I'm not sure who you're renting from, but if you go for a soft top and you rented from Budget, they don't even keep the back windows (plastic) on the car. So, as far as keeping anything safe, you can forget that altogether. Soft top jeeps really don't offer anything in the way of safety anyway. Anybody can get into them. But, they're my favorite. I love having a jeep with the top down.

Also, when it rained when we were down there the rain came right into the back seat. We really didn't care. Didn't keep anything valuable in the car.

Great advise Connie,
Soft tops are fun, but not to use for locking things up in!

I would go with the hard top. The top is not hard to remove if you want, and it is added security. When we were there in July I had the 4 door hard top and we took the top off everyday, and when we got to where we were going we just put it back on and locked it up.

I wouldn't negate a soft top but it's not wise to leave anything in there "for a few hours" and probably not even for an hour. Everything you need for the average beach or sightseeing or bar/dinner trip is (or should be!) easily contained in a backpack or similar bag that you just tote with you.. Be as cautious as you would be visiting anywhere in the world. Have a wonderful vacation. Cheers!

Thanks to all of you for your input. Lots to think about and we will soon have to make a decison.
Mricco

Beer Hunter,
I'M a little confused, did you mean when you returned to where you were staying you put the top back on? Those tops are heavy and bulky.

lizard, that's what i was thinking, plus they probably are the 5 seaters, 4 doors and they're more money.

i'd just rather have the soft top and take a backpack with me wherever i go

I interpreted it that way, leave it where you are staying if you are going to the beach for the day. Then at night or downtown if you know you will have somehting to lock up put the hardtop on. A backpack is the way to go. I do know last time one of the girls had a big beach bag and she was more that happy to put everyones valuables in that when we were at the beach.
Mricco

We took our fifth trip to St. John in October, and it was the first time we rented a hard-top jeep. The soft tops were fun, probably because of the novelty -- we never use them any other time. We were with another couple this time, and I'm not sure why we went with the hard top, but I know we'll never go back to the soft top! It was just more comfortable, the AC seemed to work better, and it was nice to be able to lock it up. (Maybe part of it is that we're just getting older.)

Go for the soft top, its the main reason to get the Wrangell and not some other 4x4.
Hard top is time consuming to take off/put on for someone without prior experience.
Plus, you can take off the soft top as you find fit through the day, and put it back if it rains etc.
Sure, there is less physical security with the soft top; even when its up anyone can get in.
But there is a solution: don't leave anything inside AND don't lock it. This way if someone will want to go in, they will open the door, look around, and go on. If you lock it, they might cut the soft top to get in - and that is a shame if they cut it only to find an empty car.

enjoy the jeep!!!

Aleks

The hard top that we had came off in six small sections. If you only wanted to uncover the front two seats, there were two hard plastic sections that unlatched. There were small enough for my wife to carry. The jeep was a 2007 four door, I am not sure if that makes a difference

FYI, if you are renting on STJ vs STT (and using the car ferry) no rental company on STJ allows you to remove the "tops" of their vehicles.

Pia

WHOW! That's good to know, wonder if you did how would they find out? We are renting on St. John, think we will be going with the soft top, of course we are "getting older" also, sorry to say. Maybe we will live it up this trip.
Mricco

We just got back from St John and St Thomas. My friends rented a soft top from a local company near the old Texaco station and were told in no uncertain terms that they were not to remove the soft top. Apparently, other renters had been unable to get them back on correctly, so they just don't allow removal. They also didn't have any plastic at all on the back, which means anything left in the back was open to the elements.

Now, what to do I am totally confused about the options. Does anyone know if hard or soft top you have to leave them on no matter what, at every rental on the island? Sure was a lot easier the last time we went there were so many of us that we rented a safari bus while we were there. It was a riot, many, many laughs in fact as I am writing this I am still smiling about the "ole safari". 5 in the back and 3 in the front up the road to Coral Rays when what should we meet but a cement truck parked across the entire width of the road. Oh my lord and of course we were scared to stop our momentum, everyone had to get out, we backed the safari down the road, cement truck driver of course would not move without a little encouragement from my "at the beach all day" neice. So long story short we got by and back to Coral Rays. Oh, ya the cement driver whom we saw on 2 different occasions again, honked when he saw us. Had to share that with you all.
Mricco

Beer Hunter,
I guess the new 2007 four door version is different than the the older two door models! The older models had a composite roof with glass on both sides and back. Talk about Heavy. I think I'll go to a jeep dealer and take a look at the new models. I had owned a 1991 Jeep wrangler automatic, I bought it new and paid a little over $14,000.00 for it, put on over 300,000 miles 6 sets of tires, 3 brake jobs, 9 sets wiper blades and changed the oil every 7000 miles. Sold it in 1995 for $9000. I Love Jeeps.

What's the point of having a jeep if you can't remove the top? Even on a soft top jeep? Budget never said anything to us about that...just hoping dependable allows it because we always take the top down.

"What's the point of having a jeep if you can't remove the top?"

That is why we never rent a jeep anymore. We were told in no uncetain terms that we would have extra charges if we tried to remove the top, or even the rear window. We now just rent a small sedan for a lot less money and it has a trunk you can put things in so they might not be seen and ripped off. Traction is usually not a problem.

F.Y.I.
We've rented from Courtesty on St. John and Conrad Sutton on St. John. Both make it very clear that you are NOT to take the soft top off! They have it in their paperwork that if you attempt to take off or remove the soft top you will be assessed further fees! I heard of someone last year removing the top and Courