Top Prop

For most soft-top 4x4 drivers, a bikini top is a must-have accessory. In fact, many of us use them year-round. They're light, easy to install/remove, and they take up virtually no room when rolled up and stowed. But there is one major drawback and everyone who uses this top knows exactly what it is: it collects water. Gallons of water.

From this.

To this.

There is not one of us bikini top users who isn't familiar with the misery of having to drain the water from a sagging, stretched top. I've yet to complete this task without getting soaked. Like any good, fur-bearing Rock Monkey ©, it wasn't long before I devised a suitable solution: I got my wife to do it. Unfortunately, it lasted for only a short period (ie: the amount of time required for her to get soaked...once).

The Top Prop takes about ten minutes to install...if you're slow.

The folks at Skid Row Automotive also encountered this problem and were clever enough to create their Top Prop product. It's a bow that spans the two horizontal bars that go from the main rollbar hoop to the windshield frame (on a Jeep YJ or TJ). The bow forces the bikini top into a kind of dome shape which sheds water rather than collecting it. Because the bow presses against the top, it also minimizes flapping, and therefore, noise. And by preventing water pooling on the top, it also prevents it from getting stretched by the weight of the water.

The bow can be trimmed to fit pretty much any vehicle that has horizontal bars on each side of a windshield, similar to the Jeep YJ and TJ. For example, Land Cruisers and Samurais with a full cage could also use the Top Prop.

I can't recommend this product highly enough. Just ask my wife.

...lars