Bestop LJ black twill soft top review

[Ericshere03]

So, I went ahead and splurged … 😬… I was on the phone with Bestop hoping I had some warranty on my SuperTop NX, but I was just a couple years past… all well, I decided to splurge since I was on the phone with Bestop and get the BLACK TWILL for the LJ. Finally we long butt Jeeps hat a quality top!!!

HOWEVER!

I am not sure Bestop did a very good job retrofitting the twill to the LJ platform. It fits a little crooked and it’s actually LOUDER than my used and tired Super Top NX!

I did a decibel meter hoping to be blown away with the difference. Here is a decibel meter snapshot of a specific stretch of road, same speed of 50mph, 5th gear, no HVAC, no radio and no cars around me.

OLD FLOPPY TOP

Same setup, this is the black twill

Well, this is disappointing…


I’ve had 3 TJs with Mopar soft tops (one dual top) and 3 LJs with Mopar tops (one dual top). I have gotten rid of every hard top because I thought the soft top was just as quiet unless it’s flapping… I very much HATE hard tops…

I have had 3 JK unlimiteds, 1 factory twill top, one hard top that I sold for a mopar Khaki Diamond (vinyl) top. And another with hard tip that I didn’t keep long enough to sell the top (haha) … in my experience the regular black Diamond was good but that black twill was AMAZING!

Sooooo, enter the LJ. The black twill should lift my skirt just like my JK, right ?!?! WRONG! 😡

Then I realize that I totally forgot that aluminum bar that goes across the top of our heads, this will make it better, right??? WRONG. That thing just rattles and clanks around as the soft top vibrates against it. 😡 😡

It is pretty tho… I do live the look and feel of this material.

I also notice Bestop cheeped out on the hardware. The surrounds no longer come with knobs, just bolts. Ok, cheesy, but ok… a couple of the holes of the rods needed to be redrilled because they were off. The header doesn’t quite fit as well on the passenger side as it does the driver, makes a little whistle but super super minor.

Also the driver side sits an inch higher that the passenger when comparing to the tub.

I’ll call Bestop Monday and see what they say. Curious your thoughts … also, I have all my background so you don’t think I am some Mercedes driving yuppy criticizing the humble Jeep world for our archaic tractors we love so much.

And of course

As a side note:
Previous owner stripped the rear tailgate bar bracket screws. So I went all out and drilled for nutserts. M4 nutserts work GREAT! I should have done this to me fender flares when I swapped for Rubi flares… I HIGHLY recommend these nutserts.

 

[John Cooper]

So, I went ahead and splurged … 😬… I was on the phone with Bestop hoping I had some warranty on my SuperTop NX, but I was just a couple years past… all well, I decided to splurge since I was on the phone with Bestop and get the BLACK TWILL for the LJ. Finally we long butt Jeeps hat a quality top!!!

HOWEVER!

I am not sure Bestop did a very good job retrofitting the twill to the LJ platform. It fits a little crooked and it’s actually LOUDER than my used and tired Super Top NX!

I did a decibel meter hoping to be blown away with the difference. Here is a decibel meter snapshot of a specific stretch of road, same speed of 50mph, 5th gear, no HVAC, no radio and no cars around me.

OLD FLOPPY TOP
View attachment 410369

Same setup, this is the black twill
View attachment 410370

Well, this is disappointing…


I’ve had 3 TJs with Mopar soft tops (one dual top) and 3 LJs with Mopar tops (one dual top). I have gotten rid of every hard top because I thought the soft top was just as quiet unless it’s flapping… I very much HATE hard tops…

I have had 3 JK unlimiteds, 1 factory twill top, one hard top that I sold for a mopar Khaki Diamond (vinyl) top. And another with hard tip that I didn’t keep long enough to sell the top (haha) … in my experience the regular black Diamond was good but that black twill was AMAZING!

Sooooo, enter the LJ. The black twill should lift my skirt just like my JK, right ?!?! WRONG! 😡

Then I realize that I totally forgot that aluminum bar that goes across the top of our heads, this will make it better, right??? WRONG. That thing just rattles and clanks around as the soft top vibrates against it. 😡 😡

It is pretty tho… I do live the look and feel of this material.
View attachment 410393

I also notice Bestop cheeped out on the hardware. The surrounds no longer come with knobs, just bolts. Ok, cheesy, but ok… a couple of the holes of the rods needed to be redrilled because they were off. The header doesn’t quite fit as well on the passenger side as it does the driver, makes a little whistle but super super minor.
View attachment 410380

View attachment 410379

Also the driver side sits an inch higher that the passenger when comparing to the tub.

I’ll call Bestop Monday and see what they say. Curious your thoughts … also, I have all my background so you don’t think I am some Mercedes driving yuppy criticizing the humble Jeep world for our archaic tractors we love so much.

