Jeep Hardtops

Bacho said:
The hard top on the JK models is a glass reinforced plastic. There is no insulation there. I honestly think the difference would be negligible. Insulation kits are available though. I have no experience with how effective they are.
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Thanks for the feedback! Now if I could only figure a way to put 'tall' stuff in the rear door....the zippers are less than convenient. :)

Jim
 
This thread hits close to home. I am currently rebuilding a 1979 CJ7.

I actually sold my OEM hard top because the fiberglass and back glass were in bad shape. I decided if I want to go with a hardtop later, I would buy a new Rally Top. Those tops look OEM and seem very quality focused. Not cheap, but neither is a used good top.
 
Jim Rosenow said:
Thanks for the feedback! Now if I could only figure a way to put 'tall' stuff in the rear door....the zippers are less than convenient. :)

Jim
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I've found the zippers on the hard top to be a bit stiff at first, but after a bit of use they're no problem. I just roll the back window up when I have stuff that will stick out the back. Fortunately, Jeep provides little elastic keepers to hold the rolled window in place.
 
Bacho said:
The hard top on the JK models is a glass reinforced plastic. There is no insulation there. I honestly think the difference would be negligible. Insulation kits are available though. I have no experience with how effective they are.
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I don't know about heat/cold insulation, but the hard tops definitely ride quieter than the soft tops. The solid glass also helps that a bunch, too.
 
I had a 95 YJ hard top and a 98 TJ soft top (@Everskyward - the white jeep is still happy) at the same time. The hard topped 95 was noisy enough but I could still somewhat manage to get a phone call done at highway speed, while the soft topped 98 is so loud at highway speed that I never hear the phone ring and can't have a conversation. Ear buds just might get a call done, but the mic noise makes it really hard for the other end... that'll teach 'em to call me! :)

sold the 95 a few years back but still have the 98.

- heat and cold protection - not much difference between the two
- ease of removal vs fold down ... I could walk the hard top off by myself by hunching over in the back of the hard top and standing up with it on my shoulders. I had a platform with bed and rails the same height as the jeep bed and could walk the top off and onto that. Pulleys and a hand or electric winch in the garage would have made that much easier.
- zippered window - yeah, the cold and plastic windows don't play well together, so I seldom try to unzip the window in the cold to put taller stuff back there. If it doesn't fit with Tetris-style tip, rotate and wiggle, it goes in the truck.

I started off running around in my dad's '46 Willys as a kid, thought it was going to be mine, but when I left home for the Navy, my little brother bought it from Dad. He's been in a resto project with it for a lot of years.

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^^^^ VERY cool.

The road noise thing is how I ended up with my Jeep. Guy bought it new, with the intention of being able to do business over the phone going down the road. Needless to say, that didn't happen, so I got a good deal on a 500 mile Jeep.
 
a little Colorado trail riding
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95 and 98 (before lift and 35" tires) sharing a driveway
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Feeling naughty!!!....now maybe I'll go over to the Jeep forums and start an airplane thread!!!!

Jim
 
The TJ's (my 1999) hard top doesn't really get you that much in the way of noise reduction. The other thing to remember is that you have to drive the Jeep "often" in the winter or you wind up with condensation on the hard top that then drips on you and elsewhere when you do drive it if you don't take a towel or two out and dry off the "ceiling" of the thing. One of these years I'll remember this and be proactive about it. One of these years...
 
Ah, warm weather is almost here, stick with the soft top.
 
Ghery said:
Actually, it is already here (never left) in Hawaii. 1 more week, then I get to return to the Pacific Northwe(s)t. :(
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That's a bummer, I'm headed to Scottsdale in a few weeks, can't wait, although it was near 60 here today and 64 yesterday, in northern Massachusetts.
 
I also had a '93 YJ!
I bought a hard top from JC Whitney. Took me about an hour to install it.
I installed two lift points on the hard top. I would back the Jeep up to my shed, (I built a lift on the over hanging roof) attach the pulley to the lift points and haul it off when ever I needed to take it off or put it on.
Finally sold it a year ago. The wife was sick of looking at it, and I was sick of working on on it.
 
Shepherd said:
I also had a '93 YJ!
I bought a hard top from JC Whitney. Took me about an hour to install it.
I installed two lift points on the hard top. I would back the Jeep up to my shed, (I built a lift on the over hanging roof) attach the pulley to the lift points and haul it off when ever I needed to take it off or put it on.
Finally sold it a year ago. The wife was sick of looking at it, and I was sick of working on on it.
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We bought our daughter a used 1995 YJ when she graduated from college. That hard top and soft top were nowhere near as good as what Jeep came up with for the TJ. If I had room, I'd do something similar to what you did for your YJ. I don't have room, however. Oh well...
 
Ghery said:
The TJ's (my 1999) hard top doesn't really get you that much in the way of noise reduction. The other thing to remember is that you have to drive the Jeep "often" in the winter or you wind up with condensation on the hard top that then drips on you and elsewhere when you do drive it if you don't take a towel or two out and dry off the "ceiling" of the thing. One of these years I'll remember this and be proactive about it. One of these years...
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One of the after-market tops is actually lined with carpet...I suspect that would help. Mopar has an insulation kit for theirs. Dunno...that's why I asked the original question :)

No worries on condensation...my baby spends her life in a heated garage unless we're using the pintle hook on the front to move airplanes, or the random trip to town.

Jim
 
On my 2004, the hard top was definitely quieter than the soft top. But quiet is subjective when it comes to jeeps. I had 32" mud terrain tires on it and they had a heck of a road roar. When I left my driveway, the whole neighborhood knew it.
 
Juliet Hotel said:
On my 2004, the hard top was definitely quieter than the soft top. But quiet is subjective when it comes to jeeps. I had 32" mud terrain tires on it and they had a heck of a road roar. When I left my driveway, the whole neighborhood knew it.
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Subjective is an understatement. There's nothing quiet about a Jeep.
 
2003 TJ here. I have a hard top and soft top. I swapped them out seasonally when we lived in Iowa. Since we moved to Georgia, I haven't put the hard top on in the past 5 years. I had planned to put it on this winter, but haven't gotten around to it yet... by this point in the season I figure "what's the point?".
 
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