HARKEN - Hardtop Overhead Garage Storage Hoist for Jeep Wrangler and Ford Bronco, Self-Leveling, Safe Anti-Drop System, Easy One-Person Operation, Garage Organization

Overall, good product. I think it’s a little bit on the expensive side considering what you get is rope and pulley systems and eye hooks. It does not come with any of the wood pitch, which is not surprising as that would be hard to ship. It does take some time to install, but once installed that works well. The only challenge I’ve had is that the self releasing mechanism against the wall does not tend to want to release unless you have a very extreme angle against it. Unfortunately, that means I have to get up on a ladder as I have mine up against the ceiling.

EZ install and works as described.

Set aside five or more hours to install. But once it’s done it works quite well. One thing to note is the big eye screw supplied is apparently cheap metal as I torqued in half twisting it into the wood in my garage/barn. To be fair this barn beam isn’t ordinary as it’s 200 years old and definitely some hardwood you just don’t see anymore. But I wanted to mention it anyway. Luckily I had a super heavy duty eye hook lying around and used that. No issue with the bolt breaking on that eye hook.Lastly the knot thing is not that simple. For you boaters, it might be easy to do. I had to redo each one about three times until I was satisfied. There are four knots to tie in the hoist assembly.

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

Took my time and it was an easy install. Taking the top off is a one person job.

Great product! Exactly what we needed for our tent! It was harder to find the studs in the roof, than it was to install. Definitely a 2 person job to install. The first time to do anything takes longer. I’m sure we could do it alot quicker the next time. Would recommend!

I think it's a good product. It works well. But it took a lot of trial and error to get there. It was not easy to follow the directions. The directions included were for a generic hoist--not Jeep specific. Google for 4907Jeep.PDF and you'll find the jeep directions (i dont think you can include non Amazon links in reviews).Super easy to hoist the top up and down by yourself. If the jeep is not located exactly below the pulleys you will need helpers to help guide it up or down.Make sure a few things:*The 2x6 to the ceiling to vary based on install. Easy to do, but time consuming to mark all the joists/rafters and lay it out. I highly recommend some SPAX or similar screws that do not require pre-drilling. And use an impact driver with the right head driver nut, or Torx bit. Doing this with a ratchet would be a complete pain.* Lay out the board on the ground and measure the rafter's center from the wall. Mark the board, and start the screws into the board. Then turn it up and climb the ladder and land one screw into the rafter and you should be ok. Then drive the remaining screws.* Directions call for 2x6. I used 2x6. But i don't see why it cant be done with 2x4.* The 2x6 and SPAX screws cost about $25 from Menards/Home Depot. Not a big deal, but factor that into the cost compared to other units. I did 2 screws into 4 rafters, so 8 per board, 16 total. At $0.50 each, that's $8 right there. Plus 2x 2x6x102" (stud) @ $9.50 each. (i needed to buy a $3 T40 bit to drive the SPAX lag screws as well). I would've rather used Unistrut, but the pig tail eye hook required for the pulley is a wood screw.* The distance from top of roof to ceiling must be *at most* the same as from roof to back wall (distance between block and tackle). For every inch the roof goes up, the block and tackle cinches up 1 inch. You are at max height when the knot hits the pulley, or the block meets the tackle.* You can move the block and tackle offset from center if you need to increase the distance from wall to pulleys.* Make sure to tie the knot evenly at the same height across all black ropes. Once installed and on the ceiling, make sure to mark them at even points. Measure the same distance from the ceiling down, or from the floor up and mark the black rope and make the knots. (bonus points for using a laser level to make them even). I had the knots a few inches different and the roof was uneven--the one side maxed out (knot hit the pulley) before the other side. I had to take it all down and move the knot. There is no easy way to "move" the knot--you have to undo the first knot and re-tie a new knot.* Make sure to be patient with the knots. They take 2-3 minutes each to tie. Longer if you have a very long "tail" of black rope. It's not hard--the graphic is good in the manual, but unless you own a sailboat or are a boy scout who just got his knot badge, it takes a few min to learn it. And everything times 4 since you have to do it for all the black ropes. I had mine uneven and had to retie all 4 of them multiple times.* Make sure the knot is below the roof line of the jeep cover so you can get the roof tight to the ceiling.* Instead of cutting the end of the ropes, i just coiled them up and velcro'ed them to the strap.* Cinch up the internal strap to "lower" the knots.* I don't like how the metal clip that connects the straps is so close to the end--it can rub against the top. Might make sense to shove a rag in between so it doesn't scratch the finish of top.* If you want to lower it to the floor, you will need to make sure you have the appropriate distance between block and tackle for the black ropes to go all the way to the floor.* Line up the jeep in the garage where you want it and mark the floor with duct tape or similar so you know where to pull in.* When you lower the roof, make sure the jeep is directly below or have a few helpers to guide the top down so the pins lock in directly.* OPEN THE REAR DOORS (or take them off). The top will bump into them on the way up and down and could scratch the doors.* DO NOT FORGET THE WIPER CONNECTION! I did that once already and it got hung up.* The straps need to go front to back and run the sides the top. This is opposite of the canoe example in the manual.All in all, a good product. A bit over priced for just ropes, pulleys and a block and tackle. I think more like $99 would be fair. It isn't a hard install, but it takes time. Having a helper at times is very helpful too.

I’ve installed it with the help of a friend about a year ago, I’ve used many times since and it still works great, and it doesn’t take any garage floor space.