Rag Top Days
Who Says Pickups aren’t Cool? We Install Bestop’s Tacoma SupertopFor a pickup guy (or gal), there is nothing like having a six-foot bed behind you. It is the ideal setup for camp gear, firewood and tools. Mount a canopy out back and you have protected storage for your gear, or a dry place to bivouac on rainy nights. There is also something about loading up our favorite toy. Whether it be a personal watercraft, motorcycle, or ATV, it is this versatility that we truck people hold dearly. But the dilemma with conventional canopies is that you need 40 minutes and help from a buddy to hoist the heavy fiberglass unit off the truck. And that is after you shoved all the clutter into the corner of your garage to make room for it. This is where Bestop’s new Supertop® for Trucks comes into play.
Known for quality canvas Jeep tops for over 50 years, Bestop has come out with a new line of convertible canvas canopy tops for trucks. Built with the same quality as the original Supertop for Jeeps, these new ragtops for trucks provide high-quality durability, easy retract-ability and one-of-a-kind styling. The replaceable heat-sealed vinyl windows sport a 31% tint and meet U.S. and European regulations. And like the Jeep tops, the rear window can be conveniently removed or rolled up for quick access to your gear.
We mounted our Supertop on our 2002 Taco, but the Supertop is also available for the ’05-06 Tacomas and other mid-size trucks from Ford, Chevy and GMC. It is also available for fullsized Chevy, GMCs and ’99-06 Ford F-150 models. As of this writing Bestop has informed us that it has screen windows in the works, as well as a fullsized Dodge version of the Supertop.
We’ve had the Supertop on for about two months and it has kept our gear clean and dry during spring thunder showers in the high Sierra Nevadas. We’ve also folded it forward to haul stuff to the dump, move furniture, and load up the motorcycles for a trip to the desert.
Out of the box, the kit came complete with everything: Bestop’s new Belt-
Rail mounting system, canvas top, tinted windows, hardware, foam tape
and legible instructions (we appreciated that part). Within about 90 minutes,
we were out on the road for a spin in our new ragtop.
1. The Belt-Rails
go together first.
The two tailgate
brackets attach
with a cap-nut and
face the inside of
the bed. The top of
the tab will eventually
be the
attachment point
for the rear window.
From the cool review side, never have we received so many comments like “cool truck man” and “where did you get that soft top bro?” Lastly, a really cool thing about the Supertop for Trucks is that you can land one on the back of your rig for about half the cost of a conventional canopy top. For information on the Bestop’s Supertop, cruise the web to www.bestop.com.
What is synthetic rope? Well, its created in a chem lab rather than a foundry and is made up of complex formulations of polymers. Do you really want to know more than that? Not many of us are chemists, so lets stick to what it does and its general characteristics. There are several types of synthetic winch rope, the exact compositions of which are hidden behind brand names like Superline, Amsteel, Technora, Vectran, Spectra, Plasma and perhaps others. The differences between the types are significant but would take a book to describe. The similarity they all share is braided, 12- strand construction.
2. Two clevis pins must be installed into a notched slot in the bow mount
bracket from the outboard side. This will be used to affix the bow mount
framing to the Belt Rail. With the pins in, you can bolt the Belt-Rail together.
3. With foam tape applied to the base of the Belt-Rails, they can be placed
on the bed rails (57.25-inches: inside to inside measurement). Rather than
drilling holes in your bed, Bestop’s patented Belt-Rail system attaches with
conventional canopy clamps, allowing for easy installation and removal.
Synthetic winch ropes offer many advantages, not the least of which is light weight. A 120-foot roll of 5/16 wire rope weighs about 28 pounds with a hook attached. A 120-foot roll of synthetic 5/16-inch rope weighs five pounds with a hook. Synthetic is “dead,” i.e. it does not stretch or store much kinetic energy. Unlike wire rope, if synthetic breaks, it generally drops dead onto the ground and does not snap back much. It’s often stronger than an equivalent wire rope and has appendagefriendly surfaces. Gloves are not as vitally necessary as they are with wire rope which can tear your hands to shreds. It also floats and in an emergency, you can tie a knot in it. Knots do weaken it, but if you perform a long splice at a break, it’s as good as new. Long splices and eye splices can also be done with wire rope, but are much more difficult to perform.
4. The main framing assembly is made up of three crossover hoops (or
bows), each consisting of two slip-together sections.
