Ford Canvas Bimini Top - Installed Quick Look

[Cybindustries1904]

I have the mesh top same issues as above its horrible. The front folds over and flaps

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[Ricknor353]

Hey All,

Ok, here we go...

Not super proud of the way I trashed this product in my previous post.. Maybe as a sunscreen it's kinda ok... I don't find the noise or fit to be particularly irksome. It is what it is...

BUT maybe if there had been a picture of it, or maybe said something about "sunshade" on the Ford Accessories site, I would have known better what to expect. In fact, I guess I wouldn't have bought it...

But silly me - I assumed that it was going to be the same one solid piece kind of tie down top I had on my Jeep years ago. I mean, why wouldn't it be? They've been making these for Jeeps for forever - had ours back in 1997 and never had anything but the Bimini on it for the entire three years we owned it (We live in S Florida).
And, y'know... there's already a MESH SUNSCREEN - why wouldn't the CANVAS one be what you would use for RAIN protection? Duh!
Anyhoo... Ya know what happens when you assume... Yup - sometimes you're wrong.

In any case, I may have found a workaround - ordered two yards of this:

https://www.marinevinylfabric.com/products/flexa-marine-canvas?variant=39439713075284

for about forty more bucks (sixty after tax and shipping), and I'm having a seamstress friend sew it on right over the existing top and zippers (also going to have to figure out how to close up that gap at the front. Thinking some kind of velcro strip with more canvas or maybe a plastic visor of some kind that shields the gap...).
She said it should be simple, but of course then I'm into this thing for about 420 beans - way more than it's worth, and I'm sure there will be something out there soon that is meant to do what we want for a much more reasonable price...


Apologies to the moderators and to any who might be offended by the following, but :

$99?!?! Wow. But... I mean... Seriously - how hard is this? Actually, wouldn't it be even easier and cheaper to NOT put zippers in it?

All I (and assuming most of the rest of y'all in this thread) want is a simple piece of rain protection we can fold/roll up and throw in the back in case of rain, and the rest of the time go topless... I would have been happy to pay three hundred bucks for that!

Whew...! Ok, after all that - if you're still here, I just wanna say WE STILL ABSOLUTELY LOVE OUR BRONCO!!

(And again, sorry for the Jeep reference - hope I don't get booted...)

Will let you know how our workaround works out...

 

[Mattmquin]

Pick of the front folded down. There are magnets that help keep it tight. Have tested yet. Will it keep some water out? Yes. Will it keep all water out? No way. Lots of gaps but you will be drier with it than without it. Will hold me over until someone has something better.

 

[whodatdubi]

Flaps way too much to be convenient for any sort of commute. Only use I see here if for when riding the trails. I was so excited to get it and then definitely disappointed when I drove it

 

[AJKitebrder40]

I replied to Bestop's thread promoting this. I also have communicated to Bestop, but have been waiting for a week to hear from them regarding the numerous design flaws.

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/bestop-bimini.39921/#post-1298648

I'll recount my experience here:

• The canvas is waterproof, but the zippers are not. So the water runs down into the zippers and pours into the back seat.
• The front gap cannot be closed. I completely loosened the back clanmps, but the middle cross bar prevents the top from being pulled any closer to the windshield. I completely un-velcroed the bar, pulled it all the way up front, but thhen you cannot use the clips designed to hook into the front mounts. So it creates the exact problem pulling the top forward fixes: a large gap that flaps in the wind.
• The other main issue is the sides. They flap non-stop at speeds as low as 30 mph. It's VERY loud. You can see in my pics that i tried adding grommets and gear ties to hold it down. It still doesn't help.
• I've resorted to adding grommets and using bungees to hold down all the loose areas.

I've talked to a couple of BESTOP employees on the phone and they are confused. The product is offered through FORD, so they aren't aware of it. The instructions are for the mesh top, which I'm assuming are correct, but the customer service could just tell me "check the instructions". He also went on and on about the magnets. If you can't tell the two front corners are magnets. They can be extended, but when the wind blows into the top, it pulls them in. They are strong, but not placed right.

