Video Review & Installation

Hey, guys. Today I'm here with the Bestop TrekTop NX Glide fitting all 2007 to 2018 4-door JKs. We do also have an option available for the two-door, so make sure that you get the right one for your Wrangler. This is gonna be a perfect option for you guys out there with a soft top or a hard top. For you soft top owners, this is a perfect time to replace any damaged or worn out hardware or you're just looking to replace the faded or ripped soft top fabric. If you have a hard top and you're looking to switch over to a soft top with a lot of functionality, this is also a perfect option. It's gonna come with all of the hardware that you need to install it as well as give you a bunch more benefits than you are seeing with your current hard top. So, at the moment, this is gonna be roughly $1,000 on the site, but I think with the quality and the design of this that Bestop nailed it right on the head, and this is definitely worth the price. You're getting a bunch of benefits out of this that you wouldn't see with standard soft tops. You're getting the fastback design and the tinted windows that are gonna give you a sleek look and you're getting the zipperless windows so you won't have to fiddle with any zippers and it's gonna be effortless to uninstall your windows and throw your soft top all the way back for that open-air experience.So, install will be a two out of three wrenches on the difficulty meter and that's just because the install is quite lengthy. So, this is nothing that you can't do in your driveway, you just will take up a little bit of time doing it. So, I would also recommend that you let your soft top right out of the box sit in the sun in 75 degree or more weather to allow it to fit properly while you're installing it. So, speaking of install, let's jump into that now.So, our first step into installing our new Bestop TrekTop NX Glide is to remove our factory top. So, we have a hard top on our Wrangler, all we have to do is take off the T-tops and remove the back portion. But if you have a soft top you really just have to break that down by removing the bow assembly and the door surrounds and taking off the fabric. So let's go ahead and take off our factory top.So, first we're gonna remove our factory T-top. So, we are going to unlatch the front latches and then we can unlatch the hinges holding it on. Once you unlatched everything from the front, you can unscrew these knobs that are securing down your T-tops. So, now we can remove our T-top starting with the driver side. So now we have to unbolt the back portion of our hard top with a T40 Torx bolt. So, it's easier to access wire in the back of the Jeep. You can open up your tailgate. You're also gonna have two T40 bolts that are holding in the top of the hard top.So, before we install our rear door surround, we need to install our cable bracket. There is gonna be a notch out for the arch attachment here. So, you can attach that with your provided hardware. You can flip it over and tighten down the lock nuts. Then you can take a 8-millimeter socket and a ratchet and a Phillips head screwdriver and tighten those down. Now we can go ahead and install our door surrounds.So, our first step to installing all of our hardware is to install our rear door surrounds. You will have a insert at the bottom where you can attach it to your tub rail retainer. So, if you line that up, it will line up with your sports bar. There will be an opening that you can push onto your sports bar and you can secure it down with the supplied knob. So, the knob should be inserted through this clamp and then thread into the bottom of the C clamp. So, once that is tightened down we can move over to the other side.So, after our rear door surrounds are attached, we can move over to the front. So, the front door surround is very similar to the rear door surround. You do have this C clamp that you use the longer knob for. So, you will also have an attachment point at the rear here that you can use the short knob for. Now we can attach the front door surround with the C clamp at the front. Now we can take our shorter knob and thread it into the rear portion. Now we can move over to the other side. So, now we're gonna attach our front and rear arches. These are gonna be inserted in the two slots on either sides of the door surrounds. So these are really gonna come in handy when it rains. These are gonna provide an arch to your soft top so no rain can puddle up or stretch out your soft top or even make it leak. So, these will be a little bit rigid at first. They are gonna be a bit tough to get in, but you can pull up on the door surround and slide them in the side. You wanna make sure that the shorter arch goes in the front and the longer one goes in the rear. So now you can remove the protective cover off of the arches. This is basically just gonna protect the foam while it's in shipment.So now we need to install our mounting brackets for our bow assembly. So, they will be mounted here and there is a Velcroed hole for them. However, to access the bolt holes you want to unVelcro the top of the sports bar cover and you can unzip it to access those holes. So you are supplied two T40 bolts and you want to make sure that this smaller hole is facing upward and this outer bracket is facing the inside of the Jeep. They will also be labeled. You are gonna be supplied two T30 Torx bolts for either side. You wanna make sure that this outer bracket is facing the inside of the cargo area and that this smaller hole is facing up since they are side-specific. So, after this is tightened down, we can attach the cover around the bracket. And zip up the sports bar cover and Velcro that down. Now we can move over to the other side.So