5. Slipped together, with an elastic strap on each side of the aft bow, the bow tie
framing is attached to the Belt-Rails, using the previously installed clevis pins.
Synthetic rope has a few disadvantages when compared to traditional wire rope. It’s more susceptible to chafing damage on rocks, though that is addressed in some cases by an outer sheath and operator care. It has a high initial cost. No getting around that. One of the more talked about potential problems has to do with synthetic’s ability to withstand heat.
The common planetary winch has a one-way brake built into the center of the winch drum. When spooling out under power, i.e. lowering the vehicle under power, the brake will generate some serious heat over a long period. Winch manufacturers caution against this lowering practice and advise doing it only in short spurts of about 20 feet. In most cases, if you get the drum hot enough to permanently hurt the rope, you may have also toasted the brakes on the winch. Rope damage, however, can go unseen on that first layer next to the drum.
Synthetic ropes are rated for temperature resistance in two ways, critical temperature and melting point. The melting point is obvious, it turns to goo, but critical temperature of a synthetic rope is the point where the rope begins to lose some of its tensile strength (around 400 degrees according to one source.) The loss is not permanent when the temperature stays below the melting point and the rope will regain its
6. With a Velcro strip applied to
the front bed rail, which will
secure the front window of the
canopy, we were ready to flop on
the canvas.
7. Working from the inside, each
of the bow tie crossmembers are
attached to the canvas with a
series of snap together sleeves.
strength upon cooling. How much strength is lost at critical temperature? Some sources list up to 20 percent. There may also be issues of “heat aging,” whereby repeated heating and cooling cycles cause a permanent loss of strength over time. Ok, so it wears out over time, but so does wire rope.
There are several ways around the temperature dilemma. Some winch ropes, namely Vectron and Technora, have a high temperature resistance. They trade that for lower tensile strength. One cure is to have enough of the high temp rope spliced onto the stronger rope to cover the drum area. It could even be a larger diameter rope to compensate for the strength difference. Yes, you can splice larger diameter rope onto smaller. An easy partial solution is to place an insulating sheath of nylon over that first layer. Add that to some common sense and you are a bit ahead of the issue.
Overall, do you really need to worry about temperature and synthetics? Anything to do with safety is important, but think about it realistically and from your unique winching point of view. The problem depends on your winch. Planetary winches are the worst culprits for heat generation. If you have a spur gear Warn 8274, you have no problem at all because the brake is external. Worm gear winches like those from Ramsey, Superwinch or Pierce won’t have the problem either since they need less braking action because of the one-way operation of their drivetrain.
8. A plastic strip on the exterior
edge of the Supertop, as well as
the corner mount shown here,
slips into a complementary
groove on the Belt Rail.
9. Ready for windows: A J-hook
style strip on the canvas accepts
its counterpart on the window,
creating an excellent bond. An
additional strip of canvas,
attached with Velcro, conceals
the joint and keeps water out.
Bottom line; ask yourself how often you use your winch improperly and get it hot enough to hurt the rope? The solution is simple; power out in short spurts as the winch manufacturer asks and don’t let the drum reach the rope’s critical temp. If you often find the need to power out under load, you have choices to make and there are good solutions as noted. Overall, I think the issue is somewhat overstated for 90 percent of the winchers out there. Wire rope is still the best choice for some winchers.
OK, so what about chafing? Well, wire rope would win a "chafe-to-the-death" competition, that’s undeniable. Whats also undeniable is that even though wire would win, it would still be damaged and would need replacement. Bottom line is that you need to take the same care to guard against abrasion damage no matter what rope you use. Some synthetic winch retailers offer their ropes fitted with a movable nylon sheath that can be slid along the rope and placed in any spots where chafing could occur.
10. Attached to the lower section
of the rear window is a tailgate
bar, which slides on to a rubber
track and secures the window to
the Belt Rail when down. This
also allows the tailgate, or the
window, to be opened without
opening the other.
placed in any spots where chafing could occur. Cost may be the biggest factor against synthetic. For the hard core ’wheeler, especially in competition, synthetic offers an edge and that edge may well be worth the money. For the occasional winch user, synthetic may not provide a worthwhile balance of cost vs performance, at least not enough to replace a perfectly good wire rope. That could change as the cost of wire rope seems to be rising along with the price of steel overall, while synthetic prices seem to be headed down.