My first thought on seeing the Mopar high tops in person was that the fronts look like a hack - like someone mounted the stock fenders too high. The rears looked better than the fronts to me, but to me the flat fender fronts look way better than the high top fronts and I believe the rears will too.

I met with a company about the door hinges, and they were very interested put them on their list of products to do. They believe they can manufacture them to be priced attractively. Not sure when that might happen, I'll check with them and see what their plan is.

For anyone who doesn't know what we're talking about, I designed door hinges to go with the HD tailgate hinges a few months back; this is a prototype I built:



And speaking of hinges, the other day I got this photo of a special edition of the HD tailgate hinges powdercoated in silver instead of the usual black...

 

Yesterday I led Joel and his family in the Retrofit Offroad JKU through the 3D trail.

Me negotiating a ledge in the LJ-8.



The Retrofit JKU walking up a ledge, his 37's and 4.5" lift make these legdes much easier than for me with my 32's and 2" lift...



As you might expect the Retrofit Jeep is equipped with hardtop sliders, half door sliders, side mount Jerry (driver's) and Rotopax (passenger), and a 37" Tactical Spare Cover in Coyote tan (the tan hides the Moab trail dust well!). It's also got a TrailVision video camera/DVR system, a Storegate, ammo can holders in the cargo area, and other Retrofit and MORryde goodies .

Walking down a ledge like it's nothing. I scraped the trans skid plate and bottomed out on my trailer hitch on this one.

 

Real-life Testing on the JK, great job, now for the 2dr Hardtop Sliders ! Getting hot , Summer's coming !

 

A few photos from yesterday on the trail. Joel and I did Dome Plateau north of Moab. One (optional) feature of the trail is the “Again-and-Again Hill”, a series of high ledges that have to be climbed. The trail leader (who is also the president of the Red Rock 4 Wheelers) said that he wouldn't let anyone on the hill without lockers, so I had to sit out while the locked Jeeps ran the hill. The Retrofit Offroad JKU Rubicon was ok to go. Those who qualified took the trail to the hill while those of us who didn't took a different route to a place that overlooked the hill.

The run up the hill started badly, this photo (taken with my telephoto lens from the overlook over 1/2 mile away) is of the trail leader's YJ. He broke a u-joint strap on the first ledge. In this photo he's already got his winch line out to winch himself over this first obstacle.



In the next photo, the second Jeep in line has passed the leader and they're using a tow strap to tow him up the hill (and up the succeeding ledges). The Retrofit Offroad Jeep (the one with the Coyote spare cover) is lined up for the first ledge, he'd getting directions from a spotter. His JKUR made easy work of the ledges. Joel's wife Joanna is to the left of the spotter in the yellow shirt, she's doing a video of the ascent.

 

the side mount jerry can holder . Was hard to watch that video without having to have that look. I bought mine through him (joel) Retrofit offroad
but not going to 37s I like my 33s no lift

 

Today Joel and I did the Chicken Corners trail. It's not very difficult, but high on the scenic scale. Not too many difficult obstacles to conquer, here's a shot of Joel in the Retrofit Offroad JKU walking down some steps...



Looks very easy for a JKU with 37's, but a little more work for me.



Near the end of the trail is a shelf around a corner that the trail is named for, but it isn't scary enough to make most people chicken out. Here I'm leading Joel around the corner.



But once you get around the corner, the views and elevation are spectacular.





There's lots of water in the Colorado River, but not much to play in on the trails. We did find some, here's Joel having some fun.



No trails for me tomorrow or Friday, it's the Vendor Expo and I plan to spend most of my time there.

 

Great trip, and Pix .Nature's scale is Vast, seeing that landscape carved out by titanic floods is amazing .
Thanks for sharing

 

I spent yesterday at the EJS Vendor Expo. MORryde and Retrofit Offroad teamed up on a booth, the Retrofit JKU is in the booth.



The prototype Overland Rack installed and loaded up:





Special edition HD hinges MORryde did for the show, powdercoated in silver:



I'll explore more of the show today, more photos tomorrow.

 

The silver powdercoat would look awesome on the 07-12 Rubi's/ Sahara's in the lighter colors. I'm still happy to see these products rolling out instead of being locked in someone's creative mind.

Looking forward to more pics

 

One option I've designed the JK Safari Cab (but haven't built yet) is a removable soft roof. I've posted concept images over the course of this thread.





I'm always looking for new ideas to open up hardtops - here's something cool for factory hardtops that I found at the show from Star Fabricating (StarFabricating | Your Jeep Wrangler JK Solutions Specialists) - a sliding rag top.





It's very nicely engineered and seems like a quality product. They told me a DIY installation can be done in about 2 hours. Retail is $1300, which seems like a bargain if you want to really open up your hardtop.