Sunrider owners - MY mess-up, or theirs?

[Eagle22]

Hmmm, don't think you'll have to actually remove - maybe just "open" it?

I don't have pics of the bottom - but since it's off and laying on the floor, that could be easy to get.
I've got these -

This shows the other style - someone else posted this one -

The final resolution will have to come from them since it's their patented product, they conceived, developed, engineered and had it made.
Unless Jeep actually bought the rights to manufacture it from them (and no one knows) it's totally Bestop.
IF - again we don't know - IF Jeep bought the rights, licensed the rights to make it and sell it through their dealerships and as a factory option, then it's a Jeep problem.
(the way FCA licensed the rights to build the ZF transmission).
But we don't know who makes it, if Jeep licensed it, or if it's all Bestop.
In any case it's their baby - their invention, design and so on. They hold the rights in any case.

Bill: It's my photo you used above. I keep going back to the fact your Sunrider (with a Jeep label on it) is very different. Here are both of mine:

A 2021 JT with a Bestop Sunrider purchased late 2024: (I tried to duplicate the photo of your "Jeep Sunrider" posted above)

My 2024 JL with a 2021 Bestop Sunrider:

Both of my Bestop Sunriders look identical to me, with the exception that when assembling the 2024 Sunrider, I found that Bestop had discontinued the use of Z-clips for fastening the tension cables.

Your pictured "Jeep Sunrider" looks different enough to think it was manufactured by someone other than Bestop....maybe Jeep using (misusing) Bestop specs??

Anyway...I feel for you and hope you get it resolved. I really like the Sunrider...in fact so much, that I leave them on year round.

I have also installed a Hot Heads liner on the JL Sunrider...it works VERY well for heat and sound insulation. I'll be buying another for the JT.

For those who consider buying Bestop's sunshade for the Sunrider...I did buy one...it is well made and engineered, but the way in which it is mounted covers a couple inches of the Sunrider opening, reducing my open air experience, so I removed it. The reality is that if the sun is bothering us to the point of needing shade, we simply close the Sunrider.

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[JT1]

Yes, and oddly, mostly on the right side. The left is up a bit in the back, but not enough to really bother with. The right rear is really up there.



That was actually an idea to test, except the way that front mount is designed, if you lift that front mounting pad up, then the lower clamp part can't swing down to get a bolt through.
there's an upper and a lower part of the front mount, but not the rear mount.
This part here would no longer reach (I tried to hold up the sunrider a bit and see if this would still go around the bottom of the bar, and it wouldn't)

By the way - this is clipped from a youtube video and it shows another perfectly fine fitting sunrider on a later model with the new style rain diversion parts -

Yeah, my thought process was maybe jeep made a slight change to the front topside roll cage structure specifically for the changeover to the new airbags. Can you measure the thickness through that bolt hole on the Mojave and your wife's?

My soft top has the same type of mounting arrangement too.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Bill: It's my photo you used above.

And thank you for that- it's another data point, but also another question - what changed, why did it change, and who changed it? Jeep or Bestop?

I have also installed a Hot Heads liner on the JL Sunrider...it works VERY well for heat and sound insulation. I'll be buying another for the JT.

Once this is resolved, and hopefully it will be - I'll be ordering the liner as well. And I have plans for a Spiderweb sunshade - I used to have enough hair for me and two others (a girl once said "I wish I had your hair") - I wonder if these days maybe she ended up with it - I sure don't have much of it, so I've got no solar protection up there LOL.

I don't know who made what, for who, or when - who makes them for Bestop? Do they do their own manufacturing? I doubt Jeep does......

I ordered my JT, a 2025, in the first half of March this year. It was ready in 3 weeks, shipped, and I picked it up exactly one month later. It had the sunrider sitting in a box in the back, secured using the Jeep's tie down points in the bed of the truck. I wanted the factory tonneau cover and to get that you HAD to either get $2,000 trail rail package or the sunrider for about 900.
Simple choice - didn't want the trail rails and 110v outlet in the bed and I figured the sunrider would be easier than messing with panels and keeping them decent while out of the truck, and being Iowa, we have popup storms - never predicted, they just happen. Nice day today - you take off and go through a massive rain storm minutes later. On the news "gee, we didn't see that coming" (they never saw the storms coming that created the derecho, either - I was danged lucky I stuck the panels in the back of the truck!!!) Here it's a nice day until it isn't. Temps change 20 or more degrees in an hour. So hey, this seemed like an ok idea.
And we used to have a 1990 Camaro T-top........... man, I loved that car! Loved the way the tops worked and stowed in the back and how the air flowed with them out.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Yeah, my thought process was maybe jeep made a slight change to the front topside roll cage structure specifically for the changeover to the new airbags. Can you measure the thickness through that bolt hole on the Mojave and your wife's?

