Barn Door for JK factory hardtops

[Brandon Snyder]

WOW

jscherb, absolutely some of the best overland/safari concepts I have ever seen. I've been active Army for about 9 years now and had the opportunity to explore all over and always in Jeeps. I have always loved the Land Rover D90 builds but could never afford them so I've always made my own D90 themed Jeeps. Why I appreciate what you're doing. When I was stationed in Hawaii I was given an early Jk hardtop with the windows smashed out. Instead of replacing the glass I boxed-in the windows with storage compartments and added doors then paint matched it all, etc. When I sold that JK the dealership swore it was factory made. I'm very interested in learning more of what you do as I have always dreamed of doing the same but the Army life has limited my time, deployments etc. I am deployed now. When I get back though I want to build my own safari style top as I will have the time and space finally. I noticed you're from NY, where in NY? If you don't mind could you PM me your email? I grew up in Cuba, New York plus I'm stationed in Drum and when this deployment is over I'll be moving back to my home town. Thank You and looking forward to talking if you're interested.

 

[jscherb]

jscherb, absolutely some of the best overland/safari concepts I have ever seen. I've been active Army for about 9 years now and had the opportunity to explore all over and always in Jeeps. I have always loved the Land Rover D90 builds but could never afford them so I've always made my own D90 themed Jeeps. Why I appreciate what you're doing. When I was stationed in Hawaii I was given an early Jk hardtop with the windows smashed out. Instead of replacing the glass I boxed-in the windows with storage compartments and added doors then paint matched it all, etc. When I sold that JK the dealership swore it was factory made. I'm very interested in learning more of what you do as I have always dreamed of doing the same but the Army life has limited my time, deployments etc. I am deployed now. When I get back though I want to build my own safari style top as I will have the time and space finally. I noticed you're from NY, where in NY? If you don't mind could you PM me your email? I grew up in Cuba, New York plus I'm stationed in Drum and when this deployment is over I'll be moving back to my home town. Thank You and looking forward to talking if you're interested.

Brandon,
Thanks. The hardtop you did in Hawaii sounds great, do you have any photo of it? I'm in Elmira, about 90 miles east of Cuba. Happy to offer whatever advice or help that I can - I've got emails enabled on this forum so you can email me by clicking on my id. Looking forward to talking.
jeff

 

[Ryan1035]

I've been patiently waiting to see this come together. I really like the modular setup, which definitely makes storage much easier when removed. I love my soft top for anything other than overlanding, and the barn door would be a great hard top improvement so long as it is removable. I like the modular side pieces, and have been looking to convert the side glass on a stock hard top to lift hatches. I have half doors on both of my JKU's so that has been kind of an issue, although more aesthetic than anything else, but having a place to store the upper halves with a full load of gear for a trip is aggravating as they just lay on top of everything meaning they have to come out every time I open the back. Would like a roof that could handle a little rack to secure them high up and out of the way.

Good work, looking forward to seeing one in use!!!

 

[jscherb]

I've been patiently waiting to see this come together. I really like the modular setup, which definitely makes storage much easier when removed. I love my soft top for anything other than overlanding, and the barn door would be a great hard top improvement so long as it is removable. I like the modular side pieces, and have been looking to convert the side glass on a stock hard top to lift hatches. I have half doors on both of my JKU's so that has been kind of an issue, although more aesthetic than anything else, but having a place to store the upper halves with a full load of gear for a trip is aggravating as they just lay on top of everything meaning they have to come out every time I open the back. Would like a roof that could handle a little rack to secure them high up and out of the way.

Good work, looking forward to seeing one in use!!!

Thanks. It is coming together, although with all the other stuff I've got going on it often becomes a background project. All the "hard work" is done - all the parts are molded and they fit great together; it's just down to some details now. This week I built the accessory wiring harness - it's a plug-and-play harness that brings switched and unswitched power to the hardtop for things like the power vent windows, 12v power in the overhead console, etc.

