Heads-up to Trektop NX owners

Heads-up to Trektop NX owners (with pictures)

I did a quick search to see if this topic had previously been discussed but couldn't find anything. Over the past few weeks, I've noticed the header bar on my Trektop NX would no longer form a tight, uniform seal against the frame of my windshield resulting in a substantial amount of wind noise and some flapping during heavy cross winds. I took the header bar off the side bows and found that several of the molded screw holes in the plastic portion of the header bar had broken off or stripped beyond reasonable repair. I asked Eric over at Offroad Elements to source me just the header bar and he was told by his Bestop rep that they only sell the header bar as an assembly with the fabric top as replacing the header bar is apparently very hard to replace by itself and the price was in the neighborhood of $350. I called up the customer service line at Bestop and, after pressing the issue, the technician was able to cross-reference the part in the system and locate the part number 55013-01 as the identical one used in the Trektops. I received/installed the new header bar yesterday and found that it is in fact a direct replacement and has cured all wind noise issues apparent with the old bar. The install wasn't exactly easy but with patience I was able to get it done myself while standing on the rear tires of my jeep. The new header bar was only $80 and I now have a nice tight fit and quite ride again. Hope this helps :thumb:

EDIT
This link is what Bestop includes as the installation instructions for the header bar. While I did not follow these steps, I'm sure they would net the same result. I see their steps as slightly harder to perform both by yourself and with the Trektop still attached to the vehicle. If any of you are wanting to tackle this yourself and find the instructions in the link difficult, let me know. I would like to avoid having to remove my header bar again but I have the old pieces that I could try to use as an example for the steps I used.
http://www.quadratec.com/Assets/Installation/145767.pdf

Pictures would have been good so we could see what parts you are referring too.

Thank you for the information.

Yeah, a pic or two of exactly what you're talking about would be great. My trektop makes a godawful wind noise through the header

Wow, that is great info. My Jeeps are pretty noisy as is and never really give it too much thought but now you have me wanting to give things a look.

I was interested in buying a NX top. Think I'll wait a bit and see what comes of this issue and how Bestop handles it.

Sorry guys, I'll try to head home at lunch and get some pictures. Installing the header bar alone is quite a challenge so pictures just weren't going to happen last night.

I'll take some pictures of the old header bar and the broken tabs inside when I get home tonight. For complete clarification, what I am referring to as the header bar is the front attachment point of the soft top/trektop to the windshield frame. The bar with the latches :thumb:

Here is the best "before" photo that I have. If you look above the drivers side corner of the windshield frame, you will see the Trektop is raised almost 3/4" over the windshield frame. You will see this again in both the middle and on the passenger side corner, just not as pronounced. It would be my assumption that if your Trektop is raised to any extent over the windshield frame than you are getting a noticeable amount of buffering noise while at highway speeds.


Here is an "after". I can take more if further clarification is needed but I think you get the point. What you see is that the Trektop is now level with the windshield, pulled tight up against the gasket, and perfectly uniform across. I could very well be imagining things but this made a significant difference in wind noise.

Mine looks the same as the first photo. I have lots of wind noise too, huge gap between the windshield and header bar.

Did you reattach with the same holes or did you stretch the fabric to get a closer fit?

Thank you for sharing this info. I recently purchased a Trektop NX, though mine isn't having this problem, it's good to know for future reference!

Thanks for the heads-up; I am days away from pulling the trigger on a Twill NX...good to know in case the header bar goes bad...hope I can remember when the time comes...

Thanks for posting this up! My Jeep has the same issue and I've been wanting to get this replacement header for some time now. I'm wondering about the weatherstrip as well. Mine seems to be uneven from years of wear and tear. What did yours look like? I may replace both at the same time...

10frank9 said:

Mine looks the same as the first photo. I have lots of wind noise too, huge gap between the windshield and header bar.

Did you reattach with the same holes or did you stretch the fabric to get a closer fit?

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Everything is installed as it would be originally with no need to stretch or modify any portion of the top. There are no holes in the fabric itself except for the 4 outermost holes that connect the top to the side bows. The Trektop actually has a small "ridge" built into the front edge that becomes sandwiched in the header bar during reassembly. The part number referenced comes with all new mounting screws for everything.

JeepFan said:

Thanks for posting this up! My Jeep has the same issue and I've been wanting to get this replacement header for some time now. I'm wondering about the weatherstrip as well. Mine seems to be uneven from years of wear and tear. What did yours look like? I may replace both at the same time...

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I never see it as a bad idea to replace weatherstripping. I did not notice any wear that was out of the ordinary but mine is an 09 so there has been some abuse I'm sure.

Kyle09Rubi said:

I never see it as a bad idea to replace weatherstripping. I did not notice any wear that was out of the ordinary but mine is an 09 so there has been some abuse I'm sure.

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I agree. I'm leaning towards replacing it at the same time. My '09 has over 100K miles and the wind noise is driving me crazy. :crazyeyes: Thanks again!!

I hear all you guys complaining about the wind noise on these NX tops but I just read in a thread a day or two ago that the twill is as quiet as a hardtop. So which one is it? I love the look of this top but wondering if the noise a deal breaker in your guys opinion?

Torqt JK said:

I hear all you guys complaining about the wind noise on these NX tops but I just read in a thread a day or two ago that the twill is as quiet as a hardtop. So which one is it? I love the look of this top but wondering if the noise a deal breaker in your guys opinion?

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There is normal soft top wind noise and then there is the obnoxious buffeting noise that the aforementioned issue caused. I believe the latter is what we have all been complaining about. The wind noise produced through my Trektop now is no greater than the stock soft top I had on my 2 door and is certainly not a deterrent from owning one. I can only imagine that the twill would be even quieter.

Torqt JK said:

I hear all you guys complaining about the wind noise on these NX tops but I just read in a thread a day or two ago that the twill is as quiet as a hardtop. So which one is it? I love the look of this top but wondering if the noise a deal breaker in your guys opinion?

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I bet that is the case with the twill nx as well as the black diamond when it is new. but I bet after a while the material will stretch and things won't seal properly after a while, It is inevitable... Wear and tear!

Benito said:

I bet that is the case with the twill nx as well as the black diamond when it is new. but I bet after a while the material will stretch and things won't seal properly after a while, It is inevitable... Wear and tear!

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My twill Trektop is a few months old and is as quiet as ever. Its so good that I wonder if I will ever use my hard top ever again. I had a factory twill soft top for a few days and it was 10x noisier than the Trektop with substantial flapping. I do believe that most of the flapping on the factory softop was due to the light bar, but there is still no flapping with a 50" light bar on the Trektop. I would guess that those without a light bar would have substantially lower wind noise and even less likelihood of developing a flapping top over time.

Thanks to the OP for the info on the header bar replacement.

Really good to know ! Great thread , just ordered my trektop nx a couple days ago from northridge an will keep this thread in mind for future !

And here is the culprit. This is what the inside of your header bar looks like after you remove the metal backing plate. You can see two intact molded post holes in the back and the three broken ones up close. If I had to guess, pressure from latching the top down eventually broke out the molded locations and it was all downhill from there. I'm pretty sure this is directly behind the drivers side latch but my passenger side looked the same.