ok im going to order a 2011 or 2012 jeep unlimited sahara hardtop soon, now my question, how high does my garage rafters have to be to hang my hardtop in the air and keep it stored there for summer??? i think my rafters are like only 8 ft off the ground maybe a bit more but not much, how high does it have to b for a hoist a top to work??? thanx for any tips or comments.

 

I hung mine on 8ft ceiling using rachet straps/2x4's. I had a 4in lift and a 35in spare and it was kinda funky to get off, had to open the tailgate and drive forward so the 2x4's wouldndt hang up.

 

This depends on depth of your garage. Will you be parking UNDER the hardtop or in front of it?

Measure Your hardtop from the bottom to the top. I don't knwo but it is around 2' (Just guessing). Add 2" to that measurement to account for the hoist system. Next measure the height of your Jeep form the slab to the top. Add those two together. If your garage ceiling is lower than that measurement, you cannot park UNDER the hardtop.

If your garage is deep you can put the hoist at the rear of the garage. You wouldn't be able to back the Jeep under the hoist. You would have to take the top off and carry it a few feet to the hoist. You could then drive into the garage and park with your hood under the hardtop.

 

At the local princess auto, I found a 400lb electric winch. Was $99.

I hung a 4' long piece of square tubing from the rafter in my garage, upon which the electric winch slides side to side (the winch has square brackets designed to hang on square tubing.

Now, I can slide the electric winch across the length of the square tubing, and it's a effortless one person job to remove/install the hard top.

When the hard top is on the Jeep for the long Canadian winter, I use it to hoist up the canoe and other items on a shelf I built to hang from it.

Grant

 

Mine are about the same height no problems

 

I have a stock rubi. Bought the manual lift from quad. You back in all you have to lift is 3 4 inches. And drive out its Simple. I park under the top every night one person job. My garage is high so its better bitter you don't need much room at all

 

I used motorcycle tie-down straps with some slat board hooks and an ATV 6-foot tow strap (see photo). Cost maybe $40 at Lowe's and, in my opinion, is far superior to the catalog version due to it having four mounting points instead of just one to the ceiling. Takes about 10-minutes to take off and easy as pie.

 

Here is a link to the write up on this site.
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...t=hoist+system
I have this same hoist minus the shelf as my celings are only 8 ft high. I wanted to be able to walk underneath the top when the Jeep wasn't in the garage but my ceiling height wouldn't allow it. I lowered the top onto 2 snowmobile dolles so I could move it into the third stall in the garage. That is where is stayed all summer long.

 

Get a Harken Hoister. It's incredible and easy to install. It's $104 shipped on ebay.

Check the Harken website for correct model number; I think it's 7803. It holds 145lbs and can hoist a max of 10ft.
YouTube has a video of how it works (search harken hoist).
It's better than building your own or cranking a cheapo depot winch.

Just my opinion.
kengolfnut