I've written BESTOP here, but I haven't heard anything back. I'm also waiting for their Bronco specialist to email me or call me to help me figure it out. If I can't figure it out then I'm taking it back to FORD. If I can figure it out, then I need the help. Unfortunately, I have it installed and am stuck with it. If I don't hear something by tomorrow then I'm taking it off and back. Not worth the $350, IMO. This is at best an $80 product. It just works to provide shade, but creates more problems than it solves.

Yeah, that's a massive gap.....until they have a viable option to where it comes all the way to the windshield header and installs into the hard top brackets, it's going to suck more than likely.

That's actually a dealbreaker for me. I pretty much run a bikini top/no top the better part of the year, but......and this is a big but......I need it to somewhat block the rain so I can drive. It rains a lot where I live, so.....it's not just getting the seats/interior wet, it's worrying about driving with a deluge coming through the front gap.

My 2 door is being built this week, but.....this is a big stumbling block. What do all of you do with no top on during warm weather? Just hope that it doesn't rain while you are driving?

 

[AJKitebrder40]

Hey All,

Ok, here we go...

Not super proud of the way I trashed this product in my previous post.. Maybe as a sunscreen it's kinda ok... I don't find the noise or fit to be particularly irksome. It is what it is...

BUT maybe if there had been a picture of it, or maybe said something about "sunshade" on the Ford Accessories site, I would have known better what to expect. In fact, I guess I wouldn't have bought it...

But silly me - I assumed that it was going to be the same one solid piece kind of tie down top I had on my Jeep years ago. I mean, why wouldn't it be? They've been making these for Jeeps for forever - had ours back in 1997 and never had anything but the Bimini on it for the entire three years we owned it (We live in S Florida).
And, y'know... there's already a MESH SUNSCREEN - why wouldn't the CANVAS one be what you would use for RAIN protection? Duh!
Anyhoo... Ya know what happens when you assume... Yup - sometimes you're wrong.

In any case, I may have found a workaround - ordered two yards of this:

https://www.marinevinylfabric.com/products/flexa-marine-canvas?variant=39439713075284

for about forty more bucks (sixty after tax and shipping), and I'm having a seamstress friend sew it on right over the existing top and zippers (also going to have to figure out how to close up that gap at the front. Thinking some kind of velcro strip with more canvas or maybe a plastic visor of some kind that shields the gap...).
She said it should be simple, but of course then I'm into this thing for about 420 beans - way more than it's worth, and I'm sure there will be something out there soon that is meant to do what we want for a much more reasonable price...


Apologies to the moderators and to any who might be offended by the following, but :

$99?!?! Wow. But... I mean... Seriously - how hard is this? Actually, wouldn't it be even easier and cheaper to NOT put zippers in it?

All I (and assuming most of the rest of y'all in this thread) want is a simple piece of rain protection we can fold/roll up and throw in the back in case of rain, and the rest of the time go topless... I would have been happy to pay three hundred bucks for that!

Whew...! Ok, after all that - if you're still here, I just wanna say WE STILL ABSOLUTELY LOVE OUR BRONCO!!

(And again, sorry for the Jeep reference - hope I don't get booted...)

Will let you know how our workaround works out...

Yeah, this is literally what I've ran on every JK/JL I've owned, $150 with the header......last forever, they are loud on the Interstate, don't get me wrong on that, and there are gaps between the roll bars and where the doors are/would be, but.......you can definitely drive comfortably in the rain with it.

 

[AJKitebrder40]

Pick of the front folded down. There are magnets that help keep it tight. Have tested yet. Will it keep some water out? Yes. Will it keep all water out? No way. Lots of gaps but you will be drier with it than without it. Will hold me over until someone has something better.

This is the Bestop, right? That's doable, how's it working out?

