Towing with hard top vs soft top

[NachoRuby]

It has been U-Haul policy forever, I think before jeeps had structural roll cages even. It's a dinosaur policy that they've just never reviewed, and they still enforce. Soft top jeeps and hard top ones are structurally identical nowadays, and interestingly, it doesn't ask the same thing if I try to rent one with a gladiator, which obviously makes no sense, but it does with a Bronco.

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[MrGneissGuy]

I rented a trailer a month ago, guy said if I had a soft top they wouldn’t allow. Something about if trailer flipped and landed on the Jeep it would be serious injuries and uHaul just doesn’t allow it. I have a hardtop so didn’t have to worry. But was good to know for future.

I asked at a UHaul once when I was returning a truck we had rented. Similar, but overly general answer. She did tell me they'll rent one if it's a hard top. I'm no expert, but I can't figure out how a relatively thin fiberglass hard top provides any more protection than the soft top, with all of it's support structure.

 

[Steemax]

I have the One-Touch roof and tried to rent a from U-Haul last year. There's no option for my roof so I entered "hard top." I got to the final step of the booking process and it told me I had to schedule time with my local U-Haul spot so they could inspect my Jeep before allowing me to complete the reservation. I get liability/insurance issues, but DAMN...

It said the same thing for my Tacoma, it was just to make sure I had the right height hitch ball and my wiring was working. Maybe they would say something if they saw the soft top though.

 

[mlabiche]

I have a 2022 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited 4xe with the Fly-Back automatic top (soft top). I rented a 6x12 Uhaul trailer and they let me (Houston, TX). The first time I used the trailer, which was about 1/2 full of items (estimated total weight of 3,000 lbs), my windshield cracked around the mirror area. I thought it was strange because I neither heard nor saw any rocks or debris hit my windshield. I wrote it off as an odd experience. I replaced the windshield with the same OEM Jeep Gorilla Glass at a Jeep dealership. 4 months later, I made the same trip with the same Uhaul trailer... and guess what? The windshield broke again in nearly the same location. This time, I started to suspect that without the solid roof, the trailer unusually loads the windshield through the frame only... causing a bending moment on the center of the windshield. I think this is the reason they do not rent to soft top jeep owners.

Has anyone else had this experience?

 

[mgarciaknight]

 

[autotragic]

That isn't true. They will rent to a convertible car, but not a jeep.

https://www.uhaul.com/Blog/2014/04/21/towing-with-a-convertible/

Fun fact they also won't rent a trailer to Ford Explorers but if you have a Mercury Mountaineer then it's perfectly fine. I don't know if this is something that's been fixed lately or not but this was the case once upon a time.

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