I'm considering picking up some soft doors for my JK. Use would be when I am on vacation. I tow the JK behind the RV. I need to be prepared for rainy weather. I added a soft top recently. Now wondering if I should consider soft doors so I can leave my heavier metal doors at home. I can buy a set of Bestop soft doors for about $200. Is that a good decision? Again, my goal is to drive with no top and doors, but need to be prepared if it rains while on vacation.

 

Subscribed to see comments. Never see much about this topic. I bet they would suck for a DD, but for your use they might be a pretty good idea. I sure wouldn't expect them to be 100% leakproof though in a big storm (as I think of soft doors on old CJs fluttering). Actual Mopar half doors are a decent option for you 2dr guys, although pretty pricey even when 2nd hand. Us 4dr guys get priced out on those....even used can run $2500 for 4 doors w/ uppers for us.

 

I had the Bestop soft doors with the slide in uppers for several years. Overall, I liked them. The PROs were they were light and I could stack the lowers and uppers in the back (4 door) and still have room in the back. They also held up very well. The CONS: the uppers don't fit well so they don't have a tight (rain-proof) seal to the vehicle. (the lowers sealed very well). So if you expect to be completely dry inside, these won't work. At highway speeds (65mph +) the uppers would pull away from the vehicle and leave a gap of around 2 inches. All that said, I still like them and think they are worth it.

I now run the plastic lowers and the soft uppers. I still have the same problem. The uppers don't seal worth a dang.

The ONLY reason I moved to the plastic lowers is that they provided more surface to rest my arm. Basically a better arm rest as opposed to the soft lowers that provided an arm rest that's 1/2 inch wide.

EDIT - I just noticed my profile picture shows the soft lowers I was running.

 

Thanks for your reply. My use would not have much of any highway usage. In the current trip I'm on, we got a decent downpour. I had the soft top on, but no doors. I got about 3" of water in the tub and had to pull the plugs. Soft doors would have been an easy thing to throw on to prevent that. Even if a trickle got in, that would still be fine.

 

I have a hard top and full doors, but I like the idea of soft doors, just in case, even just a bikini top with soft doors would be easy to take off and still have on a trip.
i don't have any good advice, but I like the idea👍

 

I have a pair of soft doors (2 door). For me they are basically a band-aid between cool and warm weather driving in NJ. I've had them for at least five years now and I'm pretty confident in what they are and are not good for. First let me disclose that I'm one of these Jeep people who is rarely bothered by noise, wind, sun, etc. I have no delusions that this vehicle will not be an utter assault on my senses on most drives, and I like it that way. Keep that in mind if you're an S-Class cabin kind of person.

So the soft doors excel at one thing - being a flimsy barrier against morning or evening low temps. That's IT. If I'm using the soft doors, the hard top is still on. Once the top is off (I roll with no top all summer, obviously this would be a slightly different story with a soft top) there's no reason for any doors. If it rains I'll put the freedom panels up and let it rain in the bedlined tub behind me. Not a lot of rain gets in the doors anyway unless it's really windy and if that's the case it's a wet ride no matter what. The temperature is going to be whatever it's going to be with the roof off so why bother.

The magic scenario is this: It's spring, just starting to warm up. The high temps are in the low 70s but the mornings and evenings are still in the 50s. I have somewhere to go that I'm leaving in the cold morning but I'll be driving home in beautiful weather. That's the day I yank the full doors and throw the soft ones on. They will stay on for a few weeks until mornings are doable with a sweatshirt and then they go back into storage. The same happens in the fall when the top goes back on. The doors break down and fit in the trunk of the 2 door provided nothing else is back there so I can leave in the morning with some heat and be comfortable (ish) and have a glorious doorless ride later in the day. That's their entire function for me.

Some notes: The soft doors are loud. They don't seal. They don't lock. Actually I think they do lock but I don't bother with them. The windows suck, opening the windows sucks. They are generally unpleasant to drive with for those reasons. I do enjoy taking the uppers off in the cold weather and blasting the heat, a lot more stays in than with the doors all the way off. I mostly fixed the slapping of the fabric on the steel framework with pipe insulation. It's unacceptably loud otherwise. You have to bend the upper bars that attach to the lowers to get the uppers to press against the door frame or the top corners will flap out on the highway. You have to keep them clean or they will "stain" with mud. I have scrubbed and scrubbed, so far I can't get them to look new again. The "weather stripping" on the lowers have to be emptied of water after a rain. They will hold water all winter if you forget and surprise you when you pull them out the following spring. I suppose I could just make a few holes at the bottom.. I've also thrown them in the roof basket for long trips so I can close the Jeep up at night away from home. I still don't lock them because I'd rather have someone open the door than cut the window, but it looks slightly less inviting. And it keeps animals and bugs out in the woods.You'll also need a non-hinge mounted (die-tech) mirror solution. I used some pillar mounted mirrors for a few years which added to the loathsome experience, but have since switched to the Qtech mirror movers which work with all my doors and doorless.

For OP's purposes, they will certainly keep most of the rain out while parked or in tow. It most likely won't be bone dry though so maybe pull the carpets up a bit if you have them to give water an easy path to the plugs. They would also work just fine for a rainy vacation day to go on a food run or whatever else you might need to do. I think they'd be a great fit for you.

All of these things considered, it's worth it for me to use them maybe 4 weeks of the year. And honestly, the joy of yanking the lower off while stopped at a light and throwing it in the back is reason enough for me to keep them

 

Great post with great info. Sadly, the $200 set I had my eye on was sold. I'll keep my eye open for another set.