In my garage I have a harborfrieght overhead electric hoist that I installed recently for the jeep's hardtop.
It seems to work well enough, but I think if I had some actual hooks or loops in the hard top it would be much easier to deal with.

I have seen these D-Ring hooks that's primarily used for boats, and I think something like that would be perfect.

Has anyone ever done that, or is there a really good reason why it might be a bad idea?

 

I've thought about this thread today. I really don't know how that fiberglass would hold up, but what I keep coming back to is that I just don't think installing eyebolts in that fiberglass top is necessary, and that the real flaw is supporting any item of decent heft via one point. I have a decade now of top on/off/on/off and several years of lifting my tent off my trailer and storing on garage ceiling. Can you expand on how your currently lifting it up and off? I can elaborate on my thoughts but without knowing what you're currently doing it could just be wasted effort of typing it all out.

 

I would look into a type of sling to attach to the top/ hoist, probably can have sewn at an upholstery shop

 

This is pretty much the config I have now

I have some channel and a trolly setup so I can move the hoist side to side.

I have a pretty high garage ceiling; however, I'm finding the top hangs down further than I would like.
I'm also using some towing straps.

I found the straps to be very clunky.
And when this thing has 35's and a 3in lift, i see it getting worse.

I'm thinking this hoist will end up in the attic in the near future.

 

Try some of the local hardware stores (not lowes or home depot) see if they have some of the polyester banding, they would probably let you have some for next to nothing or free. 3/4 inch band around 2700 pound break strength, easy to handle, can either tie a knot on the ends or sew loops.

 

Yeah I wouldn't mess with the actual Jeep top if I were you. I'd do any mods to the lift system that you need/want instead. Maybe add some hooks to the straps you have somehow?

I have the Lange power hoist and it has nice coated hooks on the 2 sides and 1 in the rear. Not sure how you could modify yours to achieve what you want but I'd definitely go that route as opposed to messing with the fiberglass roof.

 

Yeah, I figured as much.
I see roof racks for these things where they seem to mount it on the top? IDK
a roof rack would make life easy,

I see a much tighter webbing or pullies and holes in my ceiling to pull it flush against the drywall.
That said, the hoist I bought is way overkill and could probably pull the top right through the ceiling.

Oh well, it may be cold outside right now, but the top of the jeep is off and ready to rock and roll.

In reality I had to pull the top in order to do some body repair, the PO pushed the driver side taillight in.
Turned out great pulling the dent with the HF post welder/dent puller, black primed to blend in, and now I'm just waiting for a nice warm weekend, and I'll break out the paint spray gun to lay down some base and clear.

 

I can see the dilemma of a lot of wasted space with this method. I have a thought that I think would work and be relatively easy. I'll try to find a few pics and follow-up today.

 

K, you're going to have to excuse the rudimentary illustration here...and obviously, the angles of things aren't appropriate but I was working with copying/pasting things in paint -



(the blue line being the winch line)

All just my opinion, but having used a few things I think the Harkens Hoist design is really the best thing for what you're doing. I use one of these for my RTT and one of the benefits is I can get that sucker really snug to the ceiling. I have low 8' ceiling in the garage so vertical space is a premium. The real downfall to the Harkens Hoist IMO is the price tag cuz in the end the whole system is a couple really cheap pullies, a couple pig-tail screws (not sure the real name) and some 3/8" paracord. The major benefits are how close you can get to the ceiling and that you are hoisting via 4 connections and that pretty secure as it goes up....unlike hoisting from a single point which allows the item to twist, and tilt if the weight is not centered well.

Having said all that, I think that you could rig this up by simply buying 4 little pulleys for the corners, 1 double pulley for where all the lines converge, 4 pig-tail screws for the pullies to hang on, and then simply something to tie those 4 lines to and which you could then hook your HF winch to to raise and lower things as a unit. Use a simple strap under the front part of the top that the two frontmost lines would attach to.....and hooks in the rear.....or you could even do 2 straps running horizontally from the front of the top through the rear window area.....either way, 4 simple points to lift from and you don't have all that wasted space between the top and the ceiling. mount the winch back on a wall or further back on the ceiling or wherever gives you enough room to raise/lower as necessary.

4-pack of something like this -


2 of these -



and 4 of something similar to these to hang the corner pullies from -




and some paracord.