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- Oct 12, 2016
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- Location
- Westchester, NY
- Vehicle(s)
- JLU Sahara
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- #1
I'm interested in building a cover for the cargo area of the JL that meets the following criteria:
* It's designed for the 4 door, i.e. the Unlimited
* It's made of strong enough material, no doubt 3/4"--maybe 1/2" plywood, in my case to support the weight of objects placed on top of it. I'm no expert working with sheet metal, let alone welding.
* It's installable and removable, and covers the entire cargo area, from the rear most portion of the back seats (in the upright position) to the gate without my having to remove the soft or hard top to insert or remove the device, except the rear soft window.
(Another caveat: I accept the necessity of its removal at least bi-annually when hard and soft tops are switched.)
To do this I'm working with two basic ideas, both involving 2 pieces that connect and disconnect intra-rig (i.e. within the inside confines of the vehicle). The first, shown below (ignore the line running horizontally through the image) is cut down the midline of the rig (front to back) and has two support pieces underneath, each held in place by screws (the triangles represent screws), one on each piece. The ovals in both diagrams are sports bar cutouts. I appreciate in diagram 1 that to fully encapsulate the sports bars they'll need to be cut out pieces between each sports bar and the side-most portions of the tub where the back side windows are.
I like the design of #2 more. Two pieces span the width of the tub. Accordingly, no support structure need exist below the surface like in design 1, except maybe some latch and eyelid hardware to keep the pieces touching. This facilitates a wide but skinny drawer below perhaps, like a map drawer, to hold the soft windows flat, and makes navigating around the sports bar much easier (my dotted cut line in #2 should have been at the point of the midline of sports bars, front to back) . My only concern is when the two pieces of design 2 are disconnect (and the optional window storage drawer is as well) that I will be able to get the two components out of the rig without removing the rear of the hardtop, or going "Safari" on the soft top. I'm not so much concerned with the piece on #2 closer to the front--I can always temporarily drop the rear seats.
It's the piece closer to the back of design #2 that concerns me. I think I'll have enough room to angle it out the back, back window up on the hardtop or out of the way on the soft top.
I'll probably drill holes for hardtop screws and/or countersink on the underside neodymium magnetic disk holes to insert such super strong magnets into, to prevent it from bouncing up and down.
I just wanted to hear your thoughts. Either way I'd probably just paint it, not go to the extent that this valuable contributor did on his JK a few years back:
Oh, and security of contents when windows/top are off is less of a priority for me than others who rightly buy lockable versions in metal of said item. I want to be able to conceal items below, and store items above on a strong flat surface, and remove the device: but that's about it.
One final question. I understand that blocking the view of your rear view mirror with such gear as might occupy the space above such a device is legal in most States where, like in the Wrangler, dual side view mirrors are installed. Thoughts?
Thanks.
* It's designed for the 4 door, i.e. the Unlimited
* It's made of strong enough material, no doubt 3/4"--maybe 1/2" plywood, in my case to support the weight of objects placed on top of it. I'm no expert working with sheet metal, let alone welding.
* It's installable and removable, and covers the entire cargo area, from the rear most portion of the back seats (in the upright position) to the gate without my having to remove the soft or hard top to insert or remove the device, except the rear soft window.
(Another caveat: I accept the necessity of its removal at least bi-annually when hard and soft tops are switched.)
To do this I'm working with two basic ideas, both involving 2 pieces that connect and disconnect intra-rig (i.e. within the inside confines of the vehicle). The first, shown below (ignore the line running horizontally through the image) is cut down the midline of the rig (front to back) and has two support pieces underneath, each held in place by screws (the triangles represent screws), one on each piece. The ovals in both diagrams are sports bar cutouts. I appreciate in diagram 1 that to fully encapsulate the sports bars they'll need to be cut out pieces between each sports bar and the side-most portions of the tub where the back side windows are.
I like the design of #2 more. Two pieces span the width of the tub. Accordingly, no support structure need exist below the surface like in design 1, except maybe some latch and eyelid hardware to keep the pieces touching. This facilitates a wide but skinny drawer below perhaps, like a map drawer, to hold the soft windows flat, and makes navigating around the sports bar much easier (my dotted cut line in #2 should have been at the point of the midline of sports bars, front to back) . My only concern is when the two pieces of design 2 are disconnect (and the optional window storage drawer is as well) that I will be able to get the two components out of the rig without removing the rear of the hardtop, or going "Safari" on the soft top. I'm not so much concerned with the piece on #2 closer to the front--I can always temporarily drop the rear seats.
It's the piece closer to the back of design #2 that concerns me. I think I'll have enough room to angle it out the back, back window up on the hardtop or out of the way on the soft top.
I'll probably drill holes for hardtop screws and/or countersink on the underside neodymium magnetic disk holes to insert such super strong magnets into, to prevent it from bouncing up and down.
I just wanted to hear your thoughts. Either way I'd probably just paint it, not go to the extent that this valuable contributor did on his JK a few years back:
Oh, and security of contents when windows/top are off is less of a priority for me than others who rightly buy lockable versions in metal of said item. I want to be able to conceal items below, and store items above on a strong flat surface, and remove the device: but that's about it.
One final question. I understand that blocking the view of your rear view mirror with such gear as might occupy the space above such a device is legal in most States where, like in the Wrangler, dual side view mirrors are installed. Thoughts?
Thanks.
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