Armadillo Designs Aluminum Hardtop

[Slei]

Let's hope we don't need it (my top should ship out within a week). Paying over $8K for a top...we should NOT have to be dealing with this issue.

I get it. It is significantly more expensive then other tops but then again its a significantly more expensive and time consuming product to produce.

Verification and Validation of your product is tricky and Quality control is a massive undertaking to do right. That something went wrong does not worry me too much. Adhesive on the foam is an annoyance. How they handle issues

can anyone with the top, take some pics of how the high mount stop light is mounted and what kind of connections? Thanks!

Ill grab some pics this Wednesday when I get the top while its still off and easy to document.

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[Slei]

All the talk of the foam falling off has me thinking I need to get a can of adhesive before my top shows up this week.

Has anyone tried the 3M 90? It has a higher temp threshold of 250F and in bonding tests with carpet and the like has beat Gorilla glues spray adhesives.

Ill reach out to Fabian too but wondering peoples thoughts.

Fabian got back to me and my top did not have the new glue applied and it may have the issue. Sounds like not all tops have had the issue. He asks that if you have an issue you let them know. They are going though the process of refining the Quality control to keep it from happening going forward.

 

[Slei]

can anyone with the top, take some pics of how the high mount stop light is mounted and what kind of connections? Thanks!

It looks to just be a fairly standard aftermarket break light bar nothing fancy. Two screws at each end. and the wire goes through a hole in the back that was filled with what looks like black silicon. There is a cutout in the back roof with a plug in it that could be used to run things through. Have the question into Armadillo as to its intended purpose as its clearly ment for something.

 

[Slei]

Fabian got back to me and my top did not have the new glue applied and it may have the issue. Sounds like not all tops have had the issue. He asks that if you have an issue you let them know. They are going though the process of refining the Quality control to keep it from happening going forward.

Had a couple of issues with the foam attachment but only on the two back panels and the thin trim so far. One fell off while we were installing and of course fell face down on the street and now is packed with dirt and will be a pain to clean. Otherwise the install went really well the fit and finish of everything else as perfect.
If anyone is going to do this on a OEM hardtop conversion instead of the soft top hit me up there are a few things the video does not show you will need to be aware of.

 

[Pseudoko]

It looks to just be a fairly standard aftermarket break light bar nothing fancy. Two screws at each end. and the wire goes through a hole in the back that was filled with what looks like black silicon. There is a cutout in the back roof with a plug in it that could be used to run things through. Have the question into Armadillo as to its intended purpose as its clearly ment for something.

that hole and plug if it’s towards the back is to relocate the gps/xm antenna. The aluminum body of the hard top blocks the signal.

 

[GeoExplorer]

@Slei I'm very much interested in whether you were going to perform another noise level reading using your fancy equipment now that you have the new AD roof installed? My wife and I love the Bronco, but having test driven them are still concerned about the noise level inside the hardtop after having lived with a noisy vehicle for many years. If the AD roof really does cut the noise by even a few db, that would make our decision easier.

 

[TheLawnDart]

Armadillo rotopax mounts work perfect! Could easily put the 4 gallon Rotopax on the back under the traction boards if desired.

 

[Pseudoko]

@Slei I'm very much interested in whether you were going to perform another noise level reading using your fancy equipment now that you have the new AD roof installed? My wife and I love the Bronco, but having test driven them are still concerned about the noise level inside the hardtop after having lived with a noisy vehicle for many years. If the AD roof really does cut the noise by even a few db, that would make our decision easier.

somewhere in this thread I did it already based on my road trip to and from Texas for the install. I compared soft top vs armadillo top so I dont have any data for a mic top. It does get quieter at ear level but you hear a lot of road noise from below now instead. I’m not going to rip the Bronco apart to install sound deadened though but it does go down by a few decibels. I just don’t know the numbers off the top of my head. Numbers may look high from my trip but it was pretty windy driving through TX.

 

[Slei]

somewhere in this thread I did it already based on my road trip to and from Texas for the install. I compared soft top vs armadillo top so I dont have any data for a mic top. It does get quieter at early level but you hear a lot of road noise from below now instead. I’m not going to rip the Bronco apart to install sound deadened though but it does go down by a few decibels. I just don’t know the numbers off the top of my head. Numbers may look high from my trip but it was pretty windy driving through TX.

It was supper appreciated as you and others taking measurements is what got me interested in doing a more in depth dive.

