Habitat Owner's Thread

[Dan Grec]

Enjoying the MD weekend in NE AZ with Habitat "essentials".

Thanks again for the awesome photos. Anytime you ever want to post them, I'll happily drool

A quick height question -
When you stand up in the "hatch" how much space is above your head?
What about when you sit on the lip of the hatch, sitting over the drivers seat facing the rear of the jeep - how much headroom do you have then?

Thanks again!
-Dan

 

[jrueppel]

Lot's of headroom.

With 15 nights of sleeping in the beast now I've gotten into the habit of standing in the rear hatch area to get dressed.
Standing in the back: With the seat up or down I can't touch the tent fabric above my head (I'm 5.9). Somewhere between 3-4 feet of airspace above the hatch when it's open.
When sitting on the lip: there's probably still more then a foot of air between your head and the tent. I've never even thought about brushing my head while in that position. You'd have to work hard to make it happen.

 

[Healeyjet]

What are you guys doing with the holes in the rear window where the wiper comes through as there is no wiper motor with the Habitat? I think I am going to try to get a wiper motor to mount in there to at least fill the holes for now. Power to come to it eventually. What did the rest of you do?
Ward

 

[will]

What are you guys doing with the holes in the rear window where the wiper comes through as there is no wiper motor with the Habitat? I think I am going to try to get a wiper motor to mount in there to at least fill the holes for now. Power to come to it eventually. What did the rest of you do?
Ward

I transferred my wiper from the stock top to the Habitat. I thought AT had blanking plugs for that? Maybe Lowes or Home Depot?

 

[Healeyjet]

I opted to sell my factory hardtop so I am without it at the present time. I am thinking it will be easiest just to go down and get a wiper motor.

Ward

 

[kb7our]

What are you guys doing with the holes in the rear window where the wiper comes through as there is no wiper motor with the Habitat? I think I am going to try to get a wiper motor to mount in there to at least fill the holes for now. Power to come to it eventually. What did the rest of you do?
Ward

Habitat window came with one plug but there are two holes so I sourced another (they are different sizes) from a local ACE.

I expect I won't ever really need to add the wiper/motor combo nor wire the top for one. If I had one already from a prior hardtop (original top was soft) then I might have transferred it over.

Off topic: Same goes for the defroster grid - never expect to use it although I could proceed with the wiring kit if I thought it would get some reasonable use. At install I was told there was no way to get the power clips that snap on the grid - maybe this has changed.

Also off topic: I'd like to fill the "zipper" holes I have on 3 sides now that summer is here (one frown for each empty zipper) but obviously need to source another awning solution for now. I've got something I am testing this weekend and may post some pics (hint, shows up under the Jeep thread mounted on a J30).

 

[kb7our]

Thanks again for the awesome photos. Anytime you ever want to post them, I'll happily drool

A quick height question -
When you stand up in the "hatch" how much space is above your head?
What about when you sit on the lip of the hatch, sitting over the drivers seat facing the rear of the jeep - how much headroom do you have then?

Thanks again!
-Dan

Habitat cleaning today...here's a quick snap of the room available above the driver/passenger area. Not an endorsement to put a chair (love the comfy Helios) up there but as you can see, it certainly does work. In fact, two could fit with a tiny table if you had to bug out for a while waiting for a nice shower to pass while sippin your favorite brew.

 

[Healeyjet]

A quick question for owners of the AT interior cargo rack. When installing the rack, I unwrap the rear roll bar by unzipping the long zipper. This exposes the roll bar. Where I need to put the clamp for the cargo rack is exactly where there are two screw heads on the underside of the bar that go in to the roll bar. Did you remove these screws?
Ward

 

[jrueppel]

I think I did. (It's been more then a year) Those bolts hold the supports for the soft top, if I remember right, so not needed any more.

 

[LilPoppa]

Has anybody been able to figure out a way to carry a canoe with a Habitat? That's a deal-breaker for me.