And of course
View attachment 410392


As a side note:
Previous owner stripped the rear tailgate bar bracket screws. So I went all out and drilled for nutserts. M4 nutserts work GREAT! I should have done this to me fender flares when I swapped for Rubi flares… I HIGHLY recommend these nutserts.

Tramp stamp is so sexy

 

[sideproject]

I just bought and received the bestop twill slant back for my LJ.
It better be good...not cheap.
I had water soaking the floor with my old one....gotta be better than that

 

[HornedToad]

I’ve had the twill replace-a-top on my tj for over a year now. It is noticeably looser and louder than the factory sailcloth. I emailed bestop on the looseness and they ignored me. On the bright side, the top is particularly quiet at speed when it is completely saturated with water after a rainstorm. 🤣 It has also been complimented for looking nice a number of times (rolls eyes)

 

[sideproject]

So, I went ahead and splurged … 😬… I was on the phone with Bestop hoping I had some warranty on my SuperTop NX, but I was just a couple years past… all well, I decided to splurge since I was on the phone with Bestop and get the BLACK TWILL for the LJ. Finally we long butt Jeeps hat a quality top!!!

HOWEVER!

I am not sure Bestop did a very good job retrofitting the twill to the LJ platform. It fits a little crooked and it’s actually LOUDER than my used and tired Super Top NX!

I did a decibel meter hoping to be blown away with the difference. Here is a decibel meter snapshot of a specific stretch of road, same speed of 50mph, 5th gear, no HVAC, no radio and no cars around me.

OLD FLOPPY TOP
View attachment 410369

Same setup, this is the black twill
View attachment 410370

Well, this is disappointing…


I’ve had 3 TJs with Mopar soft tops (one dual top) and 3 LJs with Mopar tops (one dual top). I have gotten rid of every hard top because I thought the soft top was just as quiet unless it’s flapping… I very much HATE hard tops…

I have had 3 JK unlimiteds, 1 factory twill top, one hard top that I sold for a mopar Khaki Diamond (vinyl) top. And another with hard tip that I didn’t keep long enough to sell the top (haha) … in my experience the regular black Diamond was good but that black twill was AMAZING!

Sooooo, enter the LJ. The black twill should lift my skirt just like my JK, right ?!?! WRONG! 😡

Then I realize that I totally forgot that aluminum bar that goes across the top of our heads, this will make it better, right??? WRONG. That thing just rattles and clanks around as the soft top vibrates against it. 😡 😡

It is pretty tho… I do live the look and feel of this material.
View attachment 410393

I also notice Bestop cheeped out on the hardware. The surrounds no longer come with knobs, just bolts. Ok, cheesy, but ok… a couple of the holes of the rods needed to be redrilled because they were off. The header doesn’t quite fit as well on the passenger side as it does the driver, makes a little whistle but super super minor.
View attachment 410380

View attachment 410379

Also the driver side sits an inch higher that the passenger when comparing to the tub.

I’ll call Bestop Monday and see what they say. Curious your thoughts … also, I have all my background so you don’t think I am some Mercedes driving yuppy criticizing the humble Jeep world for our archaic tractors we love so much.

And of course
View attachment 410392


As a side note:
Previous owner stripped the rear tailgate bar bracket screws. So I went all out and drilled for nutserts. M4 nutserts work GREAT! I should have done this to me fender flares when I swapped for Rubi flares… I HIGHLY recommend these nutserts.

I would definitely pull/twist/yank to adjust the 1" difference between sides....as is, is just asking for a leak.

 

[astjp2]

A soft top is like a trans college student, just confused… hard or not at all…

 

[Ericshere03]

I’ve had the twill replace-a-top on my tj for over a year now. It is noticeably looser and louder than the factory sailcloth. I emailed bestop on the looseness and they ignored me. On the bright side, the top is particularly quiet at speed when it is completely saturated with water after a rainstorm. 🤣 It has also been complimented for looking nice a number of times (rolls eyes)

That’s ghey … my guess is they just threw this out there without the thought/engineering of how much extra stretch is in the fabric. My Mopar tops would break my fingers to get the flaps out of the door surrounds. This is an easy pull and done. That lack of taughtness is resulting in endless flapping starting at 40mph as opposed to a factory top going to highways speeds and really flapping with a passing semi or side breeze … if the shrink the fabric a little bit. It’ll be good.

I’m prolly more persistent than you are. I got Jeep to redesign the bumpstops of the ecodiesel because their “engineering” thought they can lower the metal bumpstops 1.5” to fit the ecodiesel and NOT raise the suspension or put harder springs. Freaking suspension was knocking on bumpstops all day… they did give me a free mopar lift tho…

That being said, I’ll hound Bestop. This is BS. 2 grand for a flacid ass top ?!?!?!

