Reviews for Lange Originals 014-210 Power Hoist-a-Top for 07-18 Jeep Wrangler JK
Installed this with my son. Took 5hrs or so over 2 days. Pro tip! Replace the 3.5" screws with square drive deck screws the same size and pre drill the holes thru the planks for them. System works nicely once set up. Top is up out of the way.
4/5 stars because the directions are very vague and general. It took 1.5 hours to complete with two people.
It would have gotten 5 stars but one problem. It's rated for a 25 foot ceiling, however, the control system only has a 6 foot wire. I had to cut the wire and extend it with 15 feet of 14 gauge romex wire. It also too me all day to install the lift, but I was on a scissor lift and very particular about the wiring. Lastly, the instructions were a little challenging.
That said - I love this lift and it works great.
Easy install and works as intended. The only reason I did not give it 5 stars is because the top turns when it is in in the air. Also, the Styrofoam for the freedom tops does not stay together.
Product works great....makes removing the top a piece of cake...BUT gets only a 4 star rating because they DON'T give you written directions on how to install,only a disk...which happned to be "damaged",according to the 2 different computers I tried to view it on. So I went to youTube...found the video there...It hops around a lot...No one/Nowhere do you get a video of a good way to really install the roof parts..or how to adjust the balance once you get everything installed ...it's kinda hit and miss. I feel sorry for anyone who's not mechanically inclined trying to do this
Other than that...once you get it installed and figure out how to get everything adjusted the way you like it...great product,and the top comes off and on like a champ
Great product, works flawlessly when installed properly. Makes adding and removing the hard top an easy one-handed job. BUT...there are NO written instructions included, and the instructional CD that comes with the product is horrendous. It glosses over the major important parts, doesn't show or describe what the finished product should look like when properly configured, and skips around aimlessly, describing different installation setups (ceiling, side wall, and back wall). Hard to believe they'd sell a great product like this with such awful instruction.
As Todd C. stated, the enclosed directions were terrible. The DVD enclosed did not work in 2 different computers in my house. Went right to youtube.com and saw it there. Even so, the video is totally disorganized and obviously edited after the fact to try to fill in gaps that they missed earlier. After watching it a few times as I went along and also using the video done by Rob from Quadratec I got it done. Nobody covered the little detail about installing the brake disk so you do not crush your roof into the ceiling. Just made a fairly simple install much more confusing that need be. The product works well. Taking the roof off for just a day or two more likely with the ease of doing so. As for balancing the unit so it does not tip when not in use I took a lightweight all clothe backpack and stuffed a couple of old towels in it. Then I placed in just enough old golf balls in the center of the towels until it was perfectly balanced when i hung the bag over the window end of the lift. By doing this you can store the unit as high as possible without damaging the ceiling or unit. And if it falls off by chance it wont damage the hood of my car that is parked under it. Because of the bad installation directions I gave it a 4 star rating.
First off, I love this thing installed. I take my hard top off with 1 hand as often as I like, top is stored above ground out of the way. The big downside for me was install instructions are horrible. Online videos are horrible....so many important details were skipped over that would save so much time. Took me 3 hours to install and should have taken less than 1 hour with detailed, step by step instructions, but that seems par for Jeep parts.
My rating is primarily based on the completely inadequate installation instructions. It took much longer to install than it should have because of the awful instructions. The other reason for my rating is that the manufacturer did not think the design through enough. When your hard top is not attached to the hoist, the bar hangs down making it impossible to park underneath it. We came up with a weight to balance it out so the hoist lifts out of the way, but why should someone have to do this? In addition, the power switch hangs awkwardly when the roof is not attached and we had to find a way to deal with that as well. It works great, but the design and instructions were not well thought out.
Even after reading the reviews and watching the video as well as others on YouTube, I still can't believe how utterly inadequate the instructions and video are. The printed instructions and all of the assorted parts that came with the kit are for a completely different power unit with two cables and mine only has one. I realized after mounting the power unit and pulley that I probably don't need the pulley. A new set of instructions for the specific installation application, a better video from Quadratec, and removal of all of the excess parts that don't go with the single cable power unit would make total sense but will probably never happen. I may change my opinion once I reinstall the unit, but I'm a little frustrated to have wasted a couple of hours and that it could have been completely prevented.