Barn Door for JK factory hardtops

[jscherb]

I can't think of a color that doesn't go with a Jeep. But that could go on, and on, and on...

And on and on... having some fun with my image editing tools, trying all of the colors on an Anvil JKU...

I'm digging your 4 star General & Jeep patch. Very fitting for your rig.

I was in Walmart to see if they sold any patches, and all they had were cartoon characters for little kids, but I did see these iron-on stars for 99 cents, so I bought them, ironed them on a piece of the green fabric and sewed some Velcro on the back - instant Velcro patch .

 

[autarkus]

One more thought: some or all of the closure flap could be velcro. Might be a little more difficult, since you've got a section sewn on the back.

Either way, these look great!

 

[jscherb]

One more thought: some or all of the closure flap could be velcro. Might be a little more difficult, since you've got a section sewn on the back.

Either way, these look great!

Thanks! I wouldn't be too hard to sew Velcro on both sides of the closure flap. If that's where people think the patches should go, that can be done. Personally I like them above the flap, but I'm open to whatever people think.

 

[AgentOrange76]

Yeah, the spare mount competes for the same space that the inside pocket of the Tactical Spare Cover occupies, plus you'd need a hole in the spare cover for the mounting stud.

Maybe the side mount?

If you prefer the jerry can at the back, I have designed a mount that bolts to the HD hinges, that would allow both the spare cover and a jerry can on the back (now you'll tell me you wanted to mount your HiLift on the tailgate hinges? ). I haven't tried to get the hinge-mount jerry can carrier into production because it doesn't fit with very large spares, but for stock or slightly larger spares there's still enough room on the tailgate for a jerry can.

That's a great story, thanks. I'll post some photos of the cover with patches applied today, we can see what people think.

I haven't got a need for big tires, I have 31s now and plan for no bigger than skinny 33s when they wear out. But I guess it doesn't matter since I can't buy the tray for the hinges :ylsmoke: Besides, how did you know I wanted to move the jack back there? Besides, I haven't any HD hinges to facilitate either of those options......yet..... Those side mounts are pretty cool, I believe that may be what I end up with. They ought to clear rock rails, right?

The covers and patches look great. The tan would look great on my jeep, would probably match the top pretty well. Shame they stopped making the tan tops on the new Jeeps. I ran a Navy cover for years, but I finally have a full size spare and it no longer fits. Was looking at getting an NC State cover, but this one is way more useful and arguably cooler. Patches look awesome. I think it would be funny to put the black cover on your lj and put an AMC patch on it. Get people scratching their heads even more

Glad you enjoyed my boring life

 

[jscherb]

I haven't got a need for big tires, I have 31s now and plan for no bigger than skinny 33s when they wear out. But I guess it doesn't matter since I can't buy the tray for the hinges :ylsmoke: Besides, how did you know I wanted to move the jack back there? Besides, I haven't any HD hinges to facilitate either of those options......yet..... Those side mounts are pretty cool, I believe that may be what I end up with. They ought to clear rock rails, right?

Yes, the side mounts will clear rock rails. And when you get the HD hinges there's a HiLift mount designed for them, so you'll be all set.

I've thought a lot about getting the hinge-mount jerry can tray into production, but I wonder how many people have 33's or less and would want it? Actually the mount can be used with larger spares, the way I've designed it the brackets are "reversible" - they can be installed so the tray can mount on top, which allows it to work with larger spares.

The covers and patches look great. The tan would look great on my jeep, would probably match the top pretty well. Shame they stopped making the tan tops on the new Jeeps. I ran a Navy cover for years, but I finally have a full size spare and it no longer fits. Was looking at getting an NC State cover, but this one is way more useful and arguably cooler. Patches look awesome. I think it would be funny to put the black cover on your lj and put an AMC patch on it. Get people scratching their heads even more

Glad you enjoyed my boring life

There's a perfect AMC patch for that on eBay right now...

 

[jscherb]

The Safari Cab roof rack is getting a lot of use lately. Last week I needed a sheet of 3/4" plywood for a project so I threw it on the Jeep. I used the extended load bars again, and secured the plywood with clamps for the 5-mile ride home.

And the other night I had to transport two Safari Cab roof panels (the second one is under the mover's blankets).

 

[jgaz]

Nice! I've always thought that a roof rack, not necessarily an "overland" rack, would be a handy addition to my LJ.
Hmmm?

 

[jscherb]

Nice! I've always thought that a roof rack, not necessarily an "overland" rack, would be a handy addition to my LJ.
Hmmm?

It is very handy, but before you run off and drill holes in your factory top for a roof rack, be aware that the rooftop carrying capacity of the factory top is fairly limited. The Safari Cab is designed to carry loads up there and include special bracing inside and the rack is tied to the roll bar in 4 places, so all of the weight on the roof rack is carried by the roll bar, no weight is borne by the fiberglass top.

In this photo you can see the rear roll-bar tie-in brackets, there are also brackets up on the main hoop of the roll bar, and a strong rib running longitudinally between the two points. The longitudinal ribs are barely visible in this photo; they're color-matched to the headliner.

 

[jgaz]

Thanks. I remember you spoke of transferring the rack loads to the roll bar. I hadn't gone back through your thread to research the details.

Your brackets in the above photo were what I envisioned for use with the stock hard top. Do you think they be enough without the longitudinal ribs you have on your safari top?

 

[jscherb]

Thanks. I remember you spoke of transferring the rack loads to the roll bar. I hadn't gone back through your thread to research the details.

Your brackets in the above photo were what I envisioned for use with the stock hard top. Do you think they be enough without the longitudinal ribs you have on your safari top?

If your crossbars are positioned over the brackets, you don't need any additional support or ribs. But if they're positioned elsewhere, then to the degree the rack tracks flex under heavy loads, that flex will be transferred to the fiberglass. The ribs in the Safari Cab allow me the slide the crossbars anywhere on the tracks and have the weight be transferred to the roll bars.

In practice, I almost always have the crossbars at the ends of the tracks so the ribs are rarely necessary but the exception is the roof-top tent. When the rtt is mounted, the front crossbar needs to be roughly between the two Alpine windows, so the ribs support the weight of the front of the tent. I don't use the ZJ/XJ crossbars for the tent, I use the aftermarket extended crossbars, they're not visible in this photo because they're under the tent.

One other thing to be aware of when bolting things to the top of a factory hardtop - the sections I've highlighted in yellow below are hollow. The rest of the roof is a single layer of fiberglass, slightly over 1/8" thick, but the yellow sections are two layers with air between them. Unfortunately they fall where rack tracks would often be mounted. If you do install the tracks over that part of the top, you shouldn't bolt directly through it because you'll compress the two layers and could crack the fiberglass - you should put spacers in to support the clamping force of the bolts. What I'd do is use a hole saw on the inside to make large enough holes to put spacers in. I can do a drawing to illustrate if anyone needs additional clarification on how to do the spacers.

For the front brackets you'll have a lot less room under a factory hardtop than I have under the taller Safari Cab. My front brackets:

If I ever put a factory hardtop on my Jeep again I'll do a design for brackets to support racks and post plans for them.

 

[jgaz]

Thank you sir! Merry Christmas!

 

[jscherb]

I put some Velcro on the black Tactical Spare Cover to try out some patches. This cover is really for 33's and the tire on the LJ is a 32 so it's a little loose but I wanted to try the black cover on the black Jeep.

 

[jscherb]

A while back I designed something I called the Storegate - a tailgate storage compartment that can be done in two versions - either with a lockable door/trail table or as an open version with a cargo net to contain the cargo instead of the door/table. I made some prototypes back when I designed it and I've had the cargo net version in the LJ Safari ever since then - it's been very handy. A company liked it enough to sign up to bring it to market, and the other day they called me and said the locking/trail table version is ready to ship. They've done both JK and TJ versions, the only difference is that the TJ has a notch on the passenger side to clear the third brake light contact cover. The photos below show a prototype I made on a JK tailgate. The cargo net version will be available shortly. They tell me the MSRP for the trail table version is $189.99 and the cargo net version will be less.

The production version looks identical to my prototype above except that it has a locking latch on it instead of the non-locking one in the photos.

This next photo shows the cargo net version on my LJ. I keep a spare quart of oil, my recovery strap, some cleaning supplies and a few other miscellaneous bits of junk in there.

The same company signed up for the ammo can holders I designed to mount above the rear inner fenders on a JKU, and they told me those are ready to ship as well. Here's a photo of the prototypes in my JKU, the one on the left is holding two 30-cal. cans, on the right is a 50-cal. There are Molle pouches on the lower grids on both of them.

 

[Comanche Scott]

Very cool!
Nice to have more options, and the Storegate is unique from anything else I've seen.

 

[jscherb]

I'm packing up the JK for a trip to Florida to visit Mom. It's still bicycle weather down there so I'm bringing mine. For the two-day trip down, the bike will be in the back of the Jeep for weather and security reasons. I don't like taking up the cargo space in the Jeep with the bike, but I like exposing the bike to winter weather even less, so inside it goes.

I'll probably ride on some of the coastal islands, which are a bit far from mom's house, so while in Florida I'll use the rack to move the bike around.

I'm thinking about getting a bike carrier to mount on my roof rack. It wouldn't help the bike avoid winter weather so probably wouldn't use it on this trip, but on nice-weather long trips it might be better than either inside or blocking the barn door with the bike rack.