Sprinkler-Fitter
Well-Known Member
How do you have rock on your rubicon?Skid Plates, Skid Plates and Skid Plates. I have rock on my Rubicon.
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How do you have rock on your rubicon?Skid Plates, Skid Plates and Skid Plates. I have rock on my Rubicon.
Live in WA, soft top is no issue in the winter. I've driven it in 5*F temps and it was a non issue. The heater is a beast, you only feel the cold if you like to rest your hand on the roll bar which will be cold.Thanks Kris and Vincent - Glad to hear a couple voices saying the soft top works in the winter. The soft top I drove was a base sport with automatic transmission. It had the stock all season tires which were very quiet. Does the hardtop do a better job blocking out road noise from more aggressive tires? I did test drive a hard top Rubicon (JLU) with the extreme recon 35" stock tires and I would say it seemed similar to the soft top Gladiator sport regarding noise in the cabin.
Any comments regarding buying and selling the half doors as a cheaper way to get the power locks and windows without stepping up to the full Willy's? Am I trying too hard to pinch pennies? If I can sell the half doors for $3000 the savings over the full Willy's is $4100.
Thanks for making me think about this more. I think I will be ok putting the skis in diagonally, the box is 60" x 56" with a diagonal of 82". Our longest skis are 78". I will bring a few pairs to the dealer and make sure the wheel wells don't cause an unexpected problem.You really need to research this more, especially the size of the cargo area and your planned use. The Gladiator may not be a good choice for you.
Wonder if you could buy four full doors from the junkyard and cut them in half for less money.How much could I reasonably expect to sell them for? The few sets that I see on ebay are listed for $6000+ (which seems crazy to me). If I could get $3000 or so by selling the half doors and benefit from the addition of power windows and locks on the full doors that would put me way ahead and is an attractive savings to me.
I'm not sure I understand your intentions. Are you looking to buy with manual windows and door locks, and then sell the half-door kit to finance an upgrade? If so, you will be quite disappointed. The wiring will not be there to support an upgrade to power windows and locks.Thanks for making me think about this more. I think I will be ok putting the skis in diagonally, the box is 60" x 56" with a diagonal of 82". Our longest skis are 78". I will bring a few pairs to the dealer and make sure the wheel wells don't cause an unexpected problem.
I think my last real question is about the half doors. How much could I reasonably expect to sell them for? The few sets that I see on ebay are listed for $6000+ (which seems crazy to me). If I could get $3000 or so by selling the half doors and benefit from the addition of power windows and locks on the full doors that would put me way ahead and is an attractive savings to me.
Thanks for all the thoughtful input!
Depending on theThanks for the reply - I did test drive a Gladiator with a soft top and thought it was fine on the highway and the kids are excited about being able to open it up during the summer. The biggest negative I saw was the inability to mount a roof rack for our canoe and the lack of a rear window defroster. This being said, if the cost was equal, I would choose the hard top.
Thanks for the reply - I did test drive a Gladiator with a soft top and thought it was fine on the highway and the kids are excited about being able to open it up during the summer. The biggest negative I saw was the inability to mount a roof rack for our canoe and the lack of a rear window defroster. This being said, if the cost was equal, I would choose the hard top.
I got the idea from this thread on the JL forum: 2 Door half doors | Page 5 | Jeep Wrangler Forums (JL / JLU) - Rubicon, Sahara, Sport, 4xe, 392 - JLwranglerforums.comI'm not sure I understand your intentions. Are you looking to buy with manual windows and door locks, and then sell the half-door kit to finance an upgrade? If so, you will be quite disappointed. The wiring will not be there to support an upgrade to power windows and locks.
I was originally thinking this as well, then saw that he has a trailer. Stuff that wouldn't fit in the bed may fit in the trailer...You really need to research this more, especially the size of the cargo area and your planned use. The Gladiator may not be a good choice for you.
Wow did they miss the boat on the lasfit unit. They offer the left switch pod with the CAT plug, but what about those of us that don't have switches but drive a Rubicon... Perfect opportunity to add the network cable plug for the right switch pod...but they didn't.I live in upstate NY and I originally wanted the hard top for the winter (my only previous soft top experience was with my 77 CJ7...).
I found a Mojave with everything I wanted that had just been built, only without the hardtop.
As I am impatient lol, I bought it and had the dealer add the cost of the hardtop to the final purchase price.
This was October 21 but the hardtop ended up taking almost 6 months to show up.. During this time I realized that the soft top was much nicer than I expected. I didn't feel any colder and I could make phone calls just fine in the highway.
Now that I have the hardtop on I really miss the soft top actually. Stowing the freedom tops is a bit of a hassle compared to just flipping back the roof..
For me, the primary advantage to the hard top would be security, if that matters to you.
For switches, there are quite a few options, some of which look pretty factory.
Lasfit
Voswitch
The half door thing seems strange to me, but if it gets you power locks/windows you'll be able to sell those half doors for definitely more than $3k. Most of the ones I've seen sold for well over $4k.
I recommend the HotHead Headliner for the soft top - it made a world of difference in the summer keeping the heat out and the noise down.Thanks for the reply - I did test drive a Gladiator with a soft top and thought it was fine on the highway and the kids are excited about being able to open it up during the summer. The biggest negative I saw was the inability to mount a roof rack for our canoe and the lack of a rear window defroster. This being said, if the cost was equal, I would choose the hard top.
Yeah, I'm not sure why they did that. Seems like it would make more sense to include it with the black switches..Wow did they miss the boat on the lasfit unit. They offer the left switch pod with the CAT plug, but what about those of us that don't have switches but drive a Rubicon... Perfect opportunity to add the network cable plug for the right switch pod...but they didn't.