Dual Top Owners

[bpdunsta]

Mine came with a hard top plus the factory headliners, and then I bought a soft top later on. Although the soft top is definitely louder than the hard top, I was surprised how minor the difference between the two was. I don't personally feel the difference in sound alone would justify buying the hard top. I do however appreciate having the rear wiper and easier access to the cargo area with the hardtop. To me those are more meaningful benefits than the noise reduction.

I'm in the same situation as @eck and agree with the response. The only other thing I would add is that while the road noise isn't that much different between the two, the noises from the top itself (i.e. rattles) are much less with the hard top.

Don't get me wrong, I love my soft top -- best thing I've purchased since buying the Jeep. But, just this morning while taking my son to school with the top up, windows in, doors on, and windows rolled up, I thought to myself "This would drive me nuts all winter".

Just my $0.02

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[Jeep_Dog_Golf]

As a current JK owner, and soon to be JL owner, I'm curious if I'm going to have the same struggles with the initial installation of the soft top on the JL.
With the JK, it was a real pain when I did the initial swap from hard top to soft top. Had to make sure it was a sunny day and the fabric was exposed to sunlight to allow some stretch. And even then, it was a struggle to get it latched in the front.
With the revised engineering on the JL soft tops, will I be experiencing the same struggles?

It will still need to stretch out. The JL soft top was very difficult to latch at first but loosened up over a few weeks. Now it's just fine.

 

[JeepCares]

On the topic of soft tops...and instead of starting a new thread...Anyone experiencing any rattles of the soft top bow right above your head? It's the second one back and it seems that the top material is attached to a dowel that sits in the cross bow is loose inside it and rattles. I can tap the underside of the roof near it and cause it to rattle. Make sense? Anyone experience that will on bumpy roads?

Hi 55WillysWagon,
We are sorry to hear about your frustration with your rattle concern. Are you considering having your dealer address this? If you are interested in any additional help, do not hesitate to reach out to us via private message.
Laura
Jeep Social Care Specialist

 

[modeler]

is it always cheaper to get dual top from dealer at the time of purchase of jeep or i can always buy top later when needed?

 

[dgreen1069]

The hardtop option is $1195 and dual tops are $2295. It is cheaper to buy the dual tops up front vs buying a top from a dealer later, but second hand tops for JK's could be found for $1000-1200 fairly regularly. I'm guessing the JL's will be similar as more and more are produced. If you think you want both you are definitely better off starting with a hardtop as it comes with all the wiring and switches installed for the rear wiper/washer and defroster.

 

[fjrrider]

Quick update. Finally got a warm sunny day and got around to installing the soft top yesterday. For those who have yet to install it, I would strongly suggest watching the YouTube video that Quadratec posted. Watching that first made it much simpler as the paper instructions were mediocre, at best.
I did the full install by myself. There were a couple spots where it might have been easier with a helper, but it wasn't that tough.
I didn't have any issues getting the rear window in as some mentioned.
As far as the tightness, while it was a bit of a challenge, it was nowhere near as difficult as the JK initial install.
A tip for getting it clamped at the windshield, slide the seat the whole way forward and use the leverage of pushing back on the seat to push the top forward to help get clamped. One big push was all it took.

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