HARKEN - Hardtop Overhead Garage Storage Hoist for Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bro...

I was in the market for a hoist, didn’t mind it being hand powered but I didn’t want to break the bank. First, buy 2-8 foot 2x6 boards and 8-10 lag bolts and washers, wish the product images on here emphasized the need for them. This hoist works great and does work for the Gladiator top but you need to go away from instructions. The gladiator top only has the middle window open so if you follow the instructions the front straps will try to move towards the middle of the top making it unstable. The fix was moving the front eye hooks about 12” towards the center from the end of the 2x6 and using a foam pool noodle to keep straps far enough wide to lift top evenly. Also keep in mind that there is a substancial amount of extra rope, both from the locking mechanism and from the eye hooks. Install everything then evenly measure. For my 9 ft roof, 32” of rope from pulley to strap was enough to lift the top to the height you see. Took some time installing by myself about 2 hours (2x6’s are heavy and going up and down ladder). Overall, if you’re not looking to drop $500 on a hoist to move a top 2 feet and don’t mind some manual labor this is the perfect hoist.

Straight forward assembly except for the incomplete explanantion for positioning the hoist from the wall. The distance to the wall needs to be noted to meet or exceed the height from the vehicle to the underside of the garage ceiling to get maximum lift height.

Instructions were clear and easy to follow, took me about 2 hours from start to finish. I supplied the lumber and some lag screws as the instructions noted. Like anything else, just read through and understand the documentation before you start. Easy to use and makes quick work of handling the roof.

I'm new to the world of Jeeps, but I knew that I needed to get my Freedom roof off to fully enjoy the summer. The roof is too heavy and awkward for my wife and I lift off, so we went in search of a hoist - and this is the one we bought. Fitting this to the ceiling of our garage took a whole lot longer than I thought it would, and I thought that the instructions could have been a little clearer - for example, they could have included measurements for common vehicles. I spent a lot of time trying to transfer the vehicle measurements to the ceiling. All in all, I was up and down ladders for about 5 hours. If you don't have 2 left hands, like me, you might be able to do it quicker. I followed the instructions on where to place the hoist points on the ceiling and I wish I'd followed my intuition instead. The hoist points are placed above the outer edges of the Freedom roof, and I wish I had instead placed them directly above where the straps are when you hoist the roof off. This means that, when you pull the roof up, you would be pulling the straps up in a straight line - instead of an ever increasing angle outwards. It feels like the last foot of so of lifting is placing a lot of strain on the pigtail hooks in the ceiling. The instructions say that this is for 10' ceiling, though I think you could easily use this kit on a 13 or 14' ceiling. I have a lot of rope left over that goes through the pulley system, possibly 15' extra feet (my wall is about 8' from the hoist mounting spot). The ropes that attach to the roof are long enough for me to lower my roof all the way to the ground with a 10' ceiling. If you never plan to lower it all the way down, and leave the roof suspended then you have extra height to play with. Once we had the hoist attached to the ceiling it was pretty easy to lift the roof on my own. There's a failsafe in the pulley system to prevent the roof falling, so it's a 1 handed operation. We did have to mess with the lengths of the straps quite a bit, to ensure they were the same length and would lift the roof on both sides at the same time. We left our roof suspended for 2 months - it's just above the high point of the windshield when suspended, though we could get it slightly higher if the hoist points were different, and we used shorter knots in the hoist ropes. Note that this is for a stock Wrangler Rubicon - no lift kit, and stock wheels and tires. Once we lift the Jeep and put 35s on it the roof will be too low to park completely under. I put the roof back on this weekend and it was easy. I was on my own - I backed the Jeep under and the just lowered the roof. The pulley system allows for a lot of control - I could stand to next the rear corner of the Jeep and lower it from there guiding the roof down with my free hand. The only challenge is that, once a corner of the roof touches down, there's not enough weight left to pull the rest down. I had to push the roof around in the harness to try to get it as level as possible, so it was pulling itself down for as long as possible. Still, it was a 1 person job and took me about 5 minutes to get the roof back on - for my first time. Great product, high quality components and makes removing and replacing the roof a breeze

This lift is amazing and does the trick. The install took about 2 hours but it was very easy. I would recommend downloading the instructions from their website for the Jeep hardtop installation as it is a little clearer than the ones that came with the item. The top is able to be lifted by a single person with ease. Make sure you take the time to properly level all your lifting points as that makes the removal and reinstallation so much easier. Most of the time of the install is for the fine tuning which is definitively worth it. I have 11ft garage ceilings and this lift was perfect for me as there is plenty of slack in the lines.