now we're ready to install a portion of our bow assembly to our fabric. So, with the fabric on the table, I just would like to mention that this is gonna be a very similar material to the factory soft top material. This is made of a 28-ounce black diamond fabric material that's gonna be very durable. You're also getting with this top a couple of storage pockets that are gonna free up some storage space inside of the cab, which is definitely a benefit over the hard or the soft top. So, let's prepare our header assembly to install our bow assembly.So, in order to access the top and the bottom screws that are gonna attach our bow assembly into our header assembly, we need to remove these two screws that are holding on this protective flap. So, you can use a Phillips head screwdriver or a Phillips bit and a drill, kind of makes it a little bit easier. And that will just remove the flap. So, this will be a very simplified bow system compared to your stock system. So, you can take your number two bow and insert it into your header assembly making sure that this bracket is facing the inside and this middle bracket is also facing the inside. So, after your holes are all lined up, you can take your provided Phillips head screws and screw them in. So, after the top bolts are secured, we can flip our bow assembly and header assembly over to access the bottom bolts. So, now we can reattach our protective flap, so we can flip our assembly back over. You wanna make sure before you attach your protective cover that you are attaching the cable bracket in there as well.So now we can take our number three bow assembly and attach it to the two brackets that we attached to our sports bar. So, to attach it to the back bracket you pull this knob and it will slide into place, with the quick release pin. If you shimmy it around, it should snap into place. So, after we attach the third bow assembly, we will install our bow stops. So, these will attach right on the top of the bow assembly and will snap into place. So, after those snap into place, you have the four set screws that you can attach with a Phillips head screwdriver. So, after the bow stopper is installed, we can attach our bow assembling number four. You wanna make sure that the curve is pointing towards the rear end of the Jeep and we're just gonna attach the quick release knob into this tab here.So, now we're ready to attach the top portion of our soft top on to our Jeep. So, what we're gonna do at this point is orient our soft top the way it is supposed to face and then we're going to take our fabric and lay it over our windshield so we have full access to attaching our bow assembly that's connected to our fabric to the back assembly that's connected to our Jeep. So, now we can take the latch on our door surround and latch down our bow assembly on the side so it stays in place. This will allow a quick release to put your soft top all the way back down. So, now we can insert this tab on the third bow assembly to our bow arm and it will slide into place. This does not have a quick release pin, so you will be securing it down with provided T30 Torx. Now you can repeat the process on the other side.So now we can attach bow assembly number two. They're gonna have two limiting straps on them and they are gonna be facing the rear of the Jeep. You are gonna line this up with one of the side bows and you're gonna line the front portion up with a bracket attached to the side bow. So, this back portion will line up with the hole in the side bow assembly. And the front arm will attach to the inside of that bracket. Now, we can attach the longer bolt that Bestop provides in the back portion of our number two bow assembly. Now you can take an 8-millimeter wrench and a Phillips head screwdriver to tighten those down. So, now we can take the shorter provided hardware and attach it to the front portion of our bow assembly. You wanna face the smaller portion of the washer facing in and on the other side of this bow arm not on this side, we're going to insert the washer the opposite way.So, now we're gonna flip our fabric over so that the back portion lays over the back of the Jeep. So, now that that's laying flat, we can flip our Sunrider feature back open. So, with the Sunrider feature open and the bow out of the bow stop, that's gonna release a lot of tension. So, we can screw in our set strap. So, the soft Velcro on the top of this stay strap will attach to the back of our soft top. So, you wanna make sure that that goes over our bow here, and then there are three holes that will allow you to screw it into the bow. So, now we can take our cable pocket and thread our cables through. You can let it hang on the side while you hook in your cable. So, after our cable is attached to the bottom-most hole, we're gonna crimp that down so it stays in place. So, now you can slide your cable pocket over and take your smallest hardware and bolt it through your cable pocket and the bracket on the bow assembly. So, now you can take a Phillips head screwdriver and a 5.5-millimeter socket and tighten that down. So, now you can repeat the process on the other side.So, our next step is to fold our soft top forward so we can attach the flap to the middle bow. We're gonna attach the corners to our stay straps and pop our bow into place. So, what we're going to do next is attach the flaps that are attached to our fabric on to our bow assemblies. The two in the front underneath your backseat and your front seats will attach by Velcro, but in the rear we do have to attach it by screws. I would recommend to open up your Sunrider feature to alleviate a lot of that tension because they might not line up if it is closed.So, after we attach the two Velcro straps to