JL 4 door hard top front to back balance point

[Rahneld]

I'm designing a hitch based hard top lift..or at least I'm trying to.

Clearly, the answer to the following question is one I'm going to have to precisely find out for myself, but I was wondering if anyone has a starting point for me.

Where would you say the balance point of the 4 door hard top is, with respect to front to back balance. I'm guessing around here. Thoughts?

Thanks.

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[TA1ton]

@Rahneld Depending on how you build your lift and how you attach the hardtop to it will dictate your lift point for a single point lift. I would suggest designing a lift that uses at least two points as it will be more stable and you won’t have to deal with finding the perfect spot to lift from. I built my hoist as a single point lift and it works, but I quickly figured out during the design phase that I actually needed to figure out two lifting points on the cradle...one for when the hard top was attached and one for when it wasn’t. Theoretically you could design it such that the center of mass for the cradle is centered over the center of mass for the hard top, but that was more work than I was willing to put in for what I considered a small benefit. Anyway...I don’t have a measurement for you right now...but roughly here: