SmarterHome Top lift success - and thoughts

[mike8675309]

The weather is finally letting me try my lift. It worked well but due to the crap on the ceiling in my garage, I was over-conservative when mounting.
That and having a factory Bimini on created some challenges that I made for myself and will adjust in the future.

But other than my personal issues, the top lift worked well. It may take some for me to get over the will it fall anxiety, because I know it has a positive break system in it that would require the whole thing to explode mechanically to actually fail. But I'm in software development and a past in manufacturing, so I know how it can go. Still it's a pretty cool system.
p.s. yes it is dirty. it's a daily driver and I don't like drive-through car washes and I haven't had time yet. it was pulling a moving trailer this past weekend.

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[Tye]

What is your garage ceiling height? And fully raised can you measure the distance from the floor to bottom of the top?
thanks

 

[Strykerwsu]

The weather is finally letting me try my lift. It worked well but due to the crap on the ceiling in my garage, I was over-conservative when mounting.
That and having a factory Bimini on created some challenges that I made for myself and will adjust in the future.

But other than my personal issues, the top lift worked well. It may take some for me to get over the will it fall anxiety, because I know it has a positive break system in it that would require the whole thing to explode mechanically to actually fail. But I'm in software development and a past in manufacturing, so I know how it can go. Still it's a pretty cool system.
p.s. yes it is dirty. it's a daily driver and I don't like drive-through car washes and I haven't had time yet. it was pulling a moving trailer this past weekend.

If worried about falling a few i bolts with bungees or wratchet straps and no worries. Mine has hung fine for a year with either hard or the soft top.

 

[Sweetair]

Need to get mine installed. Maybe this weekend. I am looking to also fabricate some kind of secure sling that takes the weight off the lift straps. No because I am worried of it falling but rather not having the straps deforming the rubber seals by the back window.

 

[Beach Bronco]

Just installed my lift too. Let me know if you come up with a solution to eliminate straps deforming rear window seal.

 

[mike8675309]

I think the easiest way to stop the straps from deforming the seals would be to get some 2 x 4's of the correct length and let the straps wrap around those. Even if the 2x4 presses on the seal, it's less force as it's being spread across the entire seal rather than a 2" or so straps.

Personally, I'm not overly worried about the seals. I tightened the straps so that 90% of the force on the seal was just compression and not movement or slip that might lead to tearing.

I'm not worried logically. It's just when something is hanging. It helps that I did the work, so I know what is being used. I've seen a lot of ceiling fans installed in a way that it's amazing the fan didn't fall down.

 

[mike8675309]

What is your garage ceiling height? And fully raised can you measure the distance from the floor to bottom of the top?
thanks

Ceiling height at that location in the garage: 10feet 9inches
Lowest part on the bronco top to the floor is : 7'feet 7inches

In theory, that means the top attached to the system needs 3' 2" to work with.

 

[5PC24]

If worried about falling a few i bolts with bungees or wratchet straps and no worries. Mine has hung fine for a year with either hard or the soft top.

What do you do in order to have it hold the soft top up? I'm trying to figure out how to store soft top. Right now it's still on the pallet as delivered in the dual top option but that takes up way too much space.

 

[Johnny Mo]

I'm planning on building my own but using a similar design. Using HVAC uni-strut, a Harbor Freight electric hoist and some strraps from custom tiedowns. The goal is to get it as close to the ceiling as possible, so I will likely recess the hoist, then build a cage similar to that smarter home one, but instead of using straps hung off the cage the custom tie downs will bolt to the uni strut and attach at the roof rack attachment points giving me a great picking angle while spreading the load across all 4 points. Although it seems some have had success with just the rear set. To alleviate the load during storage I'll have a pair of unistruts mounted on the ceiling with a spring loaded threaded rod hanging down and a pair of 2x3's the width of the top - using wingnuts to create a floating shelf for the top to rest on - not entirely but really to take the weight off the flat hooks in the roof rack slots. Then I can use the 2x3's as a shelf for the front and mid panels with no additional weight/stress on the roof itself. Way overkill - but if you haven't seen my modification to the $28 DIY cargo/trunk shelf yet - then go check that out and you'll see I'm pretty much all about overkill.

 

[Kfcflores]

Installed my lift today. Super happy with it. Didn't put the mid panel on top because I wanted to make sure I had enough clearance to still back in. Plenty of room so I will add that on top and rebalance.

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