Ursa Minor Pop-Top Jeep JK

Dan Grec

Expedition Leader
i was more looking to use it as a "exocage" for the top to help try and protect it from tree limbs and such.

Take it from me, the J30 does not need any kind of protection.

I've driven mine on 50,000 miles of the worst roads in the world through West Africa and Southern and Eastern Africa, and it has zero pin-striping from thousands and thousands of tree branches and what-not. In fact the Jeep has pin stripes and the J30 does not (both the black lower part and the white roof).

Also note I rolled the Jeep on the side, and it barely chipped the fiberglass roof where it landed on rocks.

-Dan
 

86scotty

Cynic
Take it from me, the J30 does not need any kind of protection.

I agree. I have one. The top is stout. I can only imagine you're asking this question thinking of protecting your investment. The only scenario I can imagine this being a concern is if you roll, as in fully roll, the Jeep. If you are going to be crawling and risking flipping a Jeep then the J30 is going to get torn up just like the rest of the Jeep, but for 99% of people the top needs no additional protection.
 

anonomoto

New member
I'm going to be purchasing this J Barr lift system to facilitate removing and storing the Ursa Minor top. The website says the system is good to 250 pounds while the Ursa Minor is listed at 265 pounds. I've got a roof rack and a couple other additions to the inside so I'm estimating the whole top will be closer to 275-280 pounds. However, I called the J Barr owner and he said the pulleys are rated to 500 pounds and the winch is rated at 2000 pounds. He thought the bar he uses might start to flex when you get over 500 pounds so I'm thinking it should be fine at <300 pounds. I also mentioned the straps might be just a little short and he said he would ship me the standard 4 door straps and if I ended up needing straps a couple inches longer he would send them right out.

Has anyone else tried this particular system? It would be nice to have an easy system like this to install and then just keep the entire top suspended at the top of my garage when I want to run the jeep topless.
 

talico

New member
anonomoto, I don't think this will work. The top is much more front heavy than the JKU stock top. There is a lot of weight due to the section where the freedom panels would be. From the photo in your link, the top would be nose down. It might be strong enough, but you would need to significantly redistribute the weight.
 

talico

New member
To answer the previous question about protecting the top with bars. I bought my Ursa top, because it had the lowest center of gravity and least wind resistance of any roof top tent. If you put the bars up there, you negate some big selling points for this thing. It is pretty tough anyways.
 

anonomoto

New member
anonomoto, I don't think this will work. The top is much more front heavy than the JKU stock top. There is a lot of weight due to the section where the freedom panels would be. From the photo in your link, the top would be nose down. It might be strong enough, but you would need to significantly redistribute the weight.
Yeah, I was wondering about that too. But it's nothing that adding one more strap wouldn't fix right? I figure I could get one more strap, if needed, and run a hook from the front of the camper back to the bar and that would balance it all out.

I've seen a picture or two of other people lifting just from the middle piece of the camper shell... the majority of the weight is still in the back area.
 
Run the straps front to back on either side. Then set a center strap when you first lift it will tilt front or back side the balance point thats hood it is it with my you hardtop
 

anonomoto

New member
Good point. The balance point might be kinda weird but I think I might add a little stabilizer strap to the front and/or back to keep it all balanced properly.
 

PET77

New member
Hi,

can anybody shoot me installation instructions? Bought second hand and my garage has some questions regarding the order of installation steps. Please:) classic.cars.avenue (at) gmail (dot) com
 

Gmr213

New member
PET77 I sent a crappy iPhone scan to that email address of the installation instructions I’ve got from Ursa Minor. Let me know if that works!
 

PET77

New member
Hello everybody and great many thanks for your kind and swift help! The video didn´t show one or two details i needed, but the instructions helped!
 

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