 

[DingusKahn]

When I got my Jeep/Habitat back from the texture fiasco I notice they redid the tent right behind the hinge. They cut the metal back because it cannot be attached due to the big steel hinge bar inside the lower top section. I ask about how to keep water out and was told that the rear flap, if tied down would keep water out. Well it does NOT. I was camped up by Cloudcroft NM for a 3D bow shoot when the afternoon rain came. We decided to wait for the rain to pass so I climbed up to take a nap. As I crawled on top of my bed I noticed a wet spot about the size of half dollar on my bag. I looked up and could see water on the clip that holds the loft up. Very slow drip, so I didn't think too much of it. I put my feet at that end and laid down. A few minutes later a drip hit my face. The hanger loop at the other end was dripping too. I looked more and saw the ALL of the loops were wet. Not running water, but just a very slow drip, right onto my bedding.
The rain let up and we took off to shoot. While out an even harder rain came, but we decided to tough it out and finish the course. When it started to get dark I climbed up to grab a sweatshirt. UGH! It was soaking wet. I started moving things around and the carpet I had down in the back half right against the center hinge was soaking wet. The water had come in under the tent where the metal could not be screwed down. Just like I thought it would. The flap on the back half of the tent is TOO EFFING SHORT! It sticks up in the air and does not do any good except to catch water that was still there the next day when I folded the top up. I had the center cords tied as tight and as low as I could make them too no avail. Now I have to come up with some fix because I have no faith that AT will do anything about it. Just like the rattling rivets I now have from when they worked on the texture mess.
Over all I like the setup, especially the kitchen. But there are several design flaws that need to be addressed.

 

[DingusKahn]

Has anybody been able to figure out a way to carry a canoe with a Habitat? That's a deal-breaker for me.

Put a super light weight rack on the lid. Take the canoe off when you open the top. A few pounds (the rack only) isn't going to hurt the hinges. But you cannot rotate the weight of a canoe, even if it was short enough not to hit anything.

 

[Martyn]

Put a super light weight rack on the lid. Take the canoe off when you open the top. A few pounds (the rack only) isn't going to hurt the hinges. But you cannot rotate the weight of a canoe, even if it was short enough not to hit anything.

While the weight of the rack may be super light you have the multiplication factor of the distance the rack is from the hinge. The leverage factor on the hinge and torsion bar is a combination of mass times distance. The hinges are much less likely to be damaged than the torsion bar as it is made for the specific weight of the lid.

 

[kb7our]

Hey DK, great to hear from you on this thread, although sorry to hear about some frustrating circumstances. Interesting timing on your post as I recently hosed down the Habitat to get some dust off and keep everything nice. To make a long story short, a lot of water got inside the front section and some even spilled out of the hinge area when I closed up the top. I could not get the gutter flap to sit flat around most of the tent, mainly due to the material being too taught and/or too short of a skirt as you mentioned. Speaking of taught fabric, I ended up adding two extra screws per corner to hold in the rubber piping that secures the tent bottom to the aluminum channel as the corners were tearing away from the channel things were so taught. Until I get the tent out in a good rain, I can't be sure I was careful enough not to squirt water in sideways or in a manner that would be atypical for a rain shower event. I did try to replicate a good shower though. I'll report later this summer after a few good rains vs. water from the hose at home. Also, John is working on a little shifting issue I have with the hinges that I am concerned about. The Habitat is still usable although it won't be fun if something goes awry out somewhere in the bush or during a heavy rain. This all means another trip and time to head to AT for resolutions, although I don't necessarily consider seeing the guys a bad thing as I want to peek at their new Chaser Sportsman sometime. It looks like AT and probably other Habitat partners read these threads - my intent is not to do any bashing. I am a little surprised after a few years in the field with the first couple of units that some of these things are even cropping up. Nonetheless, I still have faith that AT and involved parties will implement the proper fixes for us early adopters who helped fund the project as well as others who may experience similar issues. Time will bear this out so let's hang in there and keep communicating and see how production and "support" on these units continues to evolve. I still love the Habitat concept and suspect that some of these issues may have already evolved into fixes for the latest deliveries. Oh, those rivets are fairly easy to replace with longer ones that hold a little better - ask me how I know .

 

[kb7our]

While the weight of the rack may be super light you have the multiplication factor of the distance the rack is from the hinge. The leverage factor on the hinge and torsion bar is a combination of mass times distance. The hinges are much less likely to be damaged than the torsion bar as it is made for the specific weight of the lid.

Good point Martyn. When Mario adjusted my bar (nicely done, it seems), he mentioned that he was shooting for a mattress weight approximately equivalent to a couple of Nemo Cosmo tucked inside a pillow top or thereabouts. Probably less than 20 lbs and maybe closer to 15. This is the setup I keep loaded although I have the Cosmo Insulated with the Tuo pillow top which is a sweet combo and works out very well with my bar setting. Even just removing the mattress setup makes a big difference you can feel in the way the top cycles.