So the SW2 showed up the other day and only had 30 minutes to remove the soft top, take off the SW1 and put on the SW2 before it got dark and rainy. Since the last write up on the SW1, I have installed 1.5 aluminum blocks for seat lifters for better driving visibility. I am 5’-10” and I had enough headroom clearance since the SW1 rose up as it went over the roll bar and speaker pods on it’s way to the back seat area.

On the SW2 however the mesh top sits inside the drivers and passengers roll bar area. Now in my case since I lifted the seats, my head touches the mesh top but the shorter drivers in my family (test subject was 5’-7”) had no issues with headroom at all. There is less headroom since the top doesn’t go over the roll bar like the SW1. If your seats aren’t raised and your under 5’-10” you should not have any front seat clearance issues. I can’t tell you want the maximum height would be since I have been told that earlier model TJs seats were up higher that late model TJs/LJs and I am not over 5’-10”. If not for my seat height issue, this is a great configuration if you want just shade over the front compartment or are running it in the windjammer mode.

As for the back half of the top, I pulled it over the top of the rollbar and although not shown in the pictures, I used the same middle grommet from the front part of the top and only used one bungee ball for both pieces. I didn’t do that on the side grommets so I could adjust and move the top forward and backward as needed. As you can see from my pictures, there is one section that I needed to adjust to make it a little smoother but I didn’t find a way to connect the next set of grommets since the speaker pods were there. The top does go back further down the roll bar as you can see in the pictures. My kids were not real happy to sit for some shots but you can see where the top is relative to the placements of their heads. They are 5.6” and had no issues on the SW1 but if you are taller than that in a LJ, you might have clearance issues on the SW2. If there was a grommet between the last two grommets it might follow the contour of the roll bar to give you a little more clearance but I don’t know that for sure.

Even with the headroom issue, I reclined my seat back further and did take it for a 30-minute ride at dusk. It was just as quite and stable with the wind blowing and on the highway as was the SW1. Having tried them both, I will have to stick with the SW1 for the headroom issues that I have. However if headroom wasn’t an issue, and you have kids under 5’-6” then the SW2 as it is would be the way that I would go. If you have access to add a grommet between the second and last grommet you might be able to fit someone as taller in the back seat.