Toppers...Who's got 'em?....
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Senior User
Joined: Apr 2004
Posts: 339
Likes: 1
From: north central Indiana
Toppers...Who's got 'em?....
I did some searching and didn't find much on toppers ('course I've been known to be "blind" sometimes...) and have a couple of questions.
How often, if at all, do you remove the topper from your truck?
Has anyone seen, or come up with, an innovative yet relatively simple way to remove and re-install a topper?....or to store one?
Obviously, I have a topper and would like to be able to take it off and put it on from time to time, but it's such a pain in the....yeah, you know. My topper is a fiberglass "high top" unit and it's definitely got some weight to it. It's certainly more than my wife and I can just pick up off of the bed, and rounding up extra bodies to help every time it needs done is quite difficult. So, I'm looking for ideas to make this a two-person (at most) job.
I am considering going to a tonneau cover, but there's been many times that I've been grateful for having the topper. If I can work out an easier install method I could have "the best of both worlds", so to speak.
Any thoughts?
How often, if at all, do you remove the topper from your truck?
Has anyone seen, or come up with, an innovative yet relatively simple way to remove and re-install a topper?....or to store one?
Obviously, I have a topper and would like to be able to take it off and put it on from time to time, but it's such a pain in the....yeah, you know. My topper is a fiberglass "high top" unit and it's definitely got some weight to it. It's certainly more than my wife and I can just pick up off of the bed, and rounding up extra bodies to help every time it needs done is quite difficult. So, I'm looking for ideas to make this a two-person (at most) job.
I am considering going to a tonneau cover, but there's been many times that I've been grateful for having the topper. If I can work out an easier install method I could have "the best of both worlds", so to speak.
Any thoughts?
Posting Guru
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,005
Likes: 1
From: Cincinnati, Ohio
I have an aluminum cab height cap on mine, weighs 100-125 lbs I would guess. Lovely Wife and I remove ourselves.
I had a canoe I carried on top of a 71 4x4 years ago, I rigged pulleys to the rafters in my garage, ran the ropes over to the wall and down to a cleat fastened to a stud (no - not me) and used that to lift the canoe off the roof/cap and stored it hanging over the truck. If you have a roof rack or ladder racks on your cap you can use those for attaching points, you would need heavier pullies and rope than for my canoe but the idea would be the same. This would give you enough room to move the cap as you set it down to get it lined up right when you reinstall, put on the clamps (I use six on mine) and away you go. Pull the clamps, hook the four ropes, raise the cap and tie off to the cleat and pull out topless.
Dave / Believer45
I had a canoe I carried on top of a 71 4x4 years ago, I rigged pulleys to the rafters in my garage, ran the ropes over to the wall and down to a cleat fastened to a stud (no - not me) and used that to lift the canoe off the roof/cap and stored it hanging over the truck. If you have a roof rack or ladder racks on your cap you can use those for attaching points, you would need heavier pullies and rope than for my canoe but the idea would be the same. This would give you enough room to move the cap as you set it down to get it lined up right when you reinstall, put on the clamps (I use six on mine) and away you go. Pull the clamps, hook the four ropes, raise the cap and tie off to the cleat and pull out topless.
Dave / Believer45
Post Fiend
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 10,728
Likes: 1
From: Damascus-Boring, Ore
For searching, try "canopies," and it'll probably pop up more results. I've got a Lear cab-height fiberglass unit. It only comes off a couple times a year, if that. Once for bark-dust hauling, and once in the winter when the kid delivers wood. Couldn't imagine being without it, though- not in the soggy Pacific Nwst. The wife and I, or my son, can wrestle it off and get it back on again.
Senior User
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 185
Likes: 0
From: Indiana
here's an idea for removal...
we have an 83 CJ7 with the hard top. Years ago, dad got a winch for a high school basketball hoop, complete with the steel cable. he fabbed up a handle for it, and ropes for it. There are 4 ropes connecting to one ring. at the end of all the cables, is a piece of steel shaped like an L. that's connected to a clip on teh end of the steel cable. what we do is lift it just high enough to get the hooks under the top, then crank it up. After that, if you're careful, you can park underneath it.
we have an 83 CJ7 with the hard top. Years ago, dad got a winch for a high school basketball hoop, complete with the steel cable. he fabbed up a handle for it, and ropes for it. There are 4 ropes connecting to one ring. at the end of all the cables, is a piece of steel shaped like an L. that's connected to a clip on teh end of the steel cable. what we do is lift it just high enough to get the hooks under the top, then crank it up. After that, if you're careful, you can park underneath it.