 

[Darcyjs14]

I just posted a review of this on the @Bestop_Team site. Fascinating thing is I have a screenshot of it posted and, when i load the page again in a private browser session, it’s not there. Everything about my Bestop experience has ensured I won’t buy from them again, including writing a review that appears to have been removed immediately on posting.
Since Bestop won’t post that review, at least for the benefit of folks who both have this or are considering buying it, here you go.

should be posted here (and was, see attached screenshot) but it was gone within minutes.
https://www.bestop.com/products/mesh-safari-bimini-sunshade-ford-2021-2022-bronco-mesh/

Title: Don’t buy this. Quality top let down by non-replaceable parts and indifferent customer service

Body:
bought this through my Ford dealer. The fabric is quality that held up well over its first summer with a lot of UV exposure. The straps, hooks and anchors are all quality.

The giant flaw on this model is that the cross-bar, which supports the roof mid-ships (roughly above the driver’s head) has two plastic inserts. These ensure that the flat bars that attach to your roof to stabilize the cross bar don’t rattle. A good design objective, terribly executed. These inserts are pressure fit (nothing holds them in place except tension) and plastic is cheap and flimsy. It easily falls out. If you are unlucky enough to break or lose one of these, your cross bar will flap up and down against the tabs holding it in place. Given how easy it is for these to fall out, you figure you’d just order a handful to keep around should you lose one. Nope, this is not orderable. In fact, none of these subassemblies are orderable. So lose this insert, which i can assure you costs less than 10¢, your purchase won’t go back on your truck again.

And the customer service is completely indifferent. I have called Bestop Customer service on two separate occasions, each time to confirm you can’t order any combination of replacement parts to get this one plastic part until you get a replacement cross bar, and the cross bar only comes with the entire replacement top, so really you need to buy the whole thing again for a part that doesn’t cost more than a washer.

Customer Service told me to contact warranty (they don’t offer to do this for you, or set up the case, or do a warm handover) and I went go the web, because you can’t call warranty, submitted a form, and waited. How long should we wait? No idea. I’ve submitted the form twice, seven days apart. I didn’t get an email confirming either time that they’d received my form submission. They don’t set expectations that it’ll take a few days. You fill out your form and ….. nothing.

I’ve now spent hours on this. I tried to resolve this in December and discovered the part was not orderable. So I asked my Ford Parts guy, from whom I bought the top, to see if he had more pull with Bestop. He spent several weeks in back-and-forth with Bestop as they tried to understand the problem (though i provided pictures of the part and the page on their instruction manual to show where it goes). Dealer came up empty and said Bestop told him I’d need to call Customer Service. So I called again, now four months later and still got no resolution. And I’ve submitted the warranty form and waited a week for Bestop to acknowledge receipt. However this plays out for me, this is only Bestop product I’ll ever buy. At least this was only $300. If I’d bought one of their complete tops for Bronco and was experiencing this indifferent customer service I’d be so much more frustrated. If you own one, be mindful of the plastic cross bar inserts. If you don’t own one, don’t buy this one. And think carefully about whether you want to risk having a customer service experience like this should you buy one of their other products. One data point is not a sample set, so maybe I was just really unlucky but so far, no one I’ve engaged with cares that this product has a design flaw or feels any need to do anything about it

 

[djp]

I just posted a review of this on the @Bestop_Team site. Fascinating thing is I have a screenshot of it posted and, when i load the page again in a private browser session, it’s not there. Everything about my Bestop experience has ensured I won’t buy from them again, including writing a review that appears to have been removed immediately on posting.
Since Bestop won’t post that review, at least for the benefit of folks who both have this or are considering buying it, here you go.

should be posted here (and was, see attached screenshot) but it was gone within minutes.
https://www.bestop.com/products/mesh-safari-bimini-sunshade-ford-2021-2022-bronco-mesh/

Title: Don’t buy this. Quality top let down by non-replaceable parts and indifferent customer service

Body:
bought this through my Ford dealer. The fabric is quality that held up well over its first summer with a lot of UV exposure. The straps, hooks and anchors are all quality.

