This is great. I've been looking/waiting for a hard top where the side and rear windows are removable!!!

 

This design is very reminiscent of my Defender 110. I loved its high ceiling and windows that give an airy feel, plus extra storage capabilities. I especially like to lift up tent design. When they come onto the market sign me up for one to be delivered to Australia.

Incorporating an opening sunroof would be a great feature as well.

 

If the price was reasonable, I'd buy one. But I was wondering if insulation, primarily for noise reduction might be an added benefit? I've been toying with adding some to my JK rear roof section to see if it'll reduce some of the noise. I know this could add substantially to the cost though.

 

Thank you.

I've designed the JK Safari Cab roof panel so it can accept up to two sunroofs - one over the front row of seats and one over the back row of seats. I don't know if sunroofs would be a feature/option on a production version of the top, that would be up to whatever company might end up licensing the design (assuming some company does decide to license it, and assuming I decide I want to license it, neither of which are certain things at this time).

In post 45 of this thread I showed some photos of the 1:10 scale concept model with multiple sunroofs.

 

I installed a headliner in the roof panel of my LJ Safari Cab, and it seems much quieter than the factory hardtop I previously had on the LJ. I use the word "seems" because I haven't done any scientific comparison tests with a sound level meter, so I can't state it as absolute fact, but I definitely believe it to be quieter. It's very quiet, even when the soft side panels are installed instead of the hard side panels.

I'll probably do a headliner in the first prototype JK Safari Cab, although I haven't made a final decision on it yet.

I can't comment on the price it might have if it gets to market, all I can say at this point is that it doesn't cost very much for me to mold one here in my home garage .

 

Got to be slides. That way my dogs can stick their heads out the window. And let me know if you need a paying tester in Nashville.

 

Well done and I hope this comes to fruition...I NEED this to come to market! Thanks for the time you spent developing this. I would love to have the roll up sides with the hard top. The safari thing with the Canback top on the 4Runner was awesome and my little girl loved it...got the open air without the sun beating on you during those long road trips. If it started to rain, we were good to go in 3 or 4 minutes.

Your concept really makes me miss my old 4Runner with the Canback top and rack with the roll up side panels...



Which I just replaced with this...

 

You've got another beta tester ready for some tests in Southern France - along with two dogs who would indeed LOVE to have real (as in "opening") windows ? For now, all I managed to do is remove the back seats of my JKU, and give them the whole back yard to themselves ?

 

Abnout that source, do you think they would consider shipping to Europe ? I've been searching for that exact solution for the three years I had my previous JKU, and I'm getting my new JKU tomorrow morning... Thanks in advance if you agree to share that source !

 

I've ordered a pair of slider windows for testing, they should ship to me this week. I'll be molding a second set of side panels to install them in; because the Safari Cab is modular I'll be able to install either the sides with the sliders or the sides with the kick-out vent windows so I can test both.

The source I'm working with is an RV window manufacturer - they don't sell individual windows to consumers, they manufacture in quantity for commercial buyers like RV manufacturers. I managed to get them to do two test windows for me because of the possibility the Safari Cab might become a commercial product, but the average person can't buy just two windows from them.

Also standard RV sliders can't be installed in a factory JK hardtop because the window mounting surface of the hardtop is curved - the sliders need to install on a flat surface. If you install them on the curved factory surface they will bind or possibly not slide at all. I've worked out a method for dealing with the curved surface, which I'll be testing when the windows arrive.

I have been talking to a company that's interested in selling sliders plus the installation kit for the curved surface, so if my testing works out and they decide to go ahead, then slider window retrofit kits for factory hardtops could become available.