My soft top has the same type of mounting arrangement too.

She's out and about with her Jeep for now - but it would be an easy measure to make, including measuring from the top of that bar to the bottom of the freedom panel and so on.
I wonder if that's the sort of thing Jeep had the dealership measure.

I need to dig backwards in time and see what year of Jeeps the photos of other poorly fitting sunriders are on. There's a few videos out there showing to tuck that seal - need to find what year they are dealing with, easy to do by looking at the video post date.

 

[JT1]

She's out and about with her Jeep for now - but it would be an easy measure to make, including measuring from the top of that bar to the bottom of the freedom panel and so on.
I wonder if that's the sort of thing Jeep had the dealership measure.

I need to dig backwards in time and see what year of Jeeps the photos of other poorly fitting sunriders are on. There's a few videos out there showing to tuck that seal - need to find what year they are dealing with, easy to do by looking at the video post date.

If you need a data point, mine is an early '21. It was built in December, and delivered 1/27/21. Has the drip channels, but not the new wing seals. Just let me know.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Hmmm, don't think you'll have to actually remove - maybe just "open" it?

I don't have pics of the bottom - but since it's off and laying on the floor, that could be easy to get.
I've got these -

This shows the other style - someone else posted this one -

The final resolution will have to come from them since it's their patented product, they conceived, developed, engineered and had it made.
Unless Jeep actually bought the rights to manufacture it from them (and no one knows) it's totally Bestop.
IF - again we don't know - IF Jeep bought the rights, licensed the rights to make it and sell it through their dealerships and as a factory option, then it's a Jeep problem.
(the way FCA licensed the rights to build the ZF transmission).
But we don't know who makes it, if Jeep licensed it, or if it's all Bestop.
In any case it's their baby - their invention, design and so on. They hold the rights in any case.

Definitely would need to remove. I mean the bottom of the plastic rails.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

OK, here's some fotos and measurements. Sorry, really really hard to hold the phone, hit the button and hold a tape measure up with my hands as they are. I had a heck of a time just holding the tape measure in place and not dropping it.........

Anyway, I measured from this point on the freedom panel to the bottom of the rail. Before I grabbed my phone I did hold a straight edge up there to try to be accurate, then tried to hold the phone up at the same height as the bar for a good perspective pic but looks like I missed.
In both cases, this was 3/4" - not even give or take, it landed on the 3/4" mark.

Next I measured the "thickness of that bar, using a wire with a 90 degree bend on one end and pushed it up through the sunrider mounting hole, and marked the end sticking out the bottom.
Both Jeeps this measured 1 3/4".

Then I put a wire up through the hole until it touched the freedom panel, making sure to hit the panel in the same spot on both Jeeps - 2 3/4" so the panel sits 1" above the top of the bar. And that I confirmed as well.

I came up with both the 2023 JLU and the 2025 JT having the same dimensions at that bar and between bar and panel, I even measured from the bottom of the bar to the top of the pinch weld at the rocker panel area (door sill where we drag out feet getting in). Same measurement. Didn't write it down, but ran between Jeeps really fast and remembered it for 15 seconds (the extent of my storage for such things)

I would not have been surprised to see a difference due to the air bags, but then, I'm not surprised to see no differences since everything relies on those bars being pretty exact between Jeeps. To deviate would mean door, windshield and other things would not fit correctly.

 

[Trollboogie]

FYI..... my Sunrider was mounted on my 21 Mojave. It had no mucket but did have drip channel in the front window frame.....no side airbags. It mounted just fine in my 24 Mojave. It just pushed out the mucket causing the door to fold them down when shut.

My rails do sit parallel with the door though. My problem is opposite of yours. My top doesn't close down enough causing wind noise from the front seal. If I pull the front seal up off the pinchweld and let the top push it down when latched, the noise goes away. I have to do it everytime I close it.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

FYI..... my Sunrider was mounted on my 21 Mojave. It had no mucket but did have drip channel in the front window frame.....no side airbags. It mounted just fine in my 24 Mojave. It just pushed out the mucket causing the door to fold them down when shut.

