As the company that brought the half hardtop to Jeeps other than the CJ-8 Scrambler, GR8TOPS is excited to introduce a potential new hardtop product line we are developing, initially targeting LJs and TJs with both full and halftop models.
Many readers of this thread will be familiar with Jeff Scherb’s amazing fabrication thread that detailed how he built a new modular hardtop of his own design in his garage. GR8TOPS saw the incredible potential in this new top design early on and followed the development to a finished top and approached Jeff about working with us to try to bring this cool new top to Jeepers everywhere.
We have thoroughly enjoyed working with Jeff through this effort and appreciate his willingness to work with us to allow GR8TOPS to have the opportunity to bring this top to market.
In that thread, Jeff helped us gather an immense amount of feedback from real Jeepers on their needs and wants that’s been essential in our development process. For fear of using a marketing buzzword, this is a perfect example of a “crowd-sourced” idea driven by Jeff’s initial design and we think the results speak for themselves:
•Totally unique look unlike any other top out there
•Completely modular construction
-separate roof, side panels, door surrounds and rear barn door -allows the top to be disassembled and stored in a minimum of space
-one-piece “barn door” that attaches to the tailgate for a single swing-open rear door for easy cargo access--no more lift gate!
•A wide array of possible options (we are still evaluating options to be made available.)
People who have followed Jeff’s thread have seen some of these:
-a hard bikini setup using stanchions on the rear corners with no side panels
-roll up soft sides for use with the hard bikini to seal the cabin
-opening side windows for ventilation
-rear window wiper (no other aftermarket top offers this)
-a range of wiring options that are plug-and-play compatible with the Jeep's factory wiring (regardless of if you are replacing a hard or soft top)
-interior lighting options
-van sides with no windows for custom fabrication or custom window installs
-roof rack reinforcement tie-ins to the stock rollbar for increased rack capacity (respecting the handling limitations of weight mounted on the rack of course!)
This is an incredible top with a look, features and options unlike anything in the Jeep aftermarket, and we’re excited to show you what it looks like.
These are pictures of what we are referring to as our “engineering prototype” which is installed on our project LJ (built specifically to use for developing and testing this top!)
For folks that followed Jeff’s thread, you’ll notice that the top does not have a rear wiper installed or the center high mounted stop light (CHMSL/3rd brake light) but it is a completely assembled set to allow us to verify the construction before proceeding with prototype production molds.
We are driving this Jeep daily and loving every minute of it. The reactions from passing Jeep people have been absolutely hilarious (we’re calling them “neck-breakers” as our inside joke)
Enough with all that, let’s make with the pics already.
Read more about its development here:
http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46300
