Barn Door for JK factory hardtops

Dan Grec

Expedition Leader
Another update - a company approached me about the barn door; they asked about licensing the design and putting it in production and asked me to send them a proposal. I'll follow up with them and if they want to move forward with it I'll report back here.

Great News!

That's great news Jeff! Like I said at SEMA, your barn door is literally the only thing I have seen at every Jeep and Overland show this summer that I want on my Jeep!

Fingers crossed you guys can come to an agreement!

-Dan
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
That's great news Jeff! Like I said at SEMA, your barn door is literally the only thing I have seen at every Jeep and Overland show this summer that I want on my Jeep!

Fingers crossed you guys can come to an agreement!

-Dan
Hey Dan,
I was starting to think about making a barn door for you just like I did for Donny but then you told me you might be selling the Jeep soon so I decided it wouldn't be a very good use of my time.

A proposal is on the table with the company in question, if anything comes of it I'll announce it if I am allowed to.
jeff
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
Hi Donny - Going back through this thread I saw this post which shows your tire carrier and bumper. Looks very interesting, especially since you can open the back of the Jeep together with the tire carrier. Please let me know where did you got this set up. Thank you, Claire
Donny doesn't check in here too regularly so you might not hear from him too soon but I'm pretty sure he's got an AEV tire carrier and bumper.
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
I'm experimenting with a few other ideas for the cargo windows.

If solid panels are installed instead of glass, what about mounting things on the panels? In this first photo, a 2-gallon Rotopax is propped up against the panel. It interferes with the latch knobs, so for production those would have to be moved outboard a little. Instead of glass, the panel would be an aluminum panel powdercoated black

CargoWindowRotopax1_zps6lgo9qj0.jpg


In this photo the Rotopax is just sitting on the glass in the open position. The Rotopax is full of water (water is heavier than gasoline BTW); I'm testing the strength of the gas struts to see how well they support a full Rotopax in the open position.

CargoWindowRotopax2_zpsd9tcugow.jpg


Also thinking about a version designed to open down to serve as a table. In this next photo I've posed a second cargo window in front of the hardtop (the first window is still installed and visible through the open second window, I didn't bother to uninstall it for this photo). Having these manufactured so they serve as tables is a pretty small change, mostly requiring a little adjustment to the mounting positions of the gas struts so the table ends up being level. As above, instead of glass there would be an aluminum panel in the frame.

CargoWindowTable1_zpswutbpxfi.jpg
 

OregonJKU

Active member
Donny doesn't check in here too regularly so you might not hear from him too soon but I'm pretty sure he's got an AEV tire carrier and bumper.
Hi Jeff - OK thank you for letting me know. BTW I love following your posts here and your wonderful ideas.
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
Storage compartments might be useful inside the cargo windows so here are some concept images of compartments with both an open-up window and and open-down table.

HatchUpCargoCompartments_zps0e1avtfo.jpg


With an open-down table:

TableCargoCompartments_zpsxsvtndry.jpg


Another idea: an optional mounting grid on the outside. Could be a Molle grid or as drawn below, a simple grid of mounting holes that could be used with QuickFist clamps and other bolt-on accessory mounts.

MountingGrid_zpsoepu1mfs.jpg


If these are going to be manufactured, a bunch of decisions will have to be made...

- Which model(s) to do first: late model JKU, late model JK, current model JLU - those are the ones for which retrofit kits already exist so getting them into production is quick and easy.

- Tinted glass or solid panels or offer both?

- Do the table version or just open-up versions?

- Offer an optional external mounting grid (or Molle grid)?

- Offer a ready-made storage compartment?

Robert will be home with his 2dr for Thanksgiving so he and I will install one of these cargo windows to test on the Jeep, photos to come, other than that for now I'm done with the cargo window project.
 

Dan Grec

Expedition Leader
Hey Dan,
I was starting to think about making a barn door for you just like I did for Donny but then you told me you might be selling the Jeep soon so I decided it wouldn't be a very good use of my time.

A proposal is on the table with the company in question, if anything comes of it I'll announce it if I am allowed to.
jeff


Thanks Jeff, I appreciate it.
I don't have any plans locked in right now, but if I do use this same Jeep for another massive expedition I will ask you very, very nicely for some help :)

Cheers again, keep up the great work!!

-Dan
 

Yuke

Adventurer
I love the idea of the hatches and would swap out my slider on one side for a hatch very quickly! Maybe both.

I’d prefer aluminum hatches instead of glass for security reasons.

I’d also recommend a more streamlined style latch. Something like this which you see on other hatch windows on the market. FD4F020F-537B-48E3-A9DD-CA46C65B516B.png
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
I love the idea of the hatches and would swap out my slider on one side for a hatch very quickly! Maybe both.

I’d prefer aluminum hatches instead of glass for security reasons.

I’d also recommend a more streamlined style latch. Something like this which you see on other hatch windows on the market. View attachment 553825
I'm looking into different latch options. The window company that made these prototype for me makes mostly pickup cap windows and the latches they used are their standard for those windows. Some of the paddle type aren't recommended for mounting on tempered glass, so I'm looking for something that will work both on glass and on aluminum panels.
 

Yuke

Adventurer
I'm looking into different latch options. The window company that made these prototype for me makes mostly pickup cap windows and the latches they used are their standard for those windows. Some of the paddle type aren't recommended for mounting on tempered glass, so I'm looking for something that will work both on glass and on aluminum panels.

Nice!

I have long wished for cargo hatches for my 15 jku. I have been happy with the sliders.
A combo of the two may be the perfect setup. I like the visibility of the passenger side window, but I would want a solid aluminum hatch on the driver side where visibility doesn’t matter and I could block visibility to the gear behind the hatch.

A glass hatch may work on the passenger side, but I sometimes sleep inside and like the ventilation with the bug screen. So like I said, a combination may be perfect.
 

voodoojk

Adventurer
check out the gull wing conversion for land cruisers..


Molle panels on the under side of the windows
 

jscherb

Expedition Leader
check out the gull wing conversion for land cruisers..


Molle panels on the under side of the windows
I'm thinking of several Molle/Mounting Grid panel options that could be used with these hatches. All would be Molle but also would include a grid of mounting holes for things like QuickFist clamps (great for tools and similar gear) and where appropriate , holes for things like Rotopax. The three options I'm thinking about are:

- An external grid (I posted a concept drawing earlier). This would include Rotopax mounting holes, which aren't shown on the concept drawing I posted earlier.

- A grid on the inside of the hatch like the one you linked to. I'm not really a fan of these because the bags have to hang upside down inside the Jeep which will prevent some things from being hung there but I understand that some people might like them

- A grid that mounts to the roll bar. This could be accessed from the open hatch but also would be usable with the soft top or the factory hardtop. There are a few grids on the market that already mount in this location, but they don't have the extra holes I'm planning, and they mostly mount on the outside of the roll bar, which limits the depth of things mounted to them - I'd like to see them mount on the inside of the roll bar, which would provide a good depth for gear to be stored and accessed through the hatches, and also would be a mounting point for a tray or shelves, which the ones which mount to the outside of the roll bar don't really have room for.

BTW the ones you linked to retail for WAY more than these should (like maybe twice as much, although pricing isn't figured out yet).
 

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