Reviews for Lange Originals 014-100 Hoist-A-Cart for 07-18 Jeep Wrangler JK
Easy to assemble and recommend that you watch the entire assembly video at least once before putting it together. Adjusting it so that it lifts level was the biggest pain but it wasn't that bad. It works great. I love that I can go out in the garage on a day like today and pop the top off by myself in a matter of minutes and store it out of the way. I will be purchasing the door hangers next. However, I feel they are a bit pricy for what they are.
I liked the idea that you can vertically store your top as well. Two features in one.
But it is slow when lifting the top when reinstalling.
The user manual is so bad to follow when installing. You loose time just to figure it out. So I went back to Youtube for smoother instructions.
Assembly was pretty easy. The only thing the paper instructions didn't cover was running the cables from the hoist. The one major issue that I had was getting the cables to sit correctly on their spools so they wouldn't bird nest. Also, making sure the cables are the right length before use is a tiny side note at the end of the instruction video that definitely needs more attention. With that said, once I got things going, the hoist worked great! The roof lifted and came off easily and within a few minutes I had it stowed on the cart and wheeled it into my garage. Despite the issues I raised initially in this review, I would still recommend this as an option for removing and storing your hard top. One last note, while other reviewers suggested using a drill in place of the handle, it didn't take that long without a drill to raise and lower the top (maybe 5 mins) so don't let that be a barrier to getting this.
A better way to hoist your top if you do not have the option to put a hoist on the ceiling of your garage. Assembly took me about 45min but its easy. I took 1 star off because its a pain to use it. It took me more than an hour to remove the top the first time because i had to readjust the straps about 10 times to get the right balance. The steel cables made it really difficult to properly reel it. If you have the option to mount on your ceiling, a $20 strap mounted on your ceiling is probably be better and faster.
Fairly easy assembly. Parts and bolts are now marked clearly. I recommend watching the enclosed DVD before attempting assembly and operation. I was shorted one bolt crucial to assembly. Called customer service at Lange. No one answered. Left message. No one returned call. Once assembled the main hurdle is to set the correct length of both cables. If they are not set to correct length the top will tip one way or the other and you'll have to set the roof back down and adjust the cable lengths. Once everything is set it works quite well. Tipping and storing roof on rack is somewhat clumsy. The rack takes up quite a bit of garage space when not in use.
I read the previous reviews approximately a year prior to ordering in February, 2017. Whomever is making the product is trying a little to improve the product. One of the good things is they are tagging the items now which match up to the instructions. It is clearly much easier then some of the early complaints. A few parts were not marked as they should have been but it's pretty easy to figure out.
Some of the early complaints involved the no turn castor wheels and the bird nesting of the cable. These are legitimate complaints that are not resolved. Unless there is some safety reason as to why all four wheels can't turn, then I don't know why they have not made this adjustment. It's not problematic. It's just annoying. As far as the bird nesting of the cable issue, this seems to be the biggest complication. The good news is that they have added two weights, one for each cable to help deal with this issue. The bad news is that the weights are not listed in the instructions or the YouTube video instructions. I didn't realize what the weights were until after completely building the hoist and reading the last posted review. DO NOT make the mistake of not putting on the weights. Here is the reason why. The hoist comes with the cable already bird nesting. It is very important that when removing the top, it is equally balanced from both cables. If it isn't, your rear window may pop open during removal and if it hits something, it may break. They will have you crimp the cables at certain lengths in the instruction. The problem with this is because of the bird nesting, if one of the cables is more bird nested then the other, you will not be balanced. If that happens, take your time, disconnect and make the appropriate adjustments. When all was said and done, my final measured cable lengths were not even close to the measurements given in the instructions. Had I initially put the weights on, it probably would have been easier with less bird nesting.
The item does work well and eradicates the need for a second person. Watching the online YouTube instructions while building it makes it much easier. They just need to update the YouTube video to include the adding of the weights and a few other minor details. It is expensive and safe to assume the profit margins is high. They can clearly afford to fix the castor wheel problem and the synthetic cable option and will still have a great profit. I would buy it again.
Like others have said, make all four castor wheels turn and change the cable to a synthetic cable and you will have a terrific product. Like others have said also, you will definitely want the drill over the hand crank.
This is a great item and I wish I had purchased it when I took delivery of my Jeep.
The good:
Good instructions (they've been improved), good materials, solid product. Assembly was easy though it did take a couple of hours. I like to tinker and had fun building it.
The great:
It really works! Easily remove and store the top. Roll it around the garage as needed.
The bad:
Took away one star for the following-
-Should use something other than steel wire. It was a rats nest when I unpacked it and has been annoying to manage. They do include weights which make it a lot easier.
-Balancing the device was more time consuming that I feel it should have been, due to the wire clams that are used. If they used a synthetic cable then they could also use an alternate clamping method that was on-the-fly adjustable.
-Price seems high for what it is, but there's nothing else like it on the market (other than one which requires holes in the hard top).
Despite the negatives, it was very much worth getting. I occasionally get a whim to take the top off without any notice and can now do it without dragging someone else into it.
Great product, but not perfect. Like another reviewer stated, I wish that they had shipped this with four swivel castors. With the default setup the cart can only be pushed/stored on the long side, so it can't be put in sideways.
The hoist also left much to be desired. It is difficult to try to properly wind up the wire that is used. Quite frankly they probably could have just used synthetic line rather than a steel cable.
Finally, during storage the top likes to pop off the lower catches near the bottom corners. I have to occasionally reposition it back onto the cart so that I don't have to worry about it sliding off while in storage.
With that out of the way, this is an excellent solution for removing the hard top when you aren't able to install a ceiling mounted hoist. It enables one person to do the entire process by themselves.
First, this works. It is a very good solution to removing and storing your hard top. There is one thing to note, if you have a confined area, like a garage, to store the top, this is going to be very cumbersome due to the way that they supply the castors. This unit only has two swivel casters and the other two are fixed. You cannot move this in just any direction. Let's say you remove your top and of course you are at the back bumper. Now, you cannot simply push the unit sideways to swing away from and around the Jeep. It moves very awkwardly. I called the manufacturer and told them and they said that this was something they debated. They chose wrong. I had hoped they would send me two of the swivel castors but did not. I just bought 2 from Amazon for $40, so consider that an additional price. Also, I had to take the winch apart and rewind as it was fouled as it was wound in the factory.
Instructions are a video no written ones. It doesn't tell you when to put weights on, and the double stick tape for the cushion didn't work, so I still haven't got it together where it will work but I will this weekend hopefully.