Yes the barn door is removable, it works the same as the barn door on my LJ Safari Cab...

Another thing that's worked really well on the LJ is the soft barn door; I plan to do both the hard barn door and a soft barn door for the JK Safari Cab as well.

What's nice about the soft barn door (and this gets to your point about storing the upper half doors) is that with the extra roof height of the LJ Safari Cab I can store both upper half doors and the soft barn door up above the roll bars inside the roof, so they don't take up cargo space that would be otherwise used for something else. And it's really easy to remove the uppers and store them "in the attic" while on the trail. This photo looking in the back shows the half door upper stored up there; not in the photo is the barn door upper, but that stores on top of the half door uppers. I plan the same thing in the JK Safari Cab, although there is a little less room for it because of the JK's roll bar configuration I think it'll work fine.

About replacing the side windows with lift hatches, that's a bit easier to do with the Safari Cab than with the stock hardtop because the Safari Cab window mounting surface isn't curved like the factory hardtop window. I've been working to find a company to manufacture the parts I've designed for a "retrofit kit" that allows standard flat RV windows and hatches to be installed on the curved mounting surface of the factory hardtop and two weeks ago I got a quote for the retrofit kit parts for less than $10 per window, so that's good progress. Using the retrofit kit it would be simple to install hatches like the ones pictured below in a factory hardtop (or RV slider windows or whatever).

 

[SilicaRich]

Really admire your work. Seems like everything is coming along nicely for a JK/JKU barndoor.

Any idea if the Safari Cabs for a TJ would work with a Gobi rack by chance?

 

[Brandon Snyder]

Brandon,
Thanks. The hardtop you did in Hawaii sounds great, do you have any photo of it? I'm in Elmira, about 90 miles east of Cuba. Happy to offer whatever advice or help that I can - I've got emails enabled on this forum so you can email me by clicking on my id. Looking forward to talking.
jeff

Jeff,
I clicked your id and there seems to be nothing indicating an email. Maybe its just me but not sure. I will definitely share the photos of my hardtop build but unfortunately at this time the photos are on an SD card in the wifes camera. Those will have to wait until end of January. She's not tech-savvy plus super pregnant, hope you understand. I'm actually familiar with Elmira. I joined the Army out of the Horseheads Recruiting Station and used to go there to shop with my family when I was a kid. Are you a fan of Cuba Cheese?

 

[jscherb]

Really admire your work. Seems like everything is coming along nicely for a JK/JKU barndoor.

Any idea if the Safari Cabs for a TJ would work with a Gobi rack by chance?

Thank you. Right now the JKU has a factory hardtop on it for the winter while I'm finishing up the details of the Safari Cab and my plan is to install the barn door to work with the factory top before I do the final install of the Safari Cab.

There's no reason for something like a Gobi rack with my LJ Safari Cab because the hardtop itself is designed to carry heavy loads on the roof rack - the rack is tied to the roll bars so all weight on the rack is carried by the roll bars, not the roof.

I use the roof rack all the time, having the roof rack capable of supporting real loads seems much more convenient to me than having to have an exo-rack like the Gobi.

I haven't measured, but I suspect the LJ/TJ Safari Cab roof is a little too tall for the Gobi rack to fit over it.

The JK Safari Cab design has roll-bar tie-ins for the roof rack so it will support heavy loads as well.

 

[jscherb]

Jeff,
I clicked your id and there seems to be nothing indicating an email. Maybe its just me but not sure. I will definitely share the photos of my hardtop build but unfortunately at this time the photos are on an SD card in the wifes camera. Those will have to wait until end of January. She's not tech-savvy plus super pregnant, hope you understand. I'm actually familiar with Elmira. I joined the Army out of the Horseheads Recruiting Station and used to go there to shop with my family when I was a kid. Are you a fan of Cuba Cheese?

