Snugtop Hi-Liner

[jj99]

Since many people do research for accessories on this website, I thought I'd give my opinion of the Snugtop Hi-liner.

We live up in the Northwest, and we get a fair amount of snow and grime from the roads. The Hi-liner has a pop out lock system which seems like a great idea, but with the rain and snow, if any of it gets into the lock mechanism, it quits locking.

I first took it back to the dealer where I bought the cap, and they replaced it and told me to always keep the lock inside (never leave it “popped out while driving”. I was very careful to always do this. During a heavy snow, I opened the canopy and inevitably, some snow got into the locking mechanism (while the lock was popped out in order to open it). This created quite a challenge opening, because we had sub-freezing temperatures and it froze shut. Secondly, it eventually got grime inside it from the roads up in this area and quit locking again. This time, I was very mad and called Snugtop. I told them that I take the car on dirt roads, and the rep then told me that it was not designed to go off road. When asked why they didn't put this in their brochure, he backtracked.


Nonetheless, I think this is a design flaw. If you live in So-Cal where it rarely rains and you don't have the wet grimy roads, it may be a great invention. For other parts of the country with a lot of snow and rain, they may not be the best choice. I have noticed that they use a different locking mechanism on other tops which seems to me to be much better as it has hard plastic cover with no pop out spring loaded locking system.


They do not make any other lock for this Hi-liner model.


We bought the Hi-liner, not for its looks, but for the convenience of having an extra 4 inches when loading and unloading things. Overall it's been pretty good. It does leak with rain, and the plastic around the side window does not fit perfectly. For the price, I would say we are moderatly pleased with it.


Snugtop did replace the locking mechanism (even though it was out of warranty) and I installed it myself.


Sorry for the long post, but I hope this helps someone looking at this model.

[wallygator24]

I have never been of fan of that pop out lock. They always break. First sign is that the lock wont stay pushed in. I had a Supersport canopy on my other Tundra with the keyless entry with a flush mounted lock in the glass door. I noticed that the key hole would freeze up, but I could always open up the canopy because of the keyless entry. I ordered a new Supersport canopy for my new Tundra CrewMax which arrived today. Unfortunatelly I cannot have it installed until my day off which is on Wednesday of next week. I ordered the canopy with their new prolock. The prolock is supposed to be like the lever on ARE, and high end Leer canopies. The keyless entry is not available for this lock yet. The dealer told me that it is a two hour install.