OK, so maybe by this point, the Bestop Sunrider Supertop for the TJ isn't fresh news. But we happened to have a well-aged example sitting around on the Jp Magazine shelf and also happened to have a TJ with an old, decrepit top with zippers that get stuck by just mentioning the word "open."
Going into this, we had some misgivings-in the past, we've had problems with Bestop Supertops on YJs and CJs. Heck, we live in fear of that little tab that keeps the tension on the top and were dreading the reappearance here. Also, in 2001, the Wrangler came with a Sailcloth top, but if you want a Bestop Sunrider style top for a Jeep made before 2003, there is no Sailcloth option. We all know how much quieter the Sailcloth supposedly is than the regular tops, so we were worried about the noise that would follow the swap because our stereo can barely keep up with the Sailcloth top.
Our '01 TJ, Red, finally got its topectomy, and we decided we'd share some of our observations along the way.
 Bestop included a really nice...  Bestop included a really nice VHS cassette with the top. We don't have a VCR, so we didn't watch it. Hopefully, Bestop has started to include DVDs instead. Anyway, there are a ton of small parts in this kit-the exact number is included, meaning no extras. If you're having a bad case of butter fingers, you better just stop now and try again another day. Some of these pieces are not likely to be found at your local hardware store. |  The top goes onto the Jeep...  The top goes onto the Jeep nicely. No drilling was necessary, and up until this point, no power tools were needed at all. Heck, we didn't even have to warm the compressor up for this install. The only modification we had to make was to round out the corners of this piece of steel; (continue) |  it's the hinge for the Sunrider...  it's the hinge for the Sunrider section of the top, and it wouldn't fit in the plastic bow ends (much less allow the top to open or close) until we rounded the corners down. |
 Here is a dreaded tab. It's...  Here is a dreaded tab. It's a little different than the normal Bestop setup, but really, you'd think they'd come up with a better solution by now. Predictably, we bent the tab and the bracket slid down the tube (note the scratch marks) while trying to get the rear corners of the top fastened down. And, yes, we did lay the top out in the sun for a few hours first. The solution is to attach the rear corners first then move forward to other parts, such as the locking pins on the Sunrider section. Once we did that, we had no problems. |  This is one of those parts...  This is one of those parts to not lose. (Ask us how we know.) The directions call for putting these pieces together on the Jeep. You've got two screws, two washers, a spacer, and a threaded coupler that have to hold together a bow, go through another section of bow, and have the spacer in the middle. Look into preassembly for this part. We spent just over an hour trying to find the threaded coupler when the screw pushed it out of the bow. |  One neat thing Bestop did...  One neat thing Bestop did come up with was this tab, which makes installing the rear window much easier than ever before. Now there is something to hold onto when starting the zipper. |
 This is looking backward inside...  This is looking backward inside the Jeep at the rear window. Notice anything missing? At some point, someone at Bestop decided it was a good idea to eliminate the straps that hold the rear window up. Sure, they leave stripes in the window, but we just can't get behind full removal of the window for taking the top down-or in rainy climates, just removing the windows. These straps are a necessary evil to the Jeep top. Not all of us can simply remove the window and forget about it. | | |
The Pleasant Surprise
We all know that Sailcloth is supposed to be way quieter than the regular Haartz top material, right? Wrong!
We went all geeky with this part. We took a limited-production phone with GPS mapping software on it, a new Bluetooth GPS receiver, and a decibel meter to see if the Sailcloth really was quieter.
The GPS gave us our speed, the cruise control in the Jeep maintained it, and all the while we shot video of the dB meter, because we needed to watch the road, not the meter.
The results surprised us. With the windows up, covering the same route at roughly the same time of night in the same weather conditions, we ended up with 85 dB at 70 mph before and after the top swap. To see the videos, go to www.jpmagazine.com.