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Pictures of Comanches with Toppers.


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Sometime back in the 90's I made this canopy. It's a wooden frame with a cloth covering.

 

 

Here's inside look. The covering has a limited life, I usually buy cheap material. It takes about a day to sew up a new one. I've got a layer of plastic on the top of the frame.

 

After I painted my comanche with a brush and roller I painted the cloth also. The cloth doesn't retain the same shade as the truck. If I could come across some digital camo material I think I'd make a new cover.

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Still trying to figure a way to adapt an XJ or Grand rack to the top contours for the canoe. The top ribs get in the way. Wish it were flat on top.......

 

Is it a width or a height issue? If it's height .. my friend had a similar topper on his Ranger. We used the rack and rails from a Grand Cherokee. Then we put a 1.5" thick board between the rails & the topper as a spacer. It lifted the crossbars up just enough to clear the middle hump/ribs of the topper. Painted the boards black to match, and then we mounted mount a row of those black nylon boat cleats down the sides of the board. Wound up looking pretty good, and with the cleats as anchor points, was very functional, too.

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Still trying to figure a way to adapt an XJ or Grand rack to the top contours for the canoe. The top ribs get in the way. Wish it were flat on top.......

 

Is it a width or a height issue? If it's height .. my friend had a similar topper on his Ranger. We used the rack and rails from a Grand Cherokee. Then we put a 1.5" thick board between the rails & the topper as a spacer. It lifted the crossbars up just enough to clear the middle hump/ribs of the topper. Painted the boards black to match, and then we mounted mount a row of those black nylon boat cleats down the sides of the board. Wound up looking pretty good, and with the cleats as anchor points, was very functional, too.

 

Yes. I'd have to do the same because of the raised ribs, but I thought it might look like crap. Do you have a pic?

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Yes. I'd have to do the same because of the raised ribs, but I thought it might look like crap. Do you have a pic?

Sorry, no pic ... I just remember that we spent a whole day sanding down the boards to match the contours/width of the rails, and getting a clean spray paint job on them. And we raised it the bare minimum amount possible to clear the ribs. The truck was also black on black, which helped. But IMHO it looked good ... the cleats were the finishing touch - it didn't look like a "rack on stilts" but a more rugged/utilitarian look instead. Definitely didn't look home-brew. When you see those newer wagons & SUV's with the taller side rails, it looked very similar to that.

 

(This was a few years ago, and when I lived in Atlanta. I'll e-mail my friend and see if he has any pics or if he still owns the truck)

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Still trying to figure a way to adapt an XJ or Grand rack to the top contours for the canoe. The top ribs get in the way. Wish it were flat on top.......

 

Is it a width or a height issue? If it's height .. my friend had a similar topper on his Ranger. We used the rack and rails from a Grand Cherokee. Then we put a 1.5" thick board between the rails & the topper as a spacer. It lifted the crossbars up just enough to clear the middle hump/ribs of the topper. Painted the boards black to match, and then we mounted mount a row of those black nylon boat cleats down the sides of the board. Wound up looking pretty good, and with the cleats as anchor points, was very functional, too.

 

Yes. I'd have to do the same because of the raised ribs, but I thought it might look like crap. Do you have a pic?

 

Thule or someone makes a cargo bar that connects into the stock XJ rails, it sticks up way high above the roof, might work well for your shell.

 

And dangit guys, your really making me want a shell!

 

Yarg!

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Hey don, what about getting some of the bed-rails that pickups use? I didn't have a rack on my old Pathfinder, which had a similar hump in the middle. I picked some of those up from the pull a part and bolted my rack to that, after bolting the rails to my roof. :thumbsup:

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Thanks guys. What I'd like to do is what either Rich or Paul did with a roof rack from an old GC, or maybe an XJ I think - can't find the thread right now. But his topper was flat if I remember correctly? Si?

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man I can not belive how many of you guys like caps on your trucks.... I hate them.. not the look of them but I can not stand driving a truck with a cap on it..

first thing I do to any mj I buy that has a cap is take it off and put it on the pile of others intill I can haul them to the Junk yard..

WOW I have to start selling them to you guys... all the ones I have had are in great shape and where made for Mjs....

I just bought a 90 long box today nad it has a highrise cap on it...

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man I can not belive how many of you guys like caps on your trucks.... I hate them.. not the look of them but I can not stand driving a truck with a cap on it..

first thing I do to any mj I buy that has a cap is take it off and put it on the pile of others intill I can haul them to the Junk yard..

WOW I have to start selling them to you guys... all the ones I have had are in great shape and where made for Mjs....

I just bought a 90 long box today nad it has a highrise cap on it...

 

Too bad your so far away.

 

I love shells because they make the Jeep into a big SUV I can sleep in and haul stuff out of the weather.

 

Plus with the right cap visibilty isn't really impaired and the wind drag hardly changes.

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yeah I don't know I have had all kinds of caps highrise with and without tinted windows the low ones all kinds... i jsut don't like them..

I turn my head to shoulder check when moving from lane to lane and see nothing...

I go to back up and see nothing.... I look in the side mirriors and see nothing but Cap...

to bad you are all so far away because I hate to see something that could be used go to wast and its not like everyday anyone can jsut go buy a MJ cap... might just have to load a bunch on the trailer and bring to yas.. LOL

how much is a cap worth??????????

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'97+ XJ Mirrors with 2" blind spot mirrors fix that up nicely. No need to turn your head away from the direction you are traveling :thumbsup:

can't do it... have to turn my head... its a thing that I have to do... to may crazy drivers and I have to know that I am ok when I go from lane to lane... old habbits from riding bikes... I have to look and see the other driver.... nothing anyone can say will change my mind on this one... I ahve bought new cars and trucks and taken them back or sold them because they had blinespots I did not like...

 

to the guy looking for roof rack for the cap. I have a highrize cap here taht has a rack on it I will take a pic tomorrow... if you want the rack I will gladly take it off and ship it to ya... you pay the shipping.

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'97+ XJ Mirrors with 2" blind spot mirrors fix that up nicely. No need to turn your head away from the direction you are traveling :thumbsup:

can't do it... have to turn my head... its a thing that I have to do... to may crazy drivers and I have to know that I am ok when I go from lane to lane... old habbits from riding bikes... I have to look and see the other driver.... nothing anyone can say will change my mind on this one... I ahve bought new cars and trucks and taken them back or sold them because they had blinespots I did not like...

 

to the guy looking for roof rack for the cap. I have a highrize cap here taht has a rack on it I will take a pic tomorrow... if you want the rack I will gladly take it off and ship it to ya... you pay the shipping.

 

Mind getting some nice pics of the highrise cap?

 

Maybe possible to find a company to ship to me?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just installed a used junkyard roof rack from an S10 Blazer on my topper, so I thought I'd post the pics. The 1998-2004 S10 Blazer rack comes in two lengths depending if they are 2DR or 4DR. I had to narrow it a little to clear the hump on the shell, but the length was okay. These racks are nice because they can be altered easily front-to-back or side-to-side. Special thanks to Rich (Drahcir495) for the ideas. :cheers:
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Looks good don! I thought you were looking for a full width rack, but that looks good regardless

 

I was, but couldn't find anything to clear the topper raised center section unless I fabbed it myself. Too lazy and it probably would have looked like crap anyhow.............. :D

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I just want to shake my head...My old boss at work had not one but two Comanches. An 87 he got new with a roll bar that he had a cap put on... and later a 92 with a hi-top Brahma top on it. Both were supposedly MJ specific. Both trucks ended up getting crushed when he moved and had all of his collected crap scrapped rather than deal with selling it.

 

This is the type of situation I would kill for, "yeah go on, get out of here, I'll take care of it!" :chillin: :banana: image_209027.gif

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