Does anyone have a Gr8Top full top for a TJ? Any insight on durability and everyday usability? Thanks!
GR8TOPS for TJ
- Thread starter 300K06TJ
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IF you do a search on the Forum; you should find a discussion about that hard top.
I remember approximately 6 months ago there were some discussions.....
I remember approximately 6 months ago there were some discussions.....
OP
I saw some discussions with the LJ, but not any specific to the TJ. I love the look of the GR8TOP, but I haven’t seen one in person to look at build quality and fit and finish.
OP
I've designed several Safari style hardtops, including the one that Gr8Tops now sells. The one Gr8Tops sells started as a DIY project for my LJ and when I finished building it Gr8Tops approached me and licensed the design. My homemade Safari Cab is now 11 years old and still going strong, just got back from a week on trails in Colorado. Took this photo a week ago:
Gr8Tops made a number of changes to my design when they put it in production, for example they eliminated the removable hard sides and the roll-up soft sides and a few other features, but other than the few things they changed the design is substantially the same as mine so I can probably answer most questions you might have about the Gr8Tops version. How can I help?
A photo from a 2012 Colorado trip:
OP
Thank you so much for responding. So the production top does not have removable sides? How about the rear barn glass? Can you remove it the same as a factory Hardtop?
The rear barn door upper removes with a couple of bolts. The bracket Gr8Tops uses to attach the barn door upper to the tailgate is different than the one on my Jeep, but it's functionally the same.
As I designed the Safari Cab, the end panels are separate from the side panels so the side panels come off easily and the roof is still supported by the rear panels, this is a photo of mine:
The sides are removable on the Gr8Tops version too, but Gr8Tops decided to mold the sides and rear corners as one piece, so the back corners come off at the same time as the sides. Because the back corners are part of the sides and therefore come off when you remove the sides, you'll need to have supports for the rear of the roof panel. This photo is of my Safari Cab with the sides, rear corners and the barn door upper removed, you can see the supports at the back for the roof:
I designed these supports and arranged for having them manufactured but Gr8Tops decided not to put them into production. A few years ago I arranged a short production run as a favor for several Safari Cab owners, but other than those few they were never made available. The "production" ones look like this:
I had also arranged the manufacturing of roll-up soft sides for the Gr8Tops version of the hardtop. The soft sides for the Gr8Tops version replace both sides and the back. This photo was taken at the sewing company that made the preproduction soft sides:
The "Gr8Tops style" soft sides rolled up:
Unfortunately Gr8Tops decided not to put the soft sides into production either.
So I'm afraid the Gr8Tops version of the Safari Cab is really only intended to be run completely assembled, with the sides and rear corners in place.
But:
1. If you want to run the Gr8Tops version without the one-piece side/rear corners, making rear supports isn't too difficult. I can show you a simple proof-of-concept set I made before I designed the "production" ones shown above.
2. If you want the "Gr8Tops style" soft sides, they can be homemade if you're handy with a sewing machine.
3. If you want just the side panels to be removable while the rear corners remain in place, it's not too difficult to cut the one-piece sides/ends apart and add bolt flanges to each side of the cut line so the resulting two parts can be bolted back together but also allow the corners to remain in place when the sides are off, thus eliminating the need for separate roof supports. Just requires a little fiberglass work, I can show you how it can be done.
4. And if you do #3 above, the soft sides to replace just the side panels are much easier to sew because they're pretty simple flat panels and you don't have to worry about the soft sides going around the corners in the back.
I'm happy to help with more details on any of the above or with any other questions you might have.
OP
That’s a ton of very helpful info! Thank you so much! I’ll read through completely and if I have any more questions I’ll reach back out to you.
Great timing on this thread!
I've been driving a 97 TJ since I bought it in 2000. I've always wanted a hardtop with soft sides. My newly-driving sons are both wanting the TJ, so a few months back, after discovering the Gr8tops Safari Cab, I decided on an LJ. Finally found a low-miles example with the right color and 6-speed (in my profile pic). Drove it home last week.
I'm not too far from Gr8tops, so I plan to order one and drive down to get it sometime in the fall. I've got two questions for @jscherb (for now):
Chris
I've been driving a 97 TJ since I bought it in 2000. I've always wanted a hardtop with soft sides. My newly-driving sons are both wanting the TJ, so a few months back, after discovering the Gr8tops Safari Cab, I decided on an LJ. Finally found a low-miles example with the right color and 6-speed (in my profile pic). Drove it home last week.
I'm not too far from Gr8tops, so I plan to order one and drive down to get it sometime in the fall. I've got two questions for @jscherb (for now):
- Any info you can provide on making full soft sides would be greatly appreciated! Do you have any drawings or plans you could send? There is a local shop that does alot of custom car and boat upholstery & boat covers that I think could handle this for me.
- In the "continental divide" pic, it looks like you have a basket on the rails that are offered by Gr8tops. Is that correct? If so, what basket is that? Would you recommend using their rails option, or would you recommend another option? I'd like to be able to put a few hundred pounds up there. No car-top tent.
Chris
Chris,
1. As I wrote in my earlier post, to run without the sides you'll need rear supports for the roof panel. The closest these got to production was a small "group buy" I arranged for some Safari Cab owners a few years ago but Gr8Tops never put them in production. You'll need to fabricate them yourself.
