Roll Bar clearance - soft top vs. hard top

[jakepkoe]

I performed a cursory search of the internet in an effort to obtain this information but with no instantly gratifying result, the question is presented here.

I will be building a roll bar soon and would like to get as much driver clearance as possible. With no access to a hard top to check clearance, if it's built to barely clear the soft top will it interfere with a hard top when/if one is added later? I'm assuming I'll have to get my hands on a hard top to fully maximize headroom.

[AlanP1964]

The 'Vine as in Grapevine? I live in North Richland Hills. Currently have my hardtop on. You would be welcome to come by and and look, take measurements etc if you wanted.

[sammm]

This will show you roll-bar head room.

http://www.bethania-garage.com/guide.htm

[jakepkoe]

Yeah, I'm in Grapevine and I appreciate the offer. It'll probably be a couple of weeks but I'm sure I'll take you up on it.

Thanks for the link sammm. It looks like the hard top bars are lower but further back. Reading internet I found a couple of references indicating the further back may be due to side latch clearance issues. If that's the case I can plan on building around access for the bolt on latch plates, perhaps bringing the bar further forward than the off the shelf units and getting as close to the top as possible for "Max Headroom." (I know, that was cheap and terrible)