Sent you a PM with my email address. I drive west on I-86/Rt 17 heading to Indiana or further west fairly often and since Cuba is about halfway from home to Erie, the McD's there is a convenient rest stop. Stopped at Cuba Cheese the last time my wife was with me, she really liked it.

 

[jscherb]

Still working on JK Safari Cab details, another task checked off the list... I've posted photos and videos of the motorized vent windows before, and up until now had only made up one prototype mount to prove the concept of the vent window motors. Today I finished up a second one and they're both painted and ready to bolt in place.

 

[Ryan1035]

One thing to keep in mind is that the JK half door uppers are not metal framed, but plastic, and much thicker than the TJ frames. Hence why storage is such an issue with them. If I had 4 TJ style uppers then I could put them anywhere. I think with the way your design appears to have a rise to it, utilizing the rear rollbar crossbar may actually make the storage very easy

 

[jscherb]

One thing to keep in mind is that the JK half door uppers are not metal framed, but plastic, and much thicker than the TJ frames. Hence why storage is such an issue with them. If I had 4 TJ style uppers then I could put them anywhere. I think with the way your design appears to have a rise to it, utilizing the rear rollbar crossbar may actually make the storage very easy

Agreed, the JK uppers are much harder to store than typical TJ uppers. The Safari Cab roof is higher than the factory roof, so there should be room above the roll bars for even the fat factory JK uppers. No way they'd fit up there with the factory hardtop (and btw TJ/LJ uppers wouldn't fit up there in a factory TJ/LJ hardtop either, the higher roof of the LJ Safari Cab makes it possible in that one too).

 

[jscherb]

I haven't had much time to work on the JK Safari Cab lately due to travel, holidays, etc., but this morning I found some time to get the wiring harnesses to the point where they're ready to install in the Jeep.

The harness at left in the photo is the barn door harness - it's basically an extension cord that plugs into the factory hardtop plug in the Jeep, runs under the carpet to the hinge side of the barn door, and plugs into the barn door for the wiper and defroster grid. I finished and tested this one a while back.

In the middle is the fuse/relay box for accessory power for the hardtop. It mounts in the engine compartment and plugs in to the TIPM and connects to the battery. If supplies switched and unswitched power to the hardtop; both circuits are fused.

At right is the harness that connects to the fuse/relay box in the center; it runs through the firewall, and under the carpet along the passenger side of the Jeep to the rear corner, where it plugs into the hardtop. The loose plug will go on the hardtop side of the wiring.

The fuse/relay box and accessory harness could also be used in a JK with a stock hardtop or a soft top to bring power to the back of the Jeep for accessories.

Now I just have to get some time alone with the JK to install these.

 

[jscherb]

I'm getting ready to install the barn door on the Jeep... yesterday I made up the "stakes" that will be used to attach the upper to the tailgate. I also finished up the installation of the components - I had done the wiper a long time ago but today I got the washer nozzle installed and plumbed. The washer nozzle is the black thing to the right of the wiper, it sprays up from below. Underneath the wiring plug and the washer hose are visible hanging down (the stakes can be seen too). The wiring includes circuits for both the wiper and a defroster grid, although I don't plan to install a grid on this one because I have never felt a need for one the way I use the Jeep.

This isn't the final glass, it's a piece of plexiglass I've been using for mockup and fitting purposes, so I still need to get a piece of safety glass cut to size.

I plan to install the barn door tomorrow, more photos then.

 

[jscherb]

Installed the barn door today. Everything fits as designed.

A video of the barn door in action:

 

[jscherb]

One more video, the wiper in action:


And the view out the rear view mirror. Sure is nice not having the wiper motor blocking the view! When I've got the Safari Cab installed the third brake light won't be blocking the view either, that'll come off because the Safari Cab brake light is above the barn door.

Now I'll take the barn door off so I can give the JKU back to Heather. The barn door needs to be painted and have the final glass installed.