Best Jeep Wrangler Soft Top: Buyer's Guide

hey Rob here for Quadratec.com today we're going to be talking about some different styles and types of soft tops available for the Jeep Wrangler whether you're simply looking to replace an older worn out soft top on your Jeep or maybe change from one style to another perhaps you're shopping for a soft top for the very first time for your Wrangler that's only ever had a hard top on it i hope to go over some of the most popular questions we hear all the time here at Quadratec about the different types of soft tops available i've got two two-door Jeep Wrangler JKs in the shop today so of course everything i cover is going to apply to the 07 to 18 Jeep Wrangler JKs both the two doors as well as the four doors but a lot of these same types and styles of soft tops are also available for the earlier 97 to 06 Jeep Wrangler TJ as well as the newer 18 and up Jeep Wrangler JL again the two-door and the four-door unlimited version of the JL now with that being said the best way to shop for a new soft top for your Wrangler is to start by clicking that info button to head over to Quadratec.com where you can use our soft top advisor once you plug in your year and model Wrangler we'll show you all of the specific types and style soft tops that are available to fit your Jeep Wrangler we have tops from of course Mopar original equipment Jeep soft tops we've also got many different tops from all the top aftermarket manufacturers now with that being said there are basically three different categories that most soft tops are going to fall into you're going to have your factory style soft top this is a factory original Jeep top that was on this Jeep when it was new from the factory and this is going to be one of the most common that you're used to seeing because well they've been coming out of the factory this way for a number of years this top features a very squared off rear look to the top and it uses an internal framework or bow assembly to give it its shape and structure needed to allow rain and the elements to run off the soft top keeping you protected inside the second style is going to be a fastback or a slant back style soft top now this style soft top of course offers you the ability to change up the outward appearance of your Jeep giving it a bit more of an aggressive stance more of a sporty look with this slanted back the third category is going to be your replacement only style soft tops now those are going to rely on you already having an existing factory style top installed on your Jeep and that's because those are only going to be including the fabric and the windows they will need your existing internal bow support structure to add that new material on top of now with that being said before we dive into these two different style soft tops here of course we can see that with a factory style top we're going to have a little bit more interior cargo room here because it does extend all the way out to the back of the body of the Wrangler with a fastback or slant back style top well we are going to lose some internal cargo room because well inherently with this design it is slanted inwards from the back of the body on a two door we've got a bit of a mild slant here on a four-door Wrangler we're going to get even more of a dramatic angle to the back of the Jeep so that is something to be aware of when you're deciding between either a factory style or a slam-back style top now why don't i go ahead and get some of the windows removed from the tops and then we can take a better look at the inside that internal bow support structure and how each one of these tops will function with the rear windows removed it's starting to become very easy to see the dramatic differences between a factory style top and a fastback style top so if we start over here with the factory style we can now clearly see those internal bow supports that create the rigid structure to support our soft top material we also have these rear sail panels that extend down from the top and tuck into the belt rail area here on the Wrangler's body to give us the tension needed to hold the soft top in place now those bow supports will also allow you the ease to be able to flip back and fully open your soft top for that true open air experience that only a Wrangler can provide now if we jump over to our fastback style top we can see that we don't have any of those bows here in the rear seat area of our two door would be the cargo area in a four-door Wrangler we also lack that sail panel that extends from the top down to the body of the Wrangler giving us that very open feeling here in the back of the Jeep an added benefit of a fastback or slant back style top is that once you remove the rear three windows now you have a safari style top that's going to provide shade for your driver passenger seat and even rear seat passengers here while still giving you that very opened up feeling with those rear windows removed now within the realm of fastback and slam-back style tops there's actually two different versions you'll find a true frameless style top now those are going to rely only on your Jeep's roll bar to create the structure to support the soft top material well that means that up top here that top portion of the fabric is going to strap around your Jeep's sport bar in a number of locations and then the windows on both the side and the back going to create the tension to hold that soft top piece in place there's also some fastback or slant back style tops that do utilize an internal bow structure similar to the factory support bows however you can see these have been designed to really hug the contours of your Jeep's roll bar they really almost disappear when you look at them but by doing this instead of the top portion of the soft top attaching to the sport bar it's actually attached to these two different bow support structures that's going to allow you the ability to still retain the opening function of your soft top so if you want that true open air feeling once you remove your three rear windows here you can then flip back and totally open up your fastback style top now one other nice feature of a top with an internal bow support structure is a flip back or a sunrider feature and that's the ability to quickly open up the area just over top of our front two seats so by unlatching the soft top at the windshield we can then flip back the soft top opening up over our driver and passenger area while retaining coverage over our rear seat passengers as well as even leaving those rear windows in place that's also going to be available in many factory style tops giving the ability to quickly open up the area over the driver and the passenger seat while retaining the coverage here over the rear of your Jeep now i do have one final option to throw into the mix for you guys that happen to own an 07 or newer Jeep Wrangler JK or an 18 or newer Jeep Wrangler JL either a two-door or four-door Wrangler equipped with a hard top with the factory front freedom panels if you simply want an easier way to open up that front seat area of your Jeep where you can swap out those factory freedom panels in place of some soft top material in a flip back or sunrider top that allows you the ability to quickly open up that front seat area while retaining the hard top portion over the rear seat and cargo area of your Jeep now i hope that answers many of the questions that we commonly get here regarding factory style fastback style and replacement style soft tops for the Jeep Wrangler if you guys have any more comments or questions you can always leave this for me right down in the comment section below or contact us directly at any of the options on the screen of course if you haven't already and you like these videos do me a huge favor make sure you hit that thumbs up button don't forget to hit that subscribe button as well as the notification icon so be sure to catch all of our latest videos until next time i'm Rob i'll see you guys out on the trail