the car. This made me wonder if I should put a Rock Hard 4X4 2-Door Jk Straight Across The Rear Bar as a precautionary measure as well as relocating the soundbar and cross beam back about 6 inches, but it sounds (no pun intended) that this is all just overkill? I've been driving for nearly 30 years and touch wood I've never rolled a car on the freeway yet!!

Thanks again for your replies - very much appreciated!

 

Don't cut that beam unless you're an engineer who can calculate the loads and such that are involved and transferred through that beam. Regardless of 'if' you plan on rolling or not, who is to say you won't get t-boned at a stoplight and roll over?

Don't cut anything structural and certainly don't expect an additional brace to compensate for the main beam. If you want to cut then you need to replace the cage entirely with something designed around you with safety in mind.

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Good advice - thank you!

 

Sorry to down your project....I'm tall too but safety is paramount and the truth is that we can't plan for the unexpected.


If you plan on keeping the jeep for a while then a custom cage may be a wise investment. You could get the bar to arc up a little higher and tie in at the same spot as the current bar. It does sit down a little lower than the rest of the cage (if I remember right from when I pulled the padding and all)

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Not a problem - that's why I asked the question - I want to hear the good the bad and the ugly! Am particularly interested to find someone who has done this to a newer JK...

 

I think we're talking 2 different things here. Remove the sound bar (plastic), leave the roll bar. (Metal).

 

We are on the same page. Only trouble is that taking off the plastic soundbar exposes the metal beam which is even more dangerous if I was to whack my head off it in an accident. ok4WD said they could move the cross beam (metal) back about 6 inches then I could reattach the soundbar (plastic) however I just wanted to throw it out to the JK community for thoughts before I do anything...