Removing hardtop by oneself
Tom Miller
person. I see someone makes a wench that mounts to the ceiling of your
garage-I guess that is one way...
Tom
DougW
> Does anyone have any suggestions on how to remove a hardtop with just one
> person. I see someone makes a wench that mounts to the ceiling of your
> garage-I guess that is one way...
I dunno about that. Mounting a wench to the ceiling might be rather difficult.
:)
--DougW--
Earle Horton
news:cVcc9.58024$gb....@news2.central.cox.net...
And what would you do with her once you got her up there?
> :)
>
> --DougW--
>
>
DougW
> "DougW" wrote ...
> > "Tom Miller" wrote ...
> > > Does anyone have any suggestions on how to remove a hardtop with just one
> > > person. I see someone makes a wench that mounts to the ceiling of your
> > > garage-I guess that is one way...
> >
> > I dunno about that. Mounting a wench to the ceiling might be rather
> difficult.
> >
>
> And what would you do with her once you got her up there?
I have some ideas but posting them might get me in trouble. ;)
Jeep Islander
broke to do much, but I had a super deep garage, I made a toy for holding
it, all you did was back up under it with the tailgate window open, jack the
$10 bottle jack to lift the whole thing up, pull away and hope you didn't
hear a crash.
The crash only happened 3 times, usually from the screws coming out of the
wall.
"Earle Horton" <ear...@iname.com> wrote in message
news:akrnde$1l188t$1...@ID-147790.news.dfncis.de...
Jerry Slaughter
"DougW" <post.r...@invalid.address> wrote in message
news:cVcc9.58024$gb....@news2.central.cox.net...
matter where it is. What is it with them anyway?
Jerry S.
L.W.(Bill) Hughes III
their harness. :-)
God Bless America, Bill O|||||||O
mailto:LWHug...@aol.com http://www.billhughes.com/
RollOver Pete
sat...@starband.net (Tom Miller) wrote:
> Does anyone have any suggestions on how
> to remove a hardtop with just one person.
I know of a fast and easy hard top removal method that requires only one
person....but it's much funner with a crowd. You need to make sure that
any tools, coolers, or anything else carried in your jeep is tied down.
If done improperly, it can be a rather messy job ;-)
RollOver Pete...
Jeep Islander
"Jerry Slaughter" <jer...@hiwaay.net> wrote in message
news:un2pd7q...@corp.supernews.com...
aliasme
hehe. ok, maybe *once*. but i swear thats it. ask any of my ex wives.
tim
"Jeep Islander" <JeepIs...@cox.net> wrote in message
news:qXdc9.58840$gb....@news2.central.cox.net...
Gordon Wedman
even more expensive) or you could bribe a friend with a case of beer. Two
people can remove these without problem. If you must do it alone (better
with a wench) you can stand up underneath the top and try to slide it off
and down. Something soft for the liftgate to land on would be helpful. If
you fabricated a shelf that you could back up to you could slide it off onto
this. You could use rollers to make this easier and all kinds of other
gizmos. As complicated as you like.
"Tom Miller" <sat...@starband.net> wrote in message
news:DQcc9.6313$mb3.237...@twister1.starband.net...
0|||||||0 Ray
creative use of ratchet straps and a WINCH!
--
Ray
99 TJ Sport
Chili Pepper Red
2" Procomp Suspension Lift
30" BFG/MTs
Ramsey REP8000 Winch
48" Front-Bumper-Mounted Hi-Lift Jack
0|||||||0
Central Illinois Jeep Club
www.cijeep.com
"aliasme" <dor...@attbi.spam.com> wrote in message
news:Dxec9.149504$aA.32460@sccrnsc02...
aliasme
does he want to 'mount' a wench on the ceiling,
or does he want to 'mount a wench' on the ceiling?
the first one could be solved simply with ALOT of
duct tape. the second....they have this swing thing
that could be adapted with the use of cables and
pulleys, but would almost need to involve a third
person, which in my book is just right out. now, if
you are good enough at being handy (!), well,
HEY LETS GET BACK ON TOPIC!! lol
J**P'S RULE!
tim..Bad Dog! Bad!
