Lange Originals 014-SIM Hoist-A-Top Simple Jeep CJ & Wrangler

This was not an easy product to install and took an entire day to complete.
Also, the winch is terrible. As we were trying to lift up the jeep top, the winch was grinding against itself and shredding the metal. I'm worried that if I continue to use it, the roof will fall.

I have mixed feelings about this hoist. I chose this one as it has the crank handle and seemed like it would be much easier to use for a female. Well that is defiantly not the case. The crank is EXTREMELY slow which makes the process very long!
With following the directions of how to install the cable the rear was higher than the front making it hang uneven and caused it to be unstable. We even tried adjusting the straps to make it tighter but had to end up unwinding the cable and re-adjusting the lengths on the cable.
I cannot say how long this took as it was done over a course of a few days but defiantly several hours. My boyfriend has a similar style hoist but without the crank and never had any of these issues.
I probably wouldn't recommend this unless you have a lot of patience. In the end it does what I bought it to do, it just took a lot of effort to get there that could have been avoided with a different style hoist.

There are a lot of errors in: Lange's how-to video on YouTube and/or the Lange Originals instructions.
1. The instructions say that the 2nd (strap) pulley needs to be mounted 1/2" left of center. In the video, he says to mount the pulley 1" left of center. In reality the pulley needs to be mounted 1.5"-2" left of center. (to clear the 1st pulley)
2. The so called 'Smart Hook', the instructions say that the RED hook is for TJ 1997-2007 only, the BLACK hook is for the YJ 1987-1995 and JK 2007-Present. The video is incorrect, the instructions are correct, in this case.
3. The instructions say to use the 2nd bolt hole in the top for the 2 door Jeeps and the 1st bolt hole for the 4 doors. You HAVE TO use the 1st hole for the 2 doors too!! Otherwise the center of gravity will be way off, and the top will lift on an extreme and unsafe angle.
4. I found that the 34" measurement, between the pulleys worked well, for me. Others have had to spread the pulleys mounting apart to 37+ inches, for their application.

Also: ditch the 'wood screws' that are used to mount the pulleys into the wall and ceiling. They are essentially just drywall screws and not strong enough, in my opinion. Get yourself some 2" long, small diameter lags for much better strength and security. You should also ditch the small nuts, used for the cable clamps. Get yourself some nylok nuts or at least use some form of loctite on these tiny little bolts. My package came with 6 cable clamps, not 4, I used them all, 3 per cable. Finally, I wish that Lange would include an extra few more feet of cable. This would make a wider variety of installations possible, and allow for more of the cable to wrap around the pulley. For my application (14' ceiling and 4.5" lifted Jeep) the cable JUST BARELY reached, and I began lifting right on the cable's loops, with no extra wrap/windings. Lange could make this product much better with these upgrades. It would cost approximately $10 more per unit, and those are hardware store, retail prices. 3 stars for the hard to find pulleys and crank assembly, and entire package, which ended up working just fine, for me.