the two middle bars, we have to screw in our last flap on the last bow. So, you are just going to pull this over and screw it right through this seam here. So, it's easier if you push this back and it gives you a little bit more room to work with so you're not fighting with the sports bar here. So, I would start with the middle and work your way out.So, what makes the NX Glide stand out from the standard TrekTop NX is first the fact that you're not only getting the Sunrider feature, but you're also able to fold the whole soft top down just like your factory top as to where the NX only had that Sunrider feature. The second big thing and what makes the Glide so unique is that you're getting zipperless windows. This is gonna make it effortless to install and uninstall your windows so you can put your soft top all the way back. These windows are 40-mil DOT-approved tinted windows, so the tint is gonna help you out with the installation as well as giving you a sleek look. And because these are a thick window, they're gonna be durable and be able to hold up. So, let's go ahead and install these.So, what we wanna do first is pull up this Velcro flap and you'll be able to see where you're sliding this into. So, I would recommend to slide it in first. This will be completely effortless when you line it up and it will slide right on. So, what I recommend next is lining everything up and getting everything started. So, you're gonna wanna open your door. Can start it inside of the door surround just like any other standard top. So when you pull on it, it will have something to hook onto. So, once that's tucked in there, you can start tucking in the bottom seam into your belt rail retainer. Once that's in you can close the door, so it holds everything up. Also with these, you're getting a little bit of extra security. So, not only is it going to sliding in and being held there by just this top portion, you're also getting this which you can insert into this grommet. And you're also getting a durable nylon rope that will snap into your tailgate retainer.So, like I said, I would recommend getting everything started and then we can pull this window up and get it hooked in our grommet because we do have straps down at the bottom where we can pull down the window to get it to slide the rest of the way into our belt retainer. So then we can pull down on our straps and continue to tuck this in. So, after that's finished, you can just tuck your window into the top of your soft top. And now you can repeat the process on the other side before we put our rear window in. Like compared to my standard soft top, takes me half the time to install these windows than it does on my Bestop Supertop. So, that's impressive.So, now our next step is to install our rear window and our tailgate bar. So, I would recommend to install the rear window first and then we can move on to the tailgate bar as our last step. So, you wanna make sure that the Bestop label is facing the outside. Or just like your quarter windows, you can slide it onto the track and just slide it on. So, just like the bottom and the sides of our quarter windows that tuck into our door surrounds and the bottom of our belt retainer, you're also gonna have that on the sides of your rear windows. These are gonna tuck right into the side of your quarter window, giving it that seamless look and making it effortless to install and uninstall. So, I'd recommend just to get the top portion started and then you can work your way down. It's pretty simple, just like the bottom of the quarter window. We are gonna leave the bottom portion untucked though so we can install our tailgate bar, but they just slide in like that. So, for the other side, you might have to do a little bit of tugging. That's okay. It is meant to be a little bit tight right out of the box, but it will stretch out over time. So, once you have the top started, the bottom portion should be a little bit easier.So, the last step of the install is to install our tailgate bar and this is what's gonna keep everything closed and sealed up against our tailgate. So, just like the top, you are gonna have this little rail that you're going to slide this onto, and then we can tuck it up into the retainers. It may be a little bit hard to get this on and into the retainers at first because this is a new top and it does need to stretch out. However, if you need to, you can open up the Sunrider feature and unhook the latches to give you a little bit of slack or you can let this sit out in the sun with like 80-degree weather just to have the vinyl stretch out a little bit. So, we opened up our Sunrider feature, so we're gonna go ahead and install this.So, you'll be able to slide this in here and it will just slide all the way back. So, once it lines up with the retainers, we can pop it into place and close our tailgate. Like I said, it might be a little bit tough to do so just because it is a new top and they do need to stretch out. So, after that is popped into place, we can hook our last retainers in. So, one on the bottom into the belt rail, and then one on the side into our actual window.So, since we did have our Sunrider feature open to give us a little bit of slack with the tailgate bar, all we have to do is pull that shut, and because it's spring-loaded it will just go right down and then we just have to latch in and push down. So, that means our header is sealed in to the front. So now all we have to do is close our tailgate and you're all set.So, that wraps it up for my review and install. If you have a 2007 to 2018 four-door JK and you're looking for a quality, effortless and very sleek looking soft top, you can check out the Bestop TrekTop NX Glide right here at extremeterrain.com.