"0|||||||0 Ray" <res009js...@gte.net> wrote in message
news:o9gc9.2951$4P5...@nwrddc04.gnilink.net...
raskal
:-)
Tom, you must try to proofread better and also try a google groups
search as this has been covered to death... well not the wench part.
J5
j5
--
J5's jeep page at http://www.users.qwest.net/~j5/
"Earle Horton" <ear...@iname.com> wrote in message
news:akrnde$1l188t$1...@ID-147790.news.dfncis.de...
johnEGp
you want to use her
Tom Miller
me a break. It came with the hard top on and taking it off was a pain in my
@ss. Thanks for the info though.
johnEGp
something to do with a wench as well.
John in Vegas
johnEGp
jeep, got onto the rear of the JEEP and just slid it off. He was so
good at it, I offered to help him, he said it was just easier that way
John in Vegas
Elflan
First of all, This is what I did and it's been working fine for 3
years. In fact, I got my information from this very newgroup in 1999.
You could do a word search on this newsgroup and find a lot of
comments and suggestions on "hardtop storage" or "hoist", or something
like that. I discovered this hardtop remedy from somebody else here
and I'm returning the favor.
I went to Home Depot and bought 4 light duty winches. In the Hardware
section. I don't remember what their load rating was but it it's
sufficient for my hard top. Remember, the hardtop is probably 150 or
so pounds static weight. Unless you go jerking things around, you
won't stress these winches too much. They are not very expensive and
since you'll be cranking each one just a few clicks at a time, they
work just fine. I can hoist my top from start to finish in about 30
minutes. That includes removing the all screws, lifting the tail gate
and backing into the hoist area.
Decide where you want the top to hang in your garage. Back your jeep
into the garage and get some string and 4 pushpins. You're going to
mark 4 spots on your ceiling. (always into studs of course). I hope
your ceiling is just exposed rafters and not covered with wall board.
Anyway, get 4 big eylet screws to put in the rafters. I got 5/8" or
3/5" or something like that. You'll know good sturdy ones when you see
them. You'll drill pilot holes into the rafters to get them started
then you can put a screwdriver into the eyelets and torque them up
tight.
The stress points for where you will hang the top is on left and
right of the tail gate and the left and right corners of where your
left and right doors are.
Make sure you are far enough away from your garage wall to allow for
the tailgate to be opened fully. You'll have the tail gate up when you
back into position. Once you've lifted the hardtop you can close the
tailgate.
I put my hardtop as far away from traffic as I could. At some point in
the future, you WILL hit your head on the hardtop. I put boxes on the
floor for a few weeks until I got used to it hanging there. I also put
some "frost king", pipe isulaton, the pre slit type, on the sharp
edges of my hardtop so I wouldn't gouge my noggin.
When you use the string and push pins, you can "plumb" the line until
you see where the best spot for each screw should go in the ceiling
because the string will indicate where the winch hook will go to hang
that corner of the top.
Also, when you find the best spot to store your hard top, get some
duct tape and mark where your tires are on your garage floor. I put a
strip on three sides of each tire to make it as easy as possible.
When I do it, I back up into my garage with my door open a little and
look for the tape on the floor, then I know I'm on target. It's pretty
simple once you get the hang of it.
The Winchs come with hooks and I took some aquarium tubing that I
bought there at home depot and cut a 4 short lengths to slip onto the
metal hooks of the winch to prevent scarring of the hardtop.
When you're ready to lift, you grab the back edges of the hardtop and
slip a winch hook on there and crank it up a few clicks until it lifts
off the jeep body. do that for each side and when the whole thing is
suspended just a little, you can drive off and come back and winch it
up fully.
For safety, I lifted my hard top as high as I possibly could, then I
tied short lengths of 1/8" ( or 1/4") nylon cord to each eylet screw
and attached a (padded) hook to the other end. In my case I used 4
metal "garage utility storage hooks" that are meant to hang things on
in your garage. These are cheap and are sturdy enough for the load. I
took some "frost king " foan pipe insulation and cut pieces to wrap
around these hooks.