The giant flaw on this model is that the cross-bar, which supports the roof mid-ships (roughly above the driver’s head) has two plastic inserts. These ensure that the flat bars that attach to your roof to stabilize the cross bar don’t rattle. A good design objective, terribly executed. These inserts are pressure fit (nothing holds them in place except tension) and plastic is cheap and flimsy. It easily falls out. If you are unlucky enough to break or lose one of these, your cross bar will flap up and down against the tabs holding it in place. Given how easy it is for these to fall out, you figure you’d just order a handful to keep around should you lose one. Nope, this is not orderable. In fact, none of these subassemblies are orderable. So lose this insert, which i can assure you costs less than 10¢, your purchase won’t go back on your truck again.

And the customer service is completely indifferent. I have called Bestop Customer service on two separate occasions, each time to confirm you can’t order any combination of replacement parts to get this one plastic part until you get a replacement cross bar, and the cross bar only comes with the entire replacement top, so really you need to buy the whole thing again for a part that doesn’t cost more than a washer.

Customer Service told me to contact warranty (they don’t offer to do this for you, or set up the case, or do a warm handover) and I went go the web, because you can’t call warranty, submitted a form, and waited. How long should we wait? No idea. I’ve submitted the form twice, seven days apart. I didn’t get an email confirming either time that they’d received my form submission. They don’t set expectations that it’ll take a few days. You fill out your form and ….. nothing.

I’ve now spent hours on this. I tried to resolve this in December and discovered the part was not orderable. So I asked my Ford Parts guy, from whom I bought the top, to see if he had more pull with Bestop. He spent several weeks in back-and-forth with Bestop as they tried to understand the problem (though i provided pictures of the part and the page on their instruction manual to show where it goes). Dealer came up empty and said Bestop told him I’d need to call Customer Service. So I called again, now four months later and still got no resolution. And I’ve submitted the warranty form and waited a week for Bestop to acknowledge receipt. However this plays out for me, this is only Bestop product I’ll ever buy. At least this was only $300. If I’d bought one of their complete tops for Bronco and was experiencing this indifferent customer service I’d be so much more frustrated. If you own one, be mindful of the plastic cross bar inserts. If you don’t own one, don’t buy this one. And think carefully about whether you want to risk having a customer service experience like this should you buy one of their other products. One data point is not a sample set, so maybe I was just really unlucky but so far, no one I’ve engaged with cares that this product has a design flaw or feels any need to do anything about it

Yikes, sorry you paid that much for such low quality. Let me know if you'd like to test and review an alternative.

 

[Darcyjs14]

Yikes, sorry you paid that much for such low quality. Let me know if you'd like to test and review an alternative.

Saw your post on the other thread and sent you an email via your page. Excited that there’s potentially a better alternative. Thanks for reaching out.

 

[Bestop_Team]

I just posted a review of this on the @Bestop_Team site. Fascinating thing is I have a screenshot of it posted and, when i load the page again in a private browser session, it’s not there. Everything about my Bestop experience has ensured I won’t buy from them again, including writing a review that appears to have been removed immediately on posting.
Since Bestop won’t post that review, at least for the benefit of folks who both have this or are considering buying it, here you go.

should be posted here (and was, see attached screenshot) but it was gone within minutes.
https://www.bestop.com/products/mesh-safari-bimini-sunshade-ford-2021-2022-bronco-mesh/

Title: Don’t buy this. Quality top let down by non-replaceable parts and indifferent customer service

Body:
bought this through my Ford dealer. The fabric is quality that held up well over its first summer with a lot of UV exposure. The straps, hooks and anchors are all quality.

The giant flaw on this model is that the cross-bar, which supports the roof mid-ships (roughly above the driver’s head) has two plastic inserts. These ensure that the flat bars that attach to your roof to stabilize the cross bar don’t rattle. A good design objective, terribly executed. These inserts are pressure fit (nothing holds them in place except tension) and plastic is cheap and flimsy. It easily falls out. If you are unlucky enough to break or lose one of these, your cross bar will flap up and down against the tabs holding it in place. Given how easy it is for these to fall out, you figure you’d just order a handful to keep around should you lose one. Nope, this is not orderable. In fact, none of these subassemblies are orderable. So lose this insert, which i can assure you costs less than 10¢, your purchase won’t go back on your truck again.

And the customer service is completely indifferent. I have called Bestop Customer service on two separate occasions, each time to confirm you can’t order any combination of replacement parts to get this one plastic part until you get a replacement cross bar, and the cross bar only comes with the entire replacement top, so really you need to buy the whole thing again for a part that doesn’t cost more than a washer.

Customer Service told me to contact warranty (they don’t offer to do this for you, or set up the case, or do a warm handover) and I went go the web, because you can’t call warranty, submitted a form, and waited. How long should we wait? No idea. I’ve submitted the form twice, seven days apart. I didn’t get an email confirming either time that they’d received my form submission. They don’t set expectations that it’ll take a few days. You fill out your form and ….. nothing.

I’ve now spent hours on this. I tried to resolve this in December and discovered the part was not orderable. So I asked my Ford Parts guy, from whom I bought the top, to see if he had more pull with Bestop. He spent several weeks in back-and-forth with Bestop as they tried to understand the problem (though i provided pictures of the part and the page on their instruction manual to show where it goes). Dealer came up empty and said Bestop told him I’d need to call Customer Service. So I called again, now four months later and still got no resolution. And I’ve submitted the warranty form and waited a week for Bestop to acknowledge receipt. However this plays out for me, this is only Bestop product I’ll ever buy. At least this was only $300. If I’d bought one of their complete tops for Bronco and was experiencing this indifferent customer service I’d be so much more frustrated. If you own one, be mindful of the plastic cross bar inserts. If you don’t own one, don’t buy this one. And think carefully about whether you want to risk having a customer service experience like this should you buy one of their other products. One data point is not a sample set, so maybe I was just really unlucky but so far, no one I’ve engaged with cares that this product has a design flaw or feels any need to do anything about it

@Darcyjs14 My name is Crystal, I'm Bestop's Community Marketing Specialist. I would like to get more information how what Customer Service did/didn't do to try and help, what communication was all exchanged, etc. If you could email me, [email protected], I would like to see what I can do to correct this. Thank you!
~Crystal@Bestop

 

[Darcyjs14]

@Darcyjs14 My name is Crystal, I'm Bestop's Community Marketing Specialist. I would like to get more information how what Customer Service did/didn't do to try and help, what communication was all exchanged, etc. If you could email me, [email protected], I would like to see what I can do to correct this. Thank you!
~Crystal@Bestop

Crystal, thanks for reaching out, especially given that you know that I'm pretty frustrated. Appreciate your willingness to hear me out. I've sent a detailed email with the background to you. Folks reading, please hold your fire until we see how this is resolved. While my review wasn't posted last night on BesTop.com, it is there tonight, so they have already taken steps towards transparently resolving my complaint. Should their customer service have done this? Yes. Is it a great sign that BesTop has someone in the 6G community willing to step into the line of fire to see if they can help? Also yes, so let's see how this plays out next. Thanks @Bestop_Team for doing what your customer service folks weren't ready to do.

 

[Darcyjs14]

I had a good resolution with @Bestop_Team and wrote a longer (lengthy? wordy? verbose?) summation over on the other thread if someone wants to go into the weeds. Suffice to say, in this case, @Bestop_Team did right be me and by any customer who'll follow me with the same problem. I'm grateful to Crystal to seeing it through to the end and advocating for me and the rest of the 6G community.

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