 

[Ericshere03]

I would definitely pull/twist/yank to adjust the 1" difference between sides....as is, is just asking for a leak.

Not gonna happen, the wink I was is in the hardware. I can disassemble and rebend and relocate some of the joints to even it up … but why? They need to make this right for me and every other top they’re making. But I feel like they think they’re doing us old jeeps a favor offering anything.

The odd thing about the 1” is the high side is loose when putting the side windows in and the low side was tight putting in the side window. So the frame is going one way and the fabric the other … I’m gonna drive with it and see if it doesn’t contort itself into a happy middle.

 

[Ericshere03]

I just bought and received the bestop twill slant back for my LJ.
It better be good...not cheap.
I had water soaking the floor with my old one....gotta be better than that

You’d think so. Report back here with your findings. The slant tops are typically a bit louder than a square back. And in my case twill is louder than beat up saggy sailcloth … so …

 

[sideproject]

You’d think so. Report back here with your findings. The slant tops are typically a bit louder than a square back. And in my case twill is louder than beat up saggy sailcloth … so …

My bestop twill slant back was installed today. Any mild assymetries I fixed with a little pulling. I'm coming from the OEM square back. The new one is a little quieter....but the old one had seen better days. So far I'm satisfied. The final test will be driving in the rain as the prior one left the front and rear floor wet.

 

[BradyW]

I just replaced a worn and ripped OEM with a black twill super top square back and share similar sentiments as OP. I love the fabric itself but noticed extra flapping and noise on the highway compared to the OE. The metal cross bar above the front seats is beyond useless. I am disappointed in the road noise for such an expensive piece.

 

[Nutro]

Well damn, I wanted one for my LJ but nope!

 

[TheBoogieman]

As forum members here always say. "You get what you pay for".

 

[rasband]

I won't buy another bestop piece for my LJ. It's just too expensive for the garbage it is. My window zippers are all toast after a year and only a handful of taking them out (and are only heald by velcro now, except the rear where some still engages but there is no velcro), the header bar is useless outside heavy rain/snow, and I've lost the first several sets of retainers for the front retainer over the door somewhere on the road.

I'll spend half the price for the same quality going forward.

 

[Apparition]

I won't buy another bestop piece for my LJ. It's just too expensive for the garbage it is. My window zippers are all toast after a year and only a handful of taking them out (and are only heald by velcro now, except the rear where some still engages but there is no velcro), the header bar is useless outside heavy rain/snow, and I've lost the first several sets of retainers for the front retainer over the door somewhere on the road.

I'll spend half the price for the same quality going forward.

Is the problem zipper on the window side? They’ve sent a replacement window when I had an issue with one. All I did was ask and it was on its way.

 

[Longwhitejeep]

Well damn, I wanted one for my LJ but nope!

Same, not looking good.

 

[Ericshere03]

I just replaced a worn and ripped OEM with a black twill super top square back and share similar sentiments as OP. I love the fabric itself but noticed extra flapping and noise on the highway compared to the OE. The metal cross bar above the front seats is beyond useless. I am disappointed in the road noise for such an expensive piece.

View attachment 412394

Makes me feel better and worse … I called Bestop and they had me fill out a warranty form. They’re blaming it all on a screw hole I had to modify because it was so far off. They also threatened to void my warranty 😡… I’m working on it but all they want to do is replace the part I modified, ugh … this is going to take a while to get right.

 

[doc54]

And of course
View attachment 410392

You can remove the Bestop logo on the back by putting AlbaChem VLR on a rag and rubbing it in. Only downside is that the reflective material stays and gets rubbed around, so you can see a weird reflective area if a picture is taken with the flash; in normal lighting it looks great. I'd still rather that than having their logo on the back, since it wasn't pictured when I purchased my twill top.

 

[JeepZilla380]

I just replaced a worn and ripped OEM with a black twill super top square back and share similar sentiments as OP. I love the fabric itself but noticed extra flapping and noise on the highway compared to the OE. The metal cross bar above the front seats is beyond useless. I am disappointed in the road noise for such an expensive piece.

View attachment 412394

That’s how I feel about the silver cross bar too. On my old TJ it pressed into soft top and helped with flapping noise. This one is so loose it rattles.

 

[sideproject]

That’s how I feel about the silver cross bar too. On my old TJ it pressed into soft top and helped with flapping noise. This one is so loose it rattles.

@BradyW
You are both absolutely right. The key with that cross member is that is needs to be in constant contact with the soft top. As it is....it only is in constant contact while parked but flaps while driving causing the crossmember to continuously contact and bang against its bracket slots. To keep it more closely touching the soft top while driving you'll have to add something to the top of it. I use dense foam (1 side is sticky to the crossmember)...1 layer at a time and add more if needed after driving.

Here is what I have used before and will use again on this top

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07LB21S31?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title