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cmcbronco

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Is there a cable Lock or any safety measures to keep the Top from crashing down?
Yes see my above post it’s circled in red. I loop it through the hooks when the top is all the way up. If the lift fails for some reason the top will not fall.
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Boldbronco

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Just wanted to share my experience I had with installing my “homemade” hard top hoist. I ran into a few problems so I thought id make a short thread to help others who have the same agenda as me. A somewhat cheap lift that’s quick and easy.

i ordered an $80 electric Hoist on amazon and a couple 10’ Straps for $30. The rest of the stuff I used I had laying around my shop at work.

i originally mounted it on the ceiling of my garage. It would have worked fine but it was too low for my liking. I wanted my bronco to easily fit underneath with no worries about hitting The top when I backed in so I ended up mounting it in the attic. It gave me the height I needed and looked cleaner as well.

my main point of this thread is the lifting part. With a single point lift like this it’s critical that you find the balance point of the top. I found out the hard way the first time I lifted the top off lol. It was all over the place. I attached some pictures to show the balance point of the two door top. I’m sure the four door will be different.

in the end it all worked out great. I’ve practiced a couple times and It takes about 20 min are so to remove the top. Im sure I’ll cut that time down once get more accustomed to the system. Reinstalling is fairly simple as well. I don’t even have to really worry about getting the bronco perfectly centered as there’s plenty of swing with the lift set up the way it is. I just lower slowly and line the pins up and it falls right Into place.

anyway I hope this helps anyone hoping to have a nice lift and not spend $500-$600. It’s fairly simple but hey it works! And for about $100 you can’t beat it.

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that's an excellent DIY. do you think that the roof could be hoisted just by the slots where you fit the roof rack? you know! the two slots on each side!
 

Boxer4

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Are you finding that the straps are pinching anything important on the top (e.g seals/weatherstripping, hinges or??). I haven’t even had my top off yet so not sure if the straps will rub against or damage anything important. And we have 9 foot ceiling in our garage with limited attic space so I may be looking at other options. 🙁
I used a spanner bar ( Unistrut ) to better position the straps. I can keep the back strap locations to miss the washer /wiper line and the front straps stay off the rolled corners.
As for the center balance point , I found it to be about 17" from the back.

ROOF BAR-2.JPG


Roof-2.jpg
 

Markco

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Yes i do park under it, plenty of clearance. I'm 6ft and I can walk under it too. I can pull and reinstall all by my not-small self.

I use some bits of 2x4 to initially prop it up off the sills, then route the straps thru to the cam buckles, insert the cardboard corner protectors between the straps and the roof edges, and use a sort of seesaw technique to draw it up off the truck.

Bit tricky, have to be careful of roll cage paint, but I have it down to a science after the first few rounds
Do you Route the straps over the roll bars before Ratcheting them up? How do the straps not get caught up in the roll bars?
 

Portapot

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Did something similar, got it off okay but have yet to put it back on. I will be a little nervous on the “put back on” step.

Ford Bronco "Homemade" hard top lift tips! BF9BF29D-57D5-4164-8842-ABDAC9EA3296
Ford Bronco "Homemade" hard top lift tips! C1909ED7-70ED-4E5B-954C-2B9E7A92CF56
 

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Bronkers

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Do you Route the straps over the roll bars before Ratcheting them up? How do the straps not get caught up in the roll bars?
Great question, yes and no:

I route the _front_ strap up and over the roll cage - this means you will have more pulling to do on the front to keep it level with the rear. The weight on front strap is also less so be careful not to get the front and back too out of level as you raise/lower. I bought 15ft straps on Amazon and they are just BARELY long enough for the front after you boost it up on the spacer blocks w/ my 8ft ceiling (33" tires base suspension).

For the _rear_ strap there is just enough 'meat' under the back corners of the top, before you get to the c pillars of the roll cage, that as long as you're careful (don't get too out of level!), you don't need to route over the cage (and you don't want to - because the rear glass/back of the top makes the back heavy, you want that strap as close to the back as possible, without being too close to slipping-off)

I've pulled the top probably a dozen times now (had since August/approaching 15k miles) and haven't had an issue. *YOUR RESULTS MAY VARY!*
 

Markco

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Great question, yes and no:

I route the _front_ strap up and over the roll cage - this means you will have more pulling to do on the front to keep it level with the rear. The weight on front strap is also less so be careful not to get the front and back too out of level as you raise/lower. I bought 15ft straps on Amazon and they are just BARELY long enough for the front after you boost it up on the spacer blocks w/ my 8ft ceiling (33" tires base suspension).

