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Jeep Gladiator Soft Top

Soft Top vs Hard Top


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Jeep383-S

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How do you think that the Gladiator’s soft top will function? I think that the back portion of it will kind of pop and slide out like the JL’s rear window does allowing for that safari look that the JL has.

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Troybilt

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I will take both. I will carry the 2 front doors in the bed when I go on trips when the weather is 50/50. Right now I have no need for a soft top as my doors are never on with the top off.
 

homerun

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Dual top group for me. Change to hard top this time of year and put the soft top back on in the spring. Did that for years on my YJ. Can we adjust the poll to have a 3rd option?
 

kltk1

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It's going to be interesting to see how the soft top mechanism works and what it looks like with the top down. 11/29 is going to be a busy day...
 

JEEPN X 4

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I agree, it looks like the back panel is one continuous piece that wraps around the rear corners to the retainer at the back of the rear door. You can probably remove that and get the safari-style top with the open rear.

I hope this also has the sunrider functionality that opens it up over both front and rear passengers. It does appear to have the same number of bows as the JL soft top, as you can see the extra bow over the front passenger and driver that isn't there on the JK.

One question I have is it can be retracted all the way down to the leading edge of the bed. Need to know if when folding down it will clear a hard shell bed topper or a Softopper on the bed.

The extremely cool thing about this design is that if you remove the rear piece, it's plausible that you can have all sorts of aftermarket soft top options for the bed that actually tie into the cab soft top and make one contiguous soft top across the whole cab and bed. I'm most interested in having a Softopper for the bed as a separate piece, but there are all sorts of cool possibilities here that will be fun to watch develop.
 

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RussJeep1

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The extremely cool thing about this design is that if you remove the rear piece, it's plausible that you can have all sorts of aftermarket soft top options for the bed that actually tie into the cab soft top and make one contiguous soft top across the whole cab and bed.
Excellent point. I was thinking "cab cover must be hard" but your totally right about the potential for a soft implementation.
 

MTH

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One question I have is it can be retracted all the way down to the leading edge of the bed. Need to know if when folding down it will clear a hard shell bed topper or a Softopper on the bed.
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Should function just like a bikini top with a rear curtain. I assume all the support bows slide along the door surrounds. I'd also bet that they slide in a channel that runs down to the top of the bed. All you'd remove is the rear curtain.

Flip top is a challenge though as they have arms that are usually half the opening. Folding those back in the limited space these have could be a challenge. Unless there is a hinge system at the rear corner of the rear doors that they would swing down from - if that makes sense - when folding it back.

Maybe the track stops at the rear top corner of the rear doors rather than going all the way down. Would look clean that way folded back.
 

MTH

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I have a feeling that "Jeep383-S" already knows all the details of this top.
 

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MTH

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You joined today and have 5 posts... hmmm
'Matt The Hammer' on the JL forum. Wouldn't transfer over for whatever reason.

This is post 6. Woot.
 

MoaKane

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Hammertime! Just having fun man.
 

DaveNH

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Looking at the pics of the JT soft top, it appears that the top portion is essentially the same length as on a 2 dr JL.

It's likely that the back window is the same as on the JL, and slides in a channel. The hard formed rear corners, which are attached to the side windows in the JL, are probably stand alone posts that snap in.

It's possible that they could integrate the corners into the back window, so that it's literally 2 pieces (top and back window). But it's probably simpler to use the existing back window and separate corners.
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