I do not have final plans for the "Gr8Tops style" soft sides, all I did was a few concept drawings and I then worked with the soft top company on the final design. These are two of the initial drawings:
The final design the soft top company and I arrived at differs in a number of details from these drawings. If you buy a Safari Cab and decide to go ahead with a soft sides project I can provide a bit more detail on the final design of the soft parts and the retainer parts/tailgate bar that secures everything to the hardtop.
Gr8Tops significantly complicated the soft sides design when they decided to mold the sides/ends as one piece. The soft sides for the original design are far simpler, easier to make and easier to roll up and down than the Gr8Tops version. They don't need separate supports for the roof because the rear corners stay in place and support the roof. If you are willing/able to do the little bit of fiberglass work to cut the Gr8Tops sides into two pieces, the soft sides will be much easier to make and much easier to use.
2. I don't know what roof rack rails Gr8Tops offers; mine are XJ Cherokee rails. The rack basket in that photo is something I made from two Harbor Freight hitch racks. Here's basically what I did, I can provide more detail if you want:
This is the DIY rack basket under construction; it's mounted to the XJ rails on the roof panel:
I used that rack for quite a few years until I found a Garvin rack basket on Craigslist; I still have the DIY rack basket but I don't use it any more because the Garvin is much larger and more useful. I mount the Garvin on the XJ rails as well:
I use the rack for my roof top tent and built an extension for it to carry cargo in addition to the tent.
I don't know what Gr8Tops says is the max weight capacity of their rack rails, but another thing my Safari Cab has that they never put into production are brackets that support the rack to the roll bars - with those brackets no weight is borne by the fiberglass roof panel, all weight is transferred to the roll bars so I can put any weight up there that's safe to drive with. I wouldn't recommend putting a few hundred pounds up there, especially with the soft sides, without support to the roll bars but you'll have to see what Gr8Tops recommends for their version of the top.
@jscherb - Hey Jeff - On your top, where do your rain gutters empty out, over the front windshield like Gr8Tops? Do you have anything on the rear? The gutter hold water until you go downhill so curious if you have a different solution.
@merrill77 - I did reach out to Jeff who put me in touch with Morryde about buying rear stanchions, but I had to order multiple sets which was illogical. If you go that route let me know as we could try to find another guy to reduce the cost.
While I love my hardtop, I wish there was an option for a better build quality. I had my top rhino lined since it had way too many holes.
Zoom in to see the rhino liner.
Prior to being rhino lined
@merrill77 - I did reach out to Jeff who put me in touch with Morryde about buying rear stanchions, but I had to order multiple sets which was illogical. If you go that route let me know as we could try to find another guy to reduce the cost.
While I love my hardtop, I wish there was an option for a better build quality. I had my top rhino lined since it had way too many holes.
Zoom in to see the rhino liner.
Prior to being rhino lined
As I designed the Safari Cab, there are notches in each rear corner of the drip rail to let water drain out the back. I don't know if Gr8Tops adds those notches to the production drip rail.
I'm traveling and don't have a photo of the notches in the TJ/LJ drip rail handy, but here's a photo of a similar notch in the drip rail of the JKU Safari Cab drip rail:
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I can confirm there are no notches in the rear, at least not on the LJ version.
@jscherb Jeff, could you opine on whether rain gutter roof rack mounts would work on your design? Honestly, Gr8tops customer service, in my experience, is not great, and I'd rather ask the designer himself.
@jscherb Jeff, could you opine on whether rain gutter roof rack mounts would work on your design? Honestly, Gr8tops customer service, in my experience, is not great, and I'd rather ask the designer himself.
Gr8Tops changed the drip rails from my original design when they put the Safari Cab in production. They did a nice job and I believe that on their version the drip rails are stronger than my original design. But it's not my place to make strength claims for companies - if I made a claim about the strength of a product and the product failed for whatever reason, a company could reasonably say that since they didn't make the strength claim, they won't provide any warranty support for the failure. I wouldn't want to put you or a company in that position, so I think the best thing to do is to try to get a definitive answer from Gr8Tops that they will warranty.
I do use drip rail rack mounts on the front extension I built for my roof rack basket. The main basket is supported by the XJ Cherokee rack rails I have mounted on the roof and which are supported through the roof to the roll bars (not part of the Gr8Tops production design), but the front extension is supported by the drip rails as can be seen in these photos I posted earlier in this thread.
Old_Crow
TJ Enthusiast
So, Jeff, did you ever put that CJ grille conversion into production. I saw the design thread on another forum a while back.
I'm getting ready to go to high line fenders and I'm not crazy about the little LEDs that they use for the turn signals after the fenders are cut. This grille would be a nice solution.
I'm getting ready to go to high line fenders and I'm not crazy about the little LEDs that they use for the turn signals after the fenders are cut. This grille would be a nice solution.
Back when I finished the CJ Grille Kit for the TJ a company was interested in marketing it so I worked with them on a cost analysis and arranged to have the manufacturing done for them by a quality fiberglass shop. But in the end I think they decided there might not be enough demand for the kit to put it into production so they didn't go any further.
You mentioned you're doing high-line fenders - when I made the molds for the CJ Grille kit I included provisions in the hood and the inner fenders for high line installation. That was an option the company was considering and they might have done a high line version of the kit if they ever put the kit in production. Work in progress on the high line version back then:
I do still have all the molds so more kits could be made if there was ever demand for them, it wouldn't be too hard to do. I don't know if there would be any real demand for the kit, but it's an easy install that bolts right on and requires no modifications to the TJ.
The kit has been on my LJ since 2014 and the molds have been in my basement gathering dust since then...