For the _rear_ strap there is just enough 'meat' under the back corners of the top, before you get to the c pillars of the roll cage, that as long as you're careful (don't get too out of level!), you don't need to route over the cage (and you don't want to - because the rear glass/back of the top makes the back heavy, you want that strap as close to the back as possible, without being too close to slipping-off)

I've pulled the top probably a dozen times now (had since August/approaching 15k miles) and haven't had an issue. *YOUR RESULTS MAY VARY!*
Thank you.
 

TXArea51

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I used a spanner bar ( Unistrut ) to better position the straps. I can keep the back strap locations to miss the washer /wiper line and the front straps stay off the rolled corners.
As for the center balance point , I found it to be about 17" from the back.

Ford Bronco "Homemade" hard top lift tips! C1909ED7-70ED-4E5B-954C-2B9E7A92CF56


Ford Bronco "Homemade" hard top lift tips! C1909ED7-70ED-4E5B-954C-2B9E7A92CF56
Do you have a pic of it up? And also 17” is where the winch line needs to be on to the top of the hard top?
 

RockSkipper

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Not my pic, but I have this system...and love it. Very useful with 10 ft ceilings.

The Racor storage system...operated by a cordless drill or hand crank. The red latch is pulled back by an extension that is attached to your drill. It spins a cam forward/backward to raise/lower the platform grid. Then the red safety latch is pushed/pulled back into the cam to lock it in place. I suggest long lag bolts into your rafters above the garage. I stored my jeep doors and some small items on the rack top, while the jeep top hung from underneath. I plan on doing the same thing with my Wildtrak, which I got a build start date of 5/16...YES!

Ford Bronco "Homemade" hard top lift tips! 1652240462686
 

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mykoljay

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Not my pic, but I have this system...and love it. Very useful with 10 ft ceilings.

The Racor storage system...operated by a cordless drill or hand crank. The red latch is pulled back by an extension that is attached to your drill. It spins a cam forward/backward to raise/lower the platform grid. Then the red safety latch is pushed/pulled back into the cam to lock it in place. I suggest long lag bolts into your rafters above the garage. I stored my jeep doors and some small items on the rack top, while the jeep top hung from underneath. I plan on doing the same thing with my Wildtrak, which I got a build start date of 5/16...YES!

Ford Bronco "Homemade" hard top lift tips! 1652240462686
Unforunately no longer for sale!
 

drewski

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Dang...hope its just a design update. Its a great system.
If it is just an update hopefully they are replacing the plastic gears with steel. I have read where the plastic gears have stripped and the rack coming down when loaded. If they do go with steel I'd give it a go.
 

AJKitebrder40

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Here’s mine. I had this already from my Jeep days. All I had to do to modify it for the Bronco was move the forward 2x4 support back (as the Bronco rear clamshell doesn’t have the extended front section like Jeep does).

This is a few 2x4s, rope and harbor freight hand crank. Works awesome (and now using it for 8 years), can park under it and cost about $45.

Ford Bronco "Homemade" hard top lift tips! 1652240462686


Ford Bronco "Homemade" hard top lift tips! 1652240462686


Ford Bronco "Homemade" hard top lift tips! 1652240462686


My old 2013 Rubicon, same roof lift.
Ford Bronco "Homemade" hard top lift tips! 1652240462686
I have a similar setup - any luck adding the middle piece somewhere as well? I have mine setup for my JL.
 

DrewBronc21

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I have a 2 car garage But it’s cellar level and my non-Sas Badlands barely fits so no Ceiling hoist for me. waiting for toplift pro or another company to make a 2 door version so until then I did a quick hoist on side of garage with 4x4s, carbiners, a boat trailer winch , spanner bar and some hardware. Had to play with the position to get a level lift and unfortunately I scraped up my roll bar on the removal.
Ford Bronco "Homemade" hard top lift tips! BB12AF20-CE0E-420F-A95A-152FD81BBB2E
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