Soft top OVER my bed rack

[Fpolanco]

Very nice! How’s the top seal to the bed rails?

I hope the audio comes through. My neighbor was mowing his lawn.

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[XJFanatic]

That’s pretty slick!

 

[BearFootSam]

Very clever solution! Helping my father-in-law with his boat cover I got to thinking it would be possible to engineer a similar over-the-rack cover using button snaps as on a boat. I, too wanted to come up with a solution to cover cargo under a mid-height rack. The lower CoG and reduced wind load of having the RTT closer to the roofline will pay dividends off-road and in windy places like North Dakota and Utah. The racks that mount over the besttop and like are too high in my opinion and a tonneau cover under rack wastes space and limits room to stand jerry cans underneath.

A big decider in my decision to purchase the gladiator was being able to mount my RTT over the bed and low as compared to the typical rack over the roof mount. On my previous vehicle, the conventional rack over the roof mount felt ponderous and negatively impacted the suspension on off-road trails in Colorado. I felt the cargo space and bed options make the glad a vastly better overland vehicle than a bronco or wrangler. Plus, with nothing over the roof, you can still drop the top and I suspect are a bit safer in the event of a rollover.

While you are getting something like this custom made I bet it would be feasible to lengthen the rear flap so that if you affixed a tent pole-like prop on either side of the flap it could be made into a small awning if you want to use the tail gate as a cooking table. This could be achieved with a grommet and pocket setup.

We tend to use the yellow top plastic totes for our food and gear while camping so water intrusion is less of a concern than keeping things neater and less dusty.

 

[Fpolanco]

Very clever solution! Helping my father-in-law with his boat cover I got to thinking it would be possible to engineer a similar over-the-rack cover using button snaps as on a boat. I, too wanted to come up with a solution to cover cargo under a mid-height rack. The lower CoG and reduced wind load of having the RTT closer to the roofline will pay dividends off-road and in windy places like North Dakota and Utah. The racks that mount over the besttop and like are too high in my opinion and a tonneau cover under rack wastes space and limits room to stand jerry cans underneath.

A big decider in my decision to purchase the gladiator was being able to mount my RTT over the bed and low as compared to the typical rack over the roof mount. On my previous vehicle, the conventional rack over the roof mount felt ponderous and negatively impacted the suspension on off-road trails in Colorado. I felt the cargo space and bed options make the glad a vastly better overland vehicle than a bronco or wrangler. Plus, with nothing over the roof, you can still drop the top and I suspect are a bit safer in the event of a rollover.

While you are getting something like this custom made I bet it would be feasible to lengthen the rear flap so that if you affixed a tent pole-like prop on either side of the flap it could be made into a small awning if you want to use the tail gate as a cooking table. This could be achieved with a grommet and pocket setup.

We tend to use the yellow top plastic totes for our food and gear while camping so water intrusion is less of a concern than keeping things neater and less dusty.

All the reason you listed are exactly why I had the top made.

I had my RTT on my JKU and it did make some trails extra interesting! ?

 

[RudeJeepin]

Very clever solution! Helping my father-in-law with his boat cover I got to thinking it would be possible to engineer a similar over-the-rack cover using button snaps as on a boat. I, too wanted to come up with a solution to cover cargo under a mid-height rack. The lower CoG and reduced wind load of having the RTT closer to the roofline will pay dividends off-road and in windy places like North Dakota and Utah. The racks that mount over the besttop and like are too high in my opinion and a tonneau cover under rack wastes space and limits room to stand jerry cans underneath.

A big decider in my decision to purchase the gladiator was being able to mount my RTT over the bed and low as compared to the typical rack over the roof mount. On my previous vehicle, the conventional rack over the roof mount felt ponderous and negatively impacted the suspension on off-road trails in Colorado. I felt the cargo space and bed options make the glad a vastly better overland vehicle than a bronco or wrangler. Plus, with nothing over the roof, you can still drop the top and I suspect are a bit safer in the event of a rollover.

While you are getting something like this custom made I bet it would be feasible to lengthen the rear flap so that if you affixed a tent pole-like prop on either side of the flap it could be made into a small awning if you want to use the tail gate as a cooking table. This could be achieved with a grommet and pocket setup.

We tend to use the yellow top plastic totes for our food and gear while camping so water intrusion is less of a concern than keeping things neater and less dusty.

I realize this might ba a bit late, but the extension your talking about could be an extra flap that was zipped onto the existing rear hatch.
I like where your going with this.

@Fpolanco I like this setup. Do you mind telling us which rack you went with?

 

[Fpolanco]

I realize this might ba a bit late, but the extension your talking about could be an extra flap that was zipped onto the existing rear hatch.
I like where your going with this.

@Fpolanco I like this setup. Do you mind telling us which rack you went with?

I went with the JCR Offroad half height rack.

 

[BearFootSam]

I realize this might ba a bit late, but the extension your talking about could be an extra flap that was zipped onto the existing rear hatch.
I like where your going with this.

@Fpolanco I like this setup. Do you mind telling us which rack you went with?

I haven't gotten around to ordering one yet which is giving me more time to peruse the market. I did buy a soft-topper though which has been on the truck since October, and I've been very happy with it. Lately I've been having to haul a lot of water and the height is good for standing up 15 gallon jugs. I keep them strapped to one side so the tailgate is clear for other cargo and so with the side flaps I can access the water without climbing around like a monkey inside.

Using the soft-topper has given me more faith in the durability of the material. I'd had doubts initially about it but in 9k miles of rain, snow and wind I haven't had a leak yet.

Going along with my earlier idea, I've setup a forked stick to act as a prop for the soft-topper rear flap. When it's windy and raining the flap likes to whip around and if it is too cold, doesn't like to roll up.

Now that I live in a sea faring town again, I will likely try to get a cover fab'd up in the future to go over a mid-height rack.

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