Need ideas for roof-rack quick-disconnect...

jsmoriss

Explorer
Hi again everyone,

I've been racking my brain all winter on this one, and still haven't found a good solution...

I have a Garvin roof rack on my 4-door Jeep and it needs to tilt back in order to raise/lower the soft top. Last summer I didn't bother with the soft top, but I'd like to put it on this Spring. There are 4 bolts on the rack that need to be removed to raise/lower it and I'd like to replace them with somekind of 'quick release' mechanism. I know removing 4 bolts, washers, nuts, etc. will be one more deterrent to lowering the soft top, and I'd like to make it as quick & easy as possible.

Here are the front bolts (one on each side):

20080223-165913-lx2-20778.jpg


20080223-165843-lx2-20776.jpg


And the rear bolts (also one on each side):

20080223-165833-lx2-20775.jpg


20080223-165824-lx2-20774.jpg


I know there are people here with great fabbing skills, so I was hoping you'd have some suggestions... :)

Thanks!
js.
 

grahamfitter

Expedition Leader
For what its worth, when I installed the roof rack (congo cage) on my TJ I found its a PITA hinging the rack back so I only do it when switching between tops. In the summer I just unzip the side windows, roll up the back window and leave the top in place. If it never rained I might do something different but since it seems to rain every few days here its nice to be able to quickly zip the windows in without faffing around with the rack too, especially if its loaded with toys.

Cheers,
Graham

p.s. Nice Jeep, BTW
 

Gear

Explorer, Overland Certified OC0020
Hello JS,
How about this use the bolt and plastic wing nut from a Yakima rack. This would be really fast and might just be the same size bolt.

47b7dd25b3127cce825386ea098e00000026108EatWzFu0cO
 

TJVach

Observer
I to have a Garvin Wilderness Rack for my '97 TJ. It is the same basic construction. I actually had the same question last year and finally came up with a simple solution at least for me.

I just replaced all the nuts with wing nuts (ie. the bolts/nuts that attach to the rack up front & the bolts/nuts in the back that you have to remove to tilt it back). I originally had an issue with them coming loose but just drilled two small holes in the bolts for the front of the rack for cotter pins. This seemed to work well for me last summer. Granted I didn't use the soft top nearly as much as I did before I installed the rack, but more then when I had to use a wrench and tighten everything down every time.

One suggestion that I have, it might not be a problem for you but it was for me. When I would disconnect the front two supports they would pull away from each other, so when I lowered the rack back down it wouldn't be close enough. I just used a pulley style racheting tie-down that I got at Home Depot and attached it between the two front supports right in front of the windshield.

Hope this helps you. If anything doesn't make sense I'll try to explain it again (I am on 4 hours sleep and pulling an all nighter for work).
 

jsmoriss

Explorer
grahamfitter said:
For what its worth, when I installed the roof rack (congo cage) on my TJ I found its a PITA hinging the rack back so I only do it when switching between tops. In the summer I just unzip the side windows, roll up the back window and leave the top in place. If it never rained I might do something different but since it seems to rain every few days here its nice to be able to quickly zip the windows in without faffing around with the rack too,

Graham, thanks for sharing. I hadn't thought about this aspect of the soft top. It sounds like something we might do as well.

Thanks,
js.
 

Colorado Ron

Explorer
What would be cool is to use something like these:
2052097946_ed37a046ff.jpg


That would make for a nice quick connect! You have to do some welding but you never have to worry about loosing wing nuts or rattling from pins, etc.
 

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