The pros: Works as it should and seems to spread the weight well. I have a 9' ceiling and there is enough room to lift the top high enough, without getting in the way of the light also mounted on the ceiling, to get my Wrangler with 35"s and 5" of lift under it. There is also enough extra rope that I can lower the top all the way to the floor, which is handy. We did all of the knot tying and adjustments of the webbing with the top on the floor which I'm sure would have been a pain doing it with the top on the Jeep. I'm not sure there would be enough rope to do this on a tall ceiling. The cons: I do a lot of carpentry and have plenty of tools. Installation would have sucked without them. The directions are not well written. In their defense, they do lay out the order of the basic steps well and there are a lot of possible variations for different garage configurations that would be hard to cover. I had to make several changes based on the space I was working in and these had to be thought through ahead of time. Again having the right tools (chop saw, long drill bits, impact driver, extra lag bolts etc...) really helped. The only part that was really easier with 2 people was hanging the mounting boards, the rest you can do solo with some patience. All told it still took me 6 hours with help from my son. I have concerns about how sturdy some of the hardware is and if it will hold up over time. I replaced the welded eye with an eye bolt based on other reviews. The 2 biggest issues were...the block and tackle lines were twisted in the packaging and took VERY careful untwisting for it to work. And the "shackle" is NOT a shackle...it is a cheap piece of metal with a tiny pin and a spring clip. Very poor design, trying to install and uninstall the pin and clip (several times because I had to move my mounting point to get a better pulling angle) in a tiny space, close to the ceiling, on a ladder just plain sucked. When I replaced the welded eye, I also moved it down the wall a bit on a mounting block to make the "shackle" easier to get to. I may replace it with a real shackle, I'm not sure how it's going to hold up anyway. However I would buy the kit again. It was a lot easier to buy everything set up, with the correct number of parts and the block and tackle pre-rigged and tied off than trying to piece it all together. As others said, it was probably less expensive than buying the parts separately too and having done the installation once, it would be easier doing it again.

The pulley system is well designed and works really as described. It requires though to buy some parts: wood 6x2 and 4x2, screws different than described in the limited and not so good instructions… already mentioned in many reviews, thanks! Then you have to properly measure and set up in your garaje. After using it a few times, I know I have to adjust the rope and straps to balance it better in my garaje ceiling. And I can handle it on my own without a problem. It is a good cost effective solution, the best one out there actually, that with some creativity gets the jon done for a 6th to a 10th of the cost of other systems.

Great design, and a must for removing my Jeep top by myself. My setup of this product is different than most because my garage is metal, with exposed framing, making it easier because the steel frame which is equally spaced making measurements perfect. I preferred not to store my top on my ceiling, so lowering it to a framed dolly I built out of wood required making sure the welded eye bolt be mounted far enough away from the 4 top attachments so that the harness would allow it to be lowered to the ground. I have read on a Jeep forum that I frequent that you could make this harness setup much cheaper than this one, but after mounting and using the Harken Hoister, I can assure you it is well worth the money, because of the flawless design and quality.

Lève le toit, descend le toit. Client content.

A friend suggested this product as a solution to removing and replacing the roof on my wife's Jeep, and storing it while it's off of the vehicle. Up until now, we recruit a friend to help with the removal and replacement, and end up storing it in my shop where it inevitably gets in the way. I read lots of reviews on here about the Harken Hoister and was a little concerned about how many people said the instructions weren't very good, which led to slow and difficult installations. While I have to admit that the instructions are less than ideal...a little vague to say the least...I had no difficulty figuring it all out. Just go slow, use the pictures in the instructions, and measure carefully. Also, a lot of people said that the most difficult and time consuming part of the installation was locating joists in the ceiling. That's true...it does take a while to locate joists and plot out where you're going to install your support boards, figure out how long the support boards need to be, where to put the pigtail hangers, and so on. My advice - invest in a good stud finder. They're not that expensive and once you have one you'll use it for all kinds of things. Either get a decent stud finder, or drill a zillion pilot holes with the old "hit and miss" routine trying to find those joists. Once you locate your joists and determine whether they run side to side or front to back, everything else will be easier. I picked up 2 8ft 2x6 boards (I ended up cutting them to 6ft), and a dozen 3/8x5" lag bolts with washers. Didn't need a dozen but they're cheap and I'll end up finding a use for the leftovers. If your joists run side to side, you'll also need a 2x4 to attach to each 2x6 support board. I had one kicking around, so didn't need to buy one. Like I've said, just go slow...make your measurements and go through it all in your head until it makes sense...and you'll find it all goes together fairly easily. Others have mentioned that it's awkward holding up 6ft 2x6 boards over your head and screwing them to the ceiling. Yep, it's a bit awkward...but I'm 65 and managed to do it by myself, so it's not that bad. Having said that, it would definitely be a lot easier with another pair of hands. I didn't put a stopwatch on it, but it looks like it took me about 3 hours to install by myself. A good portion of that time was spent just thinking about each step before doing it. For me, it looks like this product is exactly what we needed and relatively easy to install. Roof is off, and up out of the way.

I installed the product several days ago and so far it’s working exactly as planned. I’m not very experienced in home projects, so the job took me quite a while (probably 7-10 hours with all the research, measuring, trip to Home Depot for supplies, finding rafters etc.), but ultimately the instructions were helpful and I got the job done. The pulley system is very easy to use. I’ve added an extra eye hook and chain for added security and I also added extra lag bolts into the rafters just in case. Everything looks and feels strong. I recommend this system.