My rails do sit parallel with the door though. My problem is opposite of yours. My top doesn't close down enough causing wind noise from the front seal. If I pull the front seal up off the pinchweld and let the top push it down when latched, the noise goes away. I have to do it everytime I close it.

That's really weird!
That's a situation where it would be interesting to swap tops.........

 

[Trollboogie]

That's really weird!
That's a situation where it would be interesting to swap tops.........

Yes it would.

I did contact Bestop and do tech support by email and pictures for what it's worth. In the end, they told me the mucket, being pushed out was fine. Didn't cause any problems and I needed to warranty my front seal out with Jeep. I asked, why would they do that since my freedom tops fit just fine. That was the end of their tech support fir my problem.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Yes it would.

I did contact Bestop and do tech support by email and pictures for what it's worth. In the end, they told me the mucket, being pushed out was fine. Didn't cause any problems and I needed to warranty my front seal out with Jeep. I asked, why would they do that since my freedom tops fit just fine. That was the end of their tech support fir my problem.

Yeah, I had the same "support" from them. Once it became "this isn't right", they stopped.
That being pushed out isn't just fine - mine was being cut to shreds and likely will have to be replaced - hmmmm, a Jeep accessory causing damage to Jeep parts. Fun warranty claim for the dealership.

Those seals and mucket and drains are made that way for a reason. Jeep spent money on engineering, design, testing, and even putting them on Jeep vehicles under warranty at their expense. If it was ok for them to be like that, ya think Jeep would have spent even 25 cents on all of that, the TSB and so on?
The goofy thing is they told me "that's not right, it shouldn't do that" - which is it?

Yeah, that's part of the frustration. Which is it and since when is it ok to distort and cut Jeep seals.
BUT - they say don't tuck the seal, either. Contradictory messages, frustrating.

 

[Gatorized]

Did the ‘Jeep’ tagged Sunrider come preassembled from the factory or did you have to do the pre assembly as shown in the first 5 minutes of the Bestop installation video?
Their video shows the rails fitting like a glove into the seal (5:38 of the video). I’d be interested to see a ’Bestop‘ tagged Sunrider installed on your JT for comparison.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Did the ‘Jeep’ tagged Sunrider come preassembled from the factory or did you have to do the pre assembly as shown in the first 5 minutes of the Bestop installation video?
Their video shows the rails fitting like a glove into the seal (5:38 of the video). I’d be interested to see a ’Bestop‘ tagged Sunrider installed on your JT for comparison.

They come preassembled in a big sort of flat box tied into the bed's anchor points.

I'd be interested in the differences such as the mounting points shown a few posts earlier today - something changed. There are some differences between what some others have vs. mine.
Since it's a Jeep part - the dealer can only order another one through their parts depot, apparently.

The one in the video is different as far as the mounting points on the sunrider itself - and, that's an earlier Jeep. Without the doors closed, can't tell how well it really fits - is the gap parallel above the doors?

Open side of box, there's a sliding tray in the box - pull that out, lift the sunrider off the formed foam pads, install.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Okee-dokee-

The way these attach, there's no adjustment. The clamp sits above the sunrider's drip rails and any adjustment would only make things worse - you'd raise this clamp, but in the process LOWER the sunrider itself, so there's no fix here. Otherwise I'd have happily loosened screws and inserted washers and called it good.

By the way - this area is very very rough - sharp, even.
Minor thing, but it rubs on things and literally cuts. It's on both sides, like some part of their molding process doesn't get attention.
If I end up with a good one that fits good - that will get filed and smoothed for sure. Not a "gripe" but an attention to finish detail thing.

Sure glad we FINALLY after years of promised, finally got some broadband internet out here! (well, not by the goodwill of the company, but a government grant). The company has a monopoly on all internet in the area and refused to come out here until someone waved big bucks in their face.
But the company suffers frequent and long-term outages, so there is that...........

The molding looks very different from mine. Looks like a different plastic compound.

Starlink allows you to have complete autonomy from providers.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Did the ‘Jeep’ tagged Sunrider come preassembled from the factory or did you have to do the pre assembly as shown in the first 5 minutes of the Bestop installation video?
Their video shows the rails fitting like a glove into the seal (5:38 of the video). I’d be interested to see a ’Bestop‘ tagged Sunrider installed on your JT for comparison.

Me too.

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