After reading for months and months about diy hardtop lifts as well as the break my wallet hardtop lifts from Quadratec or 4WD...... I finally decided to go with using the Racor Heavy Lift PHL-1R. Buying the product was the first challenge I ran into. I'm not sure if the product is being phased out but I tried to buy it several times off of ebay and Amazon only to have my order canceled. Needless to say, I finally found one for sale and when it arrived, it was missing a part. Racor was very helpful however and was able to ship me the missing part within 5 business days. I installed today and the installation took around 4 hours due to some of the modifications I had to make. The replacement pulley arm they sent me was different than the other 3 so I had to modify that to make it fit. I also had to purchase some 2x4's from Lowe's because I had to span my ceiling joists. The instructions for the lift are garbage but it is easy enough to figure out with some trial and error. Overall I am happy with the lift. I would recommend trying this over fabricating your own and definitely over dropping $400 on one from a website. Overall I have about $180 into the build. I've seen some diy lifts for much cheaper than that, but I do not have the tools or fabricating skills to try that route. I would say for a beginner to intermediate level, this project was good.

 

Looks good. I'm happy with mine. But once I took the hard top off, I never put it back on...lol. Still hanging in the same spot.

 

Are you strapping the hardtop to the bottom of the lift? Or putting it on the lift. I have been looking at that one for a little while now and haven't pulled the trigger yet. And the $180 included the lift?

 

[QUOTE="madcowtipper23;4087269"]...Buying the product was the first challenge I ran into. I'm not sure if the product is being phased out but I tried to buy it several times off of ebay and Amazon only to have my order canceled. Needless to say, I finally found one for sale... /QUOTE]

So where did you find it? I've been looking for weeks, and everyone seems to be out of stock

 

I strap the top underneath and put the freedom panels on top.

 

Thanks 14Sport!

epleeds.... I plan on doing the same setup that 14Sport has.

 

Yeti836 - I had the same issue as you, then I found someone selling on eBay that actually had the lift in hand. Keep searching and good luck!

 

I have the same lift. You can get the cheaper on amazon. Work great!!!

 

anyone find this stupid thing in-stock somewhere yet?!? Driving me crazy! Ugh! I'm ignoring the $200+ listings for it.. just a rip off. All major retail vendors seem to be perpetually out of stock, but still listing on their sites. Anywhere carry this on the shelf local?

 

I placed an order on Amazon for one. Says it's back ordered for 3 weeks and they will notify me when it ships. I think it was $160. I don't mind waiting since my soft top won't be here for at lease another month.