When you're finished, you will have 4 little winches attached to 4
eyelet screws. And 4 short pieces of nylon rope with hooks also
attached to the same screws.
You winch each one just a few clicks at a time so you evenly
distribute the height. It's a little tedious going around and pulling
on each winch at a time but you'll soon discover how much you can pull
on each one at a time. If you are worried about the hardtop getting
warped, I have not had any problems with warping and my hardop rests
squarely back onto the jeep each time I put it on.
At full height, you will leave the winches "locked" and slip the nylon
roped safety hooks onto the hardtop right next to the winch hooks. I
have had this arrangement for several years and it works very well for
me. You can buy commercial winch/hoists and you can see where somebody
uses a system of PVC pipes for hoisting the hardtop all at once but I
decided that for my uses, the 4 winch system was satisfactory. It only
gets used about 2 times a year anyway.
This is long I know but it's really simple if you think about what
you're doing.
email me and I'll send you some pix.
If wasn't so lazy, I'd have a web page but for now;
email me
at elf...@bellsouth.net
I bought
I AM CAST0R TR0Y
just hope the top wouldn't be too heavy for it ;-)
twaldron
I AM CAST0R TR0Y wrote:
> How about buying a winch for your bumper and using that to hoist the top. I
> just hope the top wouldn't be too heavy for it ;-)
>
--
tw
99TJ
01XJ
http://www.jeepn.com/members/html/twaldron.html
(Please remove OBVIOUS to reply by email)
Evan
My best suggestion is to take that money you would spend on the hoist, and get
a soft top, and a 6 pack (as suggested) and get a buddy to lift it once (twice
a year).
I touch mine twice a year, once in March and again in October. and have the
soft top the rest of they year. Been very happy so far.
Hard tops are too heavy to hang form your ceiling in my opinion.
and too expensive / hard to replace, no matter how many times her pimp
threatens you
01 sahara D44 9500I 31's and
a few outher homemade goodies
but outher wise stock (for now)
give it time, and money
Take out the "XXX" to e-mail me
Tomes
will post pics of it when I get the ability to generate a digital pic.
Basically, I inserted a strong pair of hooks into the ceiling beams above
the middle bolt hole and hung a pulley from each. Then hung another pulley
pair together at the top of the wall and then screwed a pair of ceramic boat
chocks lower on the wall under some eye lags. A cleat pair is under that
(right next to each other). I used some strong rope and pulled it up all by
myself with no problem. I did a couple of inches on each side at a time.
I also painted around the wheels so I can position the Jeep in the right
spot again to remount the top. Finally, I secured some tie-down straps as a
second safety back-up in case the ropes give (no sign of that though) and to
stabilize the front part.
Works well and is stable. No deformation of the top is seen either. It is
up and out of the way.
Hope this helps,
Tomes
(remove X to post)
Evan <eb...@aol.comxxx> wrote in message
news:20020903105755...@mb-cu.aol.com...
: I tried the hoist thing and did not get very far
:
Elflan
> I tried the hoist thing and did not get very far
>
>
> and too expensive / hard to replace, no matter how many times her pimp
> threatens you
>
My hardtop hangs from my garage "ceiling". It is not too heavy, but
it's bulky and cumbersone. You have to be carefull when you store it
but if you use the right screws and put them into the studs,(joists),
you will have absoulutely no problem. I live alone and I can take off
my soft top, back into the garage and get under my hoisted hardtop and
lower the hard top on and lock it down in about 45 minutes.
I have left my hardtop "hoisted" for 3 yrs and it gets lowered about
twice a year. Read my earlier post if you want to know how I did it. I
will send you some pictures too if you want.
Dean Glanville
reply have already been taken ;-)
http://www.redcreekembroidery.com/jeep/jeepin-toplift.htm
Dean
On Sun, 01 Sep 2002 00:04:29 GMT, "Tom Miller" <sat...@starband.net>
wrote:
>Does anyone have any suggestions on how to remove a hardtop with just one