Noise level if swapping hard top for soft?

I date back to the cj days . We envied hard top guys ….it was a pretty big deal to have one.

I like every TJ top configuration and have most combos- soft upper doors is my least favorite, but the portability of them is cool.

Because I like the top down a lot, full doors and soft top is my go to set up til late spring/ summer, then it’s topless /doorless or half doors and topless or bikini.

Wheeling a hard top is just asking to damage it…. They really are nice otherwise.

I have soft upper doors on the 01 and what I don't like about them is they're not very practical to have the window zipped open while driving.
 
I convinced my wife to let the hard top off of our 03 go in favor of a new soft top.
We hadn't put the hard top on in over 5 years, and it was taking up a bunch of space in the garage (stored on a rack and pushed to the side, but still taking up a lot of room).
The noise level w/ the hard top was much like riding in a typical car (we also have full doors).
With the soft top it is definitely letting in more sounds from the road, but it is not "too loud" and we don't have to yell or anything.
 
I convinced my wife to let the hard top off of our 03 go in favor of a new soft top.
We hadn't put the hard top on in over 5 years, and it was taking up a bunch of space in the garage (stored on a rack and pushed to the side, but still taking up a lot of room).
The noise level w/ the hard top was much like riding in a typical car (we also have full doors).
With the soft top it is definitely letting in more sounds from the road, but it is not "too loud" and we don't have to yell or anything.

Yeah, the hard top is surprisingly quite for a jeep.
 
I used to have a LJ with soft top. After a while I decided to look for a hard top. I found one nearby and ended up buying it thinking it would be much better for highway driving. It was slightly better. Not worth the money I spent for it. Now with the TJ I keep the soft top down as much as I can. I actually like the wind noise on the highway with the top down. Main fun of TJ is having the top down in summer or whenever the weather allows. Wife loves the open air. As far as security I don't keep anything worthwhile in it. I have full doors so with windows up and doors locked it takes little bit of stretch to get the doors opened from the back.
 
If you can bridge the distance from the header to the roll bar you can get a considerable amount of the flap noise taken out. Hooke Molle panel that has some padding on the top side that provides support/tension to the fabric.

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It is all personal preference, the LJ we bought had the hard top and OEM soft top. I took the hard top off, put on the soft top and haven’t looked back. Sold the hard top a few months ago. Thinking of using the proceeds towards a camping trailer. I like the flexibility of the soft top. Most of the summer I leave the roof up and run half doors. I like the ability to flip back the sunrider when the sun isn’t too hot. It’s a little noisier but I don’t think it’s too bad.

I keep the zippers lubricated, but the rear around the corners is still a pain. Live in central CA so weather is fairly mild overall. When at home it’s parked under the carport most of the time, so not in the sun too much. Most days I take public transport to work so it’s not out and about too much.
 
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