I want to hoist my hard top off my jeep, hoist it up to the ceiling, and store it suspended from the ceiling. The top weighs about 150 lbs. I want to be able to do this alone. Prior to removing and hoisting, the top will be attached to two 2x4s, which will cross the centerline of the jeep. The top should be hoisted by the ends of the 2x4s. They are needed because the top will spread if suspended by itself. Look at this write up if you’re having trouble visualizing it: Jeep Hard Top Storage - TJ Generation So, I’ll have four lift points on the bottom of the hard top, and I thought four anchor points in the ceiling would distribute the weight evenly and safely.
I was thinking about using eye hooks at the corners, with eye hook & pulley combinations above. This would make for simple hoisting, but difficult tie-off and lowering in the fall.
How about a block and tackle on each corner, with all four ropes from the block and tackle going to a single rope, which you could then pull easily and raise/lower all four corners simultaneously? The single rope at the end could then be tied off for storage, and untied and let out to lower the top.
Skimming the article, the writer mentioned not wanting to use ratchet straps for some reason. If you used ratchet straps, you wouldn’t have deal with tying anything off. You could go around and ratchet each one a few inches at a time until it’s as high as you need it to be. The problem is, you would need four people to lower it back down.
How about this…
You have your lower anchor points on the hard top, right. (I’m thinking about this as I write it, so it might take some refinement…)
Okay, here we go.
On the ground, you lay out two 2x4s that are the distance of your eyebolts. Make sense? Then you lay another 2x4 down the center of these two and lag bolt (or nut/bolt/washer would be better) it all together. Now, if you lay this over the top of your jeep, the first two 2x4s will be hanging over the side right over the anchor points. So far so good?
Now, you find a way to attach the top to the brace. Either some cables with turnbuckles, some good ol’ rope, maybe a ratchet strap (on each side) from one corner, over the top of the 2x4 over the other one and down to the anchor on the other side…what ever works. I would put some towels over the hard top to protect it.
Now you’ve got the hard top mounted to the brace. From there I would have a heavy duty eye bolt in the top cross member, not centered, but where ever the center of gravity is*. Have another eye bolt in the ceiling and now, with some pulleys you should be able to lift it up by yourself. Then just do something to make sure it doesn’t swing around.
Does that make sense?
*Maybe attache a few eye bolts to the top since you won’t know where the center of gravity will be until you start lifting it, it’ll probably be towards the back, and it’ll likely be in a slightly different place each time.
@ECG: In that case, there’d be a fifth point at the ceiling, where the four lines would join up? The way I’m picturing that, there would be lateral stress on the eye hooks, which I don’t think would be good - the weight should fall pretty much directly beneath the eye hooks
Also, as for the issue with the top spreading, I see what you’re saying. My thought on that would be to shimmy the 2x2 between the top and the body in there, I assume you can do that by yourself, before the top is lifted off, and then go over the top from one eye bolt to the other with a ratchet strap and use those eye bolts also to lift it from. The reason I say you should go over the top with a ratchet strap is because you’re doing this by yourself and if you start lifting this and it starts tipping, the wood is going to flip it self out and your going to wind up with the top swinging from the ceiling from just the front anchor points. Strapping the wood to the top will “marry” the two pieces and make them act as one. I would also get the eye bolts right up against the body or put shims (or even towels/rags) in between the body and the bolts to keep everything tight. Again, since you’re using this to move the top and not just support it, there’s going to be dynamic/twisting/torquing forces on this as opposed to just static forces while it hangs there.
Ideally, I’ll fix the top to the 2x4s using the holes in the hard top used to fIx the top to the jeep itself. I’d have to lift and shift the top to do that, which is doable. I can lift the top but it’s too large and awkward to maneuver
I made one of these 10 years ago for my MIL’s Miata hard-top and she still uses it regularly and can do it herself. What I did:
Two large wood hooks/claws for the front of the hood and two slightly bent metal S-hooks that fit up underneath the latching mechanism near the trunk Miata Hardtop picture
You could easily do your 2x4 method instead here
On the ceiling of the garage I put a hanging tennis ball that marked exactly where she needed to park
Also on the ceiling I put a 3/4" thick plywood sheet to spread the load a bit and into this I screwed 4 eye-bolts that were 2" toward the center compared to the respective hook location on the hardtop.
Into each eye-bolt I put a pulley and threaded rope down and securely attached the hooks.
After much experimenting, I tied (then melted and taped) all 4 lines to a 5th line (the connection is along the ceiling and OUTSIDE the box of the 4 eyebolts).
