These days, soft tops are as varied and vast as the latte options at Starbucks; and thanks to Bestop, they’re twice as exciting. One of the company’s more recent developments, the Trektop NX Glide, offers a whole new way to blend the inside of a Jeep and the outside of the world.
As a convertible soft top, the open-air enjoyment of the NX Glide made it a fine choice for this 2014 two-door JK, owned by Steve Peacock. Peacock’s passion for wheeling meant that he would get a great deal of enjoyment from the NX Glide. We reached out to Bestop for an NX Glide and dug up some more details, too.
Getting To Know The NX Glide
The NX Glide in its unpacked glory.
Speaking with Bestop’s Cassie Hughes, we got a better understanding of the product. “The vision behind the NX Glide was to make it the best of all worlds,” she said. “It’s fully retractable, and the slant back is reminiscent of our NX Trektop, which is one of our bestsellers. It’s the very first fully convertible slant back zipperless soft top on the market.”
Optional for the NX Glide is Black Twill fabric, which lends the soft top a more elegant look and feel. “Twill is our premium fabric, made of 30-ounce triple acrylic compared to the 28-ounce Black Diamond, which is our standard fabric,” explained Hughes. “It has a nicer look and feel, and is easier to clean.”
Our NX Glide used premium Black Twill fabric, offering a nicer look and feel.
The “glide” in NX Glide refers to the side windows and rear curtain, which can be removed without having to tangle with finicky zippers. “The zipperless z-channel locking helps everything slide in and out easily,” said Hughes.
Putting It All Together
Bow mount brackets (left) and pin point brackets (right) went onto the Jeep.
With the old soft top out of the way, we screwed in the bow mount brackets on the driver and passenger sides of the Wrangler. On the back, we put in new pin point brackets.
Next, we assembled the door rail assemblies to either door. These were secured to the sport bar with knobs. We then took the top arch and inserted it into the slotted tab on the passenger door rail, flexing it as necessary to insert it into the opposite tab on the driver’s side.
The no. 2 bow spanned left to right on top of the Jeep. Out back, new tailgate bar mounts were installed.
The tailgate bar mounts snapped into place on the tailgate. Afterwards, we laid out the header/fabric assembly and inserted the side bows into the header. We lifted the header, top and all, onto the Jeep’s windshield, having already laid out a large blanket to protect the Jeep’s paint. The side bows laid on top of the door rails as we snapped the side bow catches onto the bow mount brackets.
We hoisted the no. 2 bow assembly onto the side bows and secured them all together. With that done, we situated the header/fabric/bow assembly onto the locking pins on top of the door rails.
A blanket was used to protect the paint while we laid the NX Glide onto the door rails.
Following this, we draped the top over the back of the Jeep. We fastened the top to the no. 2 bow with the hook-and-loop straps, and then turned our attention to the rear bow. Here, we attached a rubber bumper to each rear leg, and then attached the rear bow assembly to the pin point bracket.
The top was pulled up and draped over the rear bow assembly and stay strap of the no. 2 bow. The loose end of the passenger-side stay strap was fastened to the rear bow assembly, and was done to the driver’s side as well.
The hook and loop fabric of the flaps is secured.
Next, we attached the interior flaps to the rear bow assembly. We took the cable springs and their pockets and put them together. The cable springs attached to the no. 2 bow corner bracket, and were crimped to prevent them from coming out. The cable pockets were attached to the no. 2 bow corner plates and fastened up.
Up front, we folded back the top and attached the foam seals and foam tape strips to the header. Out back, we installed the quarter windows onto the NX Glide, sliding them onto the rail. The windows had grommets that went into the top corner, while snap buttons snapped together on the bottom corner. The plastic angle strips on the front and bottom edges of the windows were tucked into the channels, too.
The windows slid onto a channel and were guided along until they had reached completion. Afterwards, it was a matter of tucking in the plastic angle strips until it all looked flush.
For the next step, we took the tailgate bar and merged it with the rear window’s tubing. We had to keep the window straight as we did this, which helped the tailgate bar move along smoothly. The top edge of the rear window mated with the soft top thanks to a tube and channel. The window was almost done once we put the channel and tab together on the sides.
Near the end of the installation, we inserted the tailgate bar into the channels of the tailgate bar mounts. The rear window’s bottom plastic tab tucked into the belt rail, completing the windows’ installation.
Up front, the header latches were clamped to the windshield loops, latching the NX Glide completely closed. We made it!
Testing Out The NX Glide
Short of having a convertible motor installed onto a Jeep, the NX Glide really lived up to its name. After troubleshooting some slack issues with the tightness of the soft top, we were able to get it to sit correctly on the Jeep and deploy or retract the Sunrider portion of it with ease.
Here is what Steve Peacock had to say about the NX Glide. “I really like the zipper storage pockets, and the fact that it looks very open and clean when the top is down. The windows are easy to install or remove, and dropping or putting up the top takes less than five minutes.”
With the additional ability of removing or replacing the windows in a timely manner, the versatile nature of the NX Glide is something every Jeep owner can benefit from. To see more, check out Bestop’s website.
