DIY Hardtop hoist ideas - brainstorming

[jlewissystem]

Thanks! Did we just become best friends? Haha. I had remodeled the garage a little over a year ago for my other car, so had to get the matching Jeep

Now i want to go do Karate in your garage!

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[Crusifix]

I really like what I see from Quadratec and the Lange originals system. It is similar to one I had drawn out myself, and only costs about $15 more than I would have in it with the double line hand winch.
Lange Originals 014-SIMJL

 

[James_a]

I was keeping an eye on prices for a couple of months and you’re right - they only went up. So I bit the bullet. Very happy that I did. It makes the entire process a breeze!

Interested to see what Topsy comes out with.

I need some advice relatively quickly... I was looking at hardtop hoists and was leaning towards the Racor hoist with the Topsy kit. I have a low ceiling 8' max and looking at adding a maximus-3 roof rack. After a bit of forum searching and e-mailing Topsy I figured out I could make this work and planned out how to do it.

Now before I could move on this I needed to clear out an old 1880's carriage barn and stabilize the floor etc...so I did not purchase it right away... Today I'm in the process of installing lighting and decided to check on the dimensions to make sure I left enough room for the hoist and It's now listed on Amazon for $460!!! On top of this the Topsy JLU kit is sold out...

I checked their website and it doesn't mention that its been discontinued but I found a post here that mentioned it was being discontinued...

So at this point I started looking every where for it and found it at several places for over $500... However I did find 2 postings on Ebay 4 total units at $259 and $279 respectively...

Should I jump on this...

 

[98intrigue]

I need some advice relatively quickly... I was looking at hardtop hoists and was leaning towards the Racor hoist with the Topsy kit. I have a low ceiling 8' max and looking at adding a maximus-3 roof rack. After a bit of forum searching and e-mailing Topsy I figured out I could make this work and planned out how to do it.

Now before I could move on this I needed to clear out an old 1880's carriage barn and stabilize the floor etc...so I did not purchase it right away... Today I'm in the process of installing lighting and decided to check on the dimensions to make sure I left enough room for the hoist and It's now listed on Amazon for $460!!! On top of this the Topsy JLU kit is sold out...

I checked their website and it doesn't mention that its been discontinued but I found a post here that mentioned it was being discontinued...

So at this point I started looking every where for it and found it at several places for over $500... However I did find 2 postings on Ebay 4 total units at $259 and $279 respectively...

Should I jump on this...

Yikes! If this is the solution you’ve settled on, then yes I’d buy it. It was $180 when I started looking and $230+ when I ended up purchasing. Just looked on Amazon and the cheapest is now $399.

 

[James_a]

Yikes! If this is the solution you’ve settled on, then yes I’d buy it. It was $180 when I started looking and $230+ when I ended up purchasing. Just looked on Amazon and the cheapest is now $399.

I bought it at $279... More then I expected but okay. There were two for sale now the last one is listed at $555!

 

[Shots]

Wow. That seems excessive to me.
The Racor isn't designed specifically for the hard top, so it shouldn't be special item pricing. It's just a suspended shelving unit, that Jeep owners have found to work really well for the hard top. IMHO, $500 is a bit much, but I'm admittedly biased. I made my own rack with wood/metal, bought an electric hoist and the full Topsy kit. All in, I've spent half that and I simply push a button to remove the top, rather than having to crank it up/down or connect to a drill.

(See post #229 of this thread if you missed it).
Added bonus, I can quickly/easily disconnect my rack and use the hoist to lift heavy stuff (about 1K lbs IIRC).
Anyway, that's why I feel $500 is too much. To each their own, I'm certainly not going to bash anyone who thinks the price is justified. To them it very well may be.

 

[TheJoyceIsYours]

I posted this in another thread, but wanted to share here too:

Here is my tentative plan for the hoist. It has some Harken hoister in it as well as the Racor lift. At the moment I have it as 2x4 construction (with a 2x6 for the lift mount), but may want to upgrade the platform to aluminum at some point.

Here is the lift I plan to use: https://www.harborfreight.com/440-lbs-electric-hoist-with-remote-control-60346.html

I estimate this to be around $130 with a 20% off on that lift.

 

[Shots]

I like it. Two things though.
1. Wood will be sufficient, as you've got it drawn, if you're only using it for the hardtop and freedom panels. At most, I'd add a cross brace on the top component, but no need to upgrade to aluminum.
2. You're not going to get enough travel to lift the top with the hoist located where it is. That's assuming you're using the supplied cable and hook.

The yellow lines show your travel limit, which is very small. Again this is assuming you connect to the supplied line/hook on the hoist. This is limited because the hook stops at the hoist, and won't be able to go past the 2 rollers. Therefore the distance between the hoist and rollers is going to be your maximum travel.
You can eliminate that restriction by spooling your own lines to the hoist, or by relocating the hoist location. Either using a remote location, or by moving the hoist to the opposite side of the frame. By moving to the opposite side you can connect the hook near the rollers (with the lift in the "down" position). Another roller (or set of them) would be needed to reverse the direction of all the lines toward the hoist. However doing this would give you a maximum travel of whatever the width of your top frame is.
Without pulling up my drafting software, here's a crude example of the revision.

Again, this is all assuming you're using the supplied cable and hook. If you're spooling your own line, this is all moot.

 

[TheJoyceIsYours]

I like it. Two things though.
1. Wood will be sufficient, as you've got it drawn, if you're only using it for the hardtop and freedom panels. At most, I'd add a cross brace on the top component, but no need to upgrade to aluminum.
2. You're not going to get enough travel to lift the top with the hoist located where it is. That's assuming you're using the supplied cable and hook.

The yellow lines show your travel limit, which is very small. Again this is assuming you connect to the supplied line/hook on the hoist. This is limited because the hook stops at the hoist, and won't be able to go past the 2 rollers. Therefore the distance between the hoist and rollers is going to be your maximum travel.
You can eliminate that restriction by spooling your own lines to the hoist, or by relocating the hoist location. Either using a remote location, or by moving the hoist to the opposite side of the frame. By moving to the opposite side you can connect the hook near the rollers (with the lift in the "down" position). Another roller (or set of them) would be needed to reverse the direction of all the lines toward the hoist. However doing this would give you a maximum travel of whatever the width of your top frame is.
Without pulling up my drafting software, here's a crude example of the revision.

Again, this is all assuming you're using the supplied cable and hook. If you're spooling your own line, this is all moot.

Thanks for this.

I hadn't decided on which way to go but was planning on using the supplied 39' Cable, and another similar length, then doubling those over to get my 4 cables. That's the point where I am unsure of how it'll work with the 4x cables going to the spool. In theory it should be fine, but It'll have to wait till I see what the spool actually looks like.

This is the closest I could find:

 

[BrntWS6]

I was going to get a racor lift but the price has doubled recently. Not paying $500 or whatever for it, they are f'ing nuts.

 

[Shak14]

So I decided to go with the Harbor Freight 440lbs electric hoist mounted in the attic space above my garage, but I also wanted to relieve the weight from the hard top since it will be up there for about 6 months. With that said, I built a hard top rack kind of like yeoman18 had in post #2 that way I can store my hard top and freedom panels as well as my soft top during the winter. Used wood I had laying around and spent $20 for the 4 straps and 8 130# strength eyelets from Home Depot. I may cover the top in some spare carpet I have in the basement, but all in all in turned out pretty good and I was able to hang from the rack without issue.

 

[BrntWS6]

Omg the prices for that racor lift are all over the place. Checked amazon last night and it was $500, today they are $400. What the heck is going on with this company?

 

[Shak14]

Omg the prices for that racor lift are all over the place. Checked amazon last night and it was $500, today they are $400. What the heck is going on with this company?

Supply and demand my friend! They need a competitor to knock them down a bit.

 

[okie dokie]

Omg the prices for that racor lift are all over the place. Checked amazon last night and it was $500, today they are $400. What the heck is going on with this company?

Doubt its the company .
Probably snatched up by a 3rd party
Blame the invisible hand.

 

[Shots]

Yup. Sell for what the market will bare. If they can make sales for $500, who can blame them for doing it. Although I suspect okie dokie is correct, and it's likely 3rd party who are causing the irregularities in the price. They get it from the manufacturer (Racor) for something like $200 and then list for whatever they think they can get out of it. As a result you get a wide range of list prices for the same product. Just a guess though. I'm no business expert (or even novice) so I could be completely wrong. Sounds logical though.

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