The 5th line goes to another eye-bolt and pulley at the wall-ceiliing junction and down the wall until it ties into the block and tackle Inverted double tackle with a nearby mooring cleat for tying off.
I was hesitant about having 6 ropes but I just used the standard yellow nylon stuff and not even a hint of slipping or wear and my 65yo MIL can put her hardtop on and off at will and it cost ~$40.
She probably pulls maybe 10-15 lbs at most when hoisting it, but she lifts it probably 5 feet off the car.
You could use compound pulleys that would allow the top to be raised and lowered while pulling on a single line, but it’s probably more trouble than its worth. I think you’d need 7 pulleys, one at four corners on the top, and three of the corners at the top, with the end fixed for the forth corner on the top. The pulleys have to have swivels because the line is changing directions as it goes around the top. I think you get a work advantage of 7 or 8, I forget how that works.
But you could also jam the line in a pulley while lifting or lowering, and now you have a 150 lb. hard top suspended in the air that won’t budge.
How about just making a harness to lift and lower the top at the CG with a small electric hoist? Use four hooks at the top to loop the harness on for safety and to take the load off the single point.
I hate when costs get in the way too. I guess I’ll skip the idea for a hydraulic robot arm. But your plan sounds pretty simple and workable. You only have to use it a couple of times a year. **Disheavel’s **idea about a single line for lowering and raising sounds like a good idea.
We use to store our kayaks by hanging them from the ceiling of the garage. They had to be pretty high up so we could still drive the car under them. Here is how we did it and it may work for you as well.
Eyebolts through the rafters in the right locations. Your studs/rafters may not be in the right location in which case you’ll need to get in the attic and put some in.
Rope hanging down from the eyebolts. At short intervals, the rope was tied so that it held a metal ring (which we got from the hardware store, like a buck a piece or something). We hand carried the kayaks in and clipped them to the lowest ring. I think the clips we used are called snap links or quick links. They are “P” shaped things where the vertical top part of the “P” can be opened with your thumb, then they are placed on what you want to clip to, then the gate is released/closed.
Anyway, once the kayak was hanging, it was an easy process to go to one end, unclip it, raise it a few inches, re clip it higher, then go to the other end, do the same, and repeat until done. Had it rigged so that it was always clipped. Or, in other words if you failed to do the next clip up correctly, it would just fall down to the clip it was previously at. A good stepstool is a godsend here (and besides they are just handy to have around anyway).
A bit tedious, but if you aren’t doing it often its tolerable. Does that make sense?
Seems like a good idea, kind of like ratchet straps that work in both directions. If I could make one (IMHO) improvement though. Use the clips that have the “gates” on both sides. Then, instead of hanging ropes from the ceiling with rings tied in, use chains. This way, instead of being locked in to where the rings are, you can hoist a corner up and clip it where ever you need to instead of straining yourself trying to get it that one extra inch.
Come to think of it, I have one more thing I’d add. I wouldn’t put one end of the clip directly onto the roof, I’d get a piece of cable or chain about six inches or a foot long and put a clip on either end and use that little piece to attach to the roof. That little bit of leeway might be easier to work with.
I used to have a Wrangler myself. I did something similar to what they did in the link in the OP with some modifications.
I used 2 pieces of 1x2 to attach to the bottom of the hardtop to keep it from spreading. Like the last picture in that link, the eye bolts went all the way through the wood. I used wood screws and the preformed holes in the hardtop to attach it to the wood.
I used 2 open lag hooks (like these) and screwed them directly into the joists in the ceiling of my garage (it wasn’t a finished garage). From the lag hooks I hung a pulley. I put two rope cleats (like this) on the wall next to where I wanted to hoist the top.
I tied two ropes so that they made an inverted Y (1/2" poly rope, I think). I tied the two short ends to the front eye bolts and ran the long end up through the front pulley, over to the front cleat. Did the same thing with the back side.
The hardest part was getting the wood under the hardtop. I had to stand in the Jeep and push up with my back to raise it enough to shimmy the board underneath. But once I got the wood in place, I would raise the front up a bit and tie off on the cleat then do the back a little bit and just walk it on up to the ceiling.
I don’t remember what knots I used on the rope to make the Y. I think it was one long rope that went from one eye bolt, through the pulley, and over to the cleat with a much smaller second rope that went from the other eye bolt, over the top of the roof to the longer one.
You might want to re-do it so that there is a rope for the left side and right side instead of front and back. That would make the knot that ties the ropes together lower so you could raise it higher.
Overall, the hardtop isn’t much more than 100 pounds, so two separate ceiling joists should have no problem holding it up.
