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Roof crossbars or racks with soft top?

Gee-pah

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I don’t think some of you understood my first post.
The rain gutters are on all Wranglers.
Hard tops have them formed into the Fiberglass top.
Soft tops have them on the door surrounds and are made from Nylon. The nylon is stronger and less brittle than fiberglass, and they are bolted directly onto the roll bars in more places than a hard top.
I’m not asking what products are out there to attach to the body or hitch because I’m aware of those options.
.....
I’m asking if anyone has tried to attach crossbars or a roof rack to those door surround gutters.
I get now what you're saying. I've just never referred to the channel in which the soft top rides to open and close as rain gutters. And by no means do I wish to debate whether they actual are or not. I'm just content to know now what you mean--and apparently someone has gotten (I think Thule) bars to work on them in the above post.:)

Even if the cross members could separate from the portion of this hardware that attaches to the soft top's "rain gutters" and be placed in the garage, I'd be a little hesitant about opening the soft top with this attachment hardware in the same track as which the soft top rides to open and close, but maybe it works great.
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Gee-pah

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cbrenthus

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itstotalbacon

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@Wingman Rich. Hi. It seems your rack attachment hardware shown here https://www.jlwranglerforums.com/forum/threads/using-a-thule-roof-rack-with-a-soft-op.36024/ can be separated from its cross members.

Just for giggles, if you did remove the cross members only could the soft top open and close or would the attachment hardware that remained prevent that?

Thanks.
That just doesn't seem solid in my opinion and by the looks of it, the soft top wouldnt be able to open with the crossbars removed. If you don't need a rack for winter sports, check out the exposed racks --- https://www.smsparts.com/

Crossbars that are covered by the soft top -- seems great for topless days.
 

entropy

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You can. But if the lift forces break it and your kayak flies off and goes straight into another driver's windshield and kills them you'd be charged with negligence. So what if you can hang 190 lbs of static weight on it? that doesn't tell you much, and you are no expert to check if you actually damaged anything while stupidly (sorry) hanging from the plastic rain gutters which are designed to keep water away....

Nobody makes them specifically for soft tops (yet) which means nobody has tested them, and if they have, they have probably determined them to be unsafe and don't want to deal with possible liability issues. Don't do it.

Either use your rollbars, get a cage, or a hitchmount rack. That's just the price of having a soft top. When I had my soft top I just bought the hitchmount rack and went kayaking, safe and comfortable nothing would go wrong.
 
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Gee-pah

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You can. But if the lift forces break it and your kayak flies off and goes straight into another driver's windshield and kills them you'd be charged with negligence. So what if you can hang 190 lbs of static weight on it? that doesn't tell you much, and you are no expert to check if you actually damaged anything while stupidly (sorry) hanging from the plastic rain gutters which are designed to keep water away....

Nobody makes them specifically for soft tops (yet) which means nobody has tested them, and if they have, they have probably determined them to be unsafe and don't want to deal with possible liability issues. Don't do it.

Either use your crossbars, get a cage, or a hitchmount rack. That's just the price of having a soft top. When I had my soft top I just bought the hitchmount rack and went kayaking, safe and comfortable nothing would go wrong.
Enrique you raise a very valid point.

Very often we're focused on compressive strength, or how much weight we can put on some aspect of our JL's roof and not exceed limits.

But no less important is the possibility that such objects have to want to pry themselves loose from the aerodynamic forces of a rig traveling at decent speeds, and as a result not simply the compressive, but expansive strength of that we attach our gear to above needs to be considered.
 
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Rubidozer

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You can. But if the lift forces break it and your kayak flies off and goes straight into another driver's windshield and kills them you'd be charged with negligence. So what if you can hang 190 lbs of static weight on it? that doesn't tell you much, and you are no expert to check if you actually damaged anything while stupidly (sorry) hanging from the plastic rain gutters which are designed to keep water away....

Nobody makes them specifically for soft tops (yet) which means nobody has tested them, and if they have, they have probably determined them to be unsafe and don't want to deal with possible liability issues. Don't do it.

Either use your rollbars, get a cage, or a hitchmount rack. That's just the price of having a soft top. When I had my soft top I just bought the hitchmount rack and went kayaking, safe and comfortable nothing would go wrong.
So, nothing to add but negativity...
It works. Attaching crossbars created structural strength. Done.
Educate yourself on how many times the factory hardtop gutters have cracked/broken.
 

entropy

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So, nothing to add but negativity.
It works. Done.
Educate yourself on how many times the factory hardtop gutters have cracked/broken.
Negativity? of course the gutters break if you go over ratings. It is very clear the hardtop gutters are not designed to carry kayaks either, people do it all the time but that doesnt mean theres a risk.

Since when did common sense and responsibility became negativity?. It seems to me whenever anyone tells you what you dont wanna hear you get mad. Why the hell would you even post on a public forum? You want no arguments, no opinions, no suggestions, all you want is for people to tell you what you want to hear. And guess what, they wont because using the softop to carry any gear is dangerous and luckily there are safe options out there. How is that negativity?
 
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Rubidozer

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Negativity? of course the gutters break if you go over ratings. It is very clear the hardtop gutters are not designed to carry kayaks either.

Since when did common sense and responsibility became negativity?. It seems to me whenever anyone tells you what you dont wanna hear you get mad. Why the hell would you even post on a public forum? You want no arguments, no opinions, no suggestions, all you want is for people to tell you what you want to hear. And guess what, they wont because using the softop to carry any gear is dangerous and luckily there are safe options out there. How is that negativity?
Grow up. No one asked your opinion. Typical forum member only interested in throwing your opinions around and name-calling. Cry to someone else.[/QUOTE]
 

entropy

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Grow up. No one asked your opinion. Typical forum member only interested in throwing your opinions around and name-calling. Cry to someone else.
[/QUOTE]
Lol name calling? where?... jeez man take a chill pill and calm down. Go Jeep or something :jk:. This is a forum get used to people opinions, that's the whole point, and if you cant stand an argument without getting pissed then don't participate in public forums. You are the one crying cause you didnt get what you want out of this post. man up.

Agree to disagree and move on.
 
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AnaBuffa

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That just doesn't seem solid in my opinion and by the looks of it, the soft top wouldnt be able to open with the crossbars removed. If you don't need a rack for winter sports, check out the exposed racks --- https://www.smsparts.com/

Crossbars that are covered by the soft top -- seems great for topless days.
we like the dual functionality of the exposed racks. We've been using the soft top ones for some time now and like you said, its great for topless days. we recently got the conversion kit and are now able to also use the same racks on the hard top. We've used it to carry our ski gear this past weekend. Wish i had gotten a picture. Worked great! No whistling!
 

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It is very clear the hardtop gutters are not designed to carry kayaks either, people do it all the time but that doesn't mean theres a risk.
I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to determine what the weight capacity actually is for the gutter mounted crossbars. By chance do you know?
 
 



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