Jeeps, by nature, don’t have a lot of room for mounting accessories such as CB radios, GPS units, ARB switches and other electronic devices. Sure, you could squeeze that new CB under the dash or mount your GPS unit to the dashboard, but often times, these installations result in an unfinished look and detract from your nice, clean looking dashboard. Jeeps with center-bar roll cages have the luxury of a mounting surface for these accessories, but for those of us YJ, CJ and TJ owners who don’t have this set-up, there’s a new product on the market that solves this problem – The CBrack.
The CBrack is an overhead unit mounting between the windshield frame and roll bar, providing a sturdy mount for a wide variety of accessories such as a CB radio, GPS unit, auxiliary switches, external CB radio speaker, a video camera mount and whatever else you can dream of. I'm sure you could even mount a stereo on the rack using some sort of RV bracket.
The CBrack is made of sturdy, 1/8-inch thick aluminum with a durable black powdercoated crinkle finish. You could also paint the CBrack virtually any color you like to match your Jeep's interior.
The YJ/CJ rack measures a little over 38-inches long and 7-1/4 inches wide and a little over 35-inches long for the TJ model. The CBrack is made up of two pieces. The top piece is secured to the windshield frame using the existing footman loop screws along with two additional sheet metal screws (included). The rear part of the rack secures to the roll bar with a 1-inch nylon strap, or if you want a more permanent mount, screws are provided to bolt the rack to the roll bar. The bottom piece of the rack is held in place by six acorn nuts and allows for the easy removal for mounting your accessories.
Once the accessories are mounted to the bottom piece, it is secured to the top piece using the acorn nuts. All the wires are neatly hidden between the two pieces resulting in a very clean appearance. The wires can be routed out the front or back of the rack. I'm running all wires out the back of the rack and where possible, I'm using plug-style connectors to make removal of the bottom piece easier. From there, the wires are run along the roll bar and hidden with black roll bar tape, or beneath the roll bar padding.
I opted to mount all my auxiliary switches (electric fan, front/rear driving lights/on-board air switch) onto a custom faceplate and then mounted this to the CBrack. This was done because there is only 1/2 -inch clearance between the top and bottom piece and the switches I am using are about 3/4-inch deep. A lower profile aux. switch could be mounted directly to the CBrack. I mounted my CB radio and interior light to the rack. I used the bullet-type disconnects for the electrical connections to make removal of the bottom piece easier. I’m also designing a mount to be used with a video camera so the camera can be mounted above or below the rack for that cool "on-trail" video footage.
The rack can be used with either a soft top or hard top. The CBrack will also be available to fit applications with a sound bar mounted on the front side of the roll bar. The CBrack can also be used with a "strapless" style bikini top. The center bikini strap simply runs along the bottom of the CBrack to the footman loop on the windshield. This may or may not interfere with any flush mounted accessories you have on the rack. Another option is to mount another footman loop onto the CBrack towards the back of the rack, this way the bikini strap doesn't have to cross under any accessories you've mounted.
The only limitation I see in using the CBrack is that you cannot lay the windshield down without first removing the CBrack since the rack is bolted to the windshield frame.
INSTALLATION:
Detailed instructions are included in the kit and were very easy to follow. Using a small drill and a screwdriver, the CBrack was installed into my Jeep in less than 20 minutes. The only problem I encountered was the rear mounting flange had too steep of a bend, resulting in the rack sitting slightly higher than the roll bar. This was easily fixed by bending the mounting flange to the proper angle so that the CBrack was flush with the top of the roll bar.
Some vehicles with modifications to the stock roll bar or windshield frame may have altered the distance from the windshield frame to the roll bar thus requiring modifications to the CBrack (like bending the flanges to fit properly). However, if the distance between the roll bar and windshield frame is too great, the CBrack may not fit properly.
I opted to secure the rear mounting point to the roll bar using the supplied nylon strap. If you plan on using heavy accessories, such as a video camera, on the rack, you may want to secure the rack to the roll bar using the supplied screws. This will provide a rock solid surface and keep things from moving around.
The CBrack is a neat product designed to simplify the mounting of your electronic accessories. It keeps them out of harms way and has unlimited possibilities. If you're looking for a simple way to mount your electronic accessories, or other accessories for that matter, check out the CBrack. Oh yeah, if you think of other cool ways to use the CBrack, let me know, I'm sure there are 1001 uses for this rack.
For more information:
Doug Chartier
7023 Navidad Rd.
Houston, Texas 77083
281-530-4543
281-530-2329 (Fax)
Email: chartr@hal-pc.org
