Tops - Pros & Cons

There are two basic choices when protecting you and your Jeep from the rain, you either use a hard top or a soft top. Some of you are lucky enough to have both options available so this blog might not be too useful to you but for all of us forced to have only one, I am hoping this will give you some things to consider when making your choice.

Now to be clear for me, I did not really have a choice. I want a hard top but my wife thinks it is a waste because it would not be used much of the year so my options were limited. For those of you still wearing the pants at home, here's what I have found...

Hard Tops come either in the textured black of color match to your Jeep from the factory. They both have the freedom tops in the front if you are looking at JKs and JLs and come in either 2 or 4 door versions. Here's what I like about hard tops:

• Protection from weather
• Removable Freedom tops
• Better insulated than the soft top
• Much more resistant to damage from tears
• Windows don't scratch as easily as the soft top windows
• Really the only good option for mounting racks (unless you also buy a full rack cage for your Jeep)

Here's what I don't like:

• Can't put it down for the day and then put it back up easily
• Storage options for the top
• Weight of the top
• Cost of an aftermarket top
• Costly to replace if you damage it on the trails

For the soft tops, they also come in a few flavors from the factory. There is a basic top and a premium top. I have had both and prefer the feel of the premium material and the improved way it folds when you put it down. They also come in two colors, a black and a tan. Here's what I like with the soft tops:

• Ease of putting them up and down
• Storage when it is off
• Flexibility to have it partially open or fully
• Lighter weight
• Less costly to replace

For the Cons:

• Colder in winter
• Snow loads in winter
• Louder - more road noise than the Hard Tops
• Less protection and rips easier
• Ease of scratching windows
• No good options to easily mount an awning without a full rook rack

Outside the factory options there are many choices for tops, here is a list of the more interesting ones...

• Bestop
• DV8
• Cliffride (they have some cool camper tops coming out)