First I have done sound dampening tests. This involves playing frequency sweeps and pink noise inside and outside the Bronco when its stationary to see how much both the oem and aftermarket tops dampen sound with most the variables removed. This will give us a real number but doesn't account for the noises caused by the top like wind noise due to leaks in the seals.

I have taken the same weighted measurements you have with a SPL meeter, but I have also recorded the full frequency spectrum while driving so you can see what frequencies are being muted or are not being produced by the top such as wind noise etc.

So far I have all the base measurements from just before replacing the top but I have not had time during the day to run the sound dampening test. (not a great set of noises to play outside for the neighbors at night.) Once I get them all recorded and analyzed Ill post the results probably both on this string and in a separate post.

 

[Ninjak]

@Slei I'm very much interested in whether you were going to perform another noise level reading using your fancy equipment now that you have the new AD roof installed? My wife and I love the Bronco, but having test driven them are still concerned about the noise level inside the hardtop after having lived with a noisy vehicle for many years. If the AD roof really does cut the noise by even a few db, that would make our decision easier.

I also have a DB test in this thread, using my Iphone/Watch, no fancy equipment, but it got it done. I did this test on the highway, and I am running 37's. I came from a soft top, so it is truly more quiet.

As @Pseudoko stated, you hear more road noise now from the tires, and I do hear the low whistle from my light bar.

 

[Pseudoko]

Okay found my post which was #749


noise wise in that extremely windy section on the 10 between Fort Stockton and Junction
Soft Top: 98.6 -104.4 decibels
Armadillo : 96.8 - 98.2 decibels

again this was an area with extreme winds so pretty much as noisy as it could probably get.

 

[GeoExplorer]

Many thanks to @Ninjak and @Pseudoko and others in this thread and others on this topic! All very helpful! Since we haven't purchased a Bronco yet, we still can order one with the hardtop. We've test driven one a couple times, and are still unsure if the hardtop is still too loud for our liking for a road tripping vehicle (I even took my old Radio Shack sound level meter with me once). I found the Armadillo top and love pretty much everything about it, but it adds another $9k to the price of the vehicle. We're just trying to decide if we can live with the OEM hardtop, pay a lot extra for the AD, or look elsewhere. As a science guy, I'm eager to hear what Slei comes up with as a comparison between OEM hardtop and AD hardtop using his methods.

 

[Pseudoko]

Many thanks to @Ninjak and @Pseudoko and others in this thread and others on this topic! All very helpful! Since we haven't purchased a Bronco yet, we still can order one with the hardtop. We've test driven one a couple times, and are still unsure if the hardtop is still too loud for our liking for a road tripping vehicle (I even took my old Radio Shack sound level meter with me once). I found the Armadillo top and love pretty much everything about it, but it adds another $9k to the price of the vehicle. We're just trying to decide if we can live with the OEM hardtop, pay a lot extra for the AD, or look elsewhere. As a science guy, I'm eager to hear what Slei comes up with as a comparison between OEM hardtop and AD hardtop using his methods.

Out of curiosity, I decided to measure the decibels in driving a 2010 matrix vs the Bronco on my route to/from work. I’d say 70% residential street and 30% freeway here in Southern California.

yesterday going home the Bronco ranges between 91.6 and 94.8

coming to work this morning in the matrix I got lows of 89.4 and high of 92.6.

considering one is a commuter hatchback, a 2 decibel difference between the 2 isn’t bad at all.

 

[brocosaurus]

What device did you use? This has all been so interesting to me because my watch never goes over 73 in my wildtrak and for comparison our rav4 is 68. If i could get my wildtrak to rav4 levels I would be stoked. As far as cars go I would consider the rav4 very loud. My family has a BMW X SUV and it’s 62~64 at highway speeds. I can’t imagine 90s unless the top was off but to be fair my watch is not very scientific method

 

[Pseudoko]

What device did you use? This has all been so interesting to me because my watch never goes over 73 in my wildtrak and for comparison our rav4 is 68. If i could get my wildtrak to rav4 levels I would be stoked. As far as cars go I would consider the rav4 very loud. My family has a BMW X SUV and it’s 62~64 at highway speeds. I can’t imagine 90s unless the top was off but to be fair my watch is not very scientific method

um something off Amazon. Nothing expensive. Slei will get better measurements since he has better equipment but for the purposes of metrics of product A vs B, I can at least see the difference between the 2.

Link to the Decibel Meter I used:
https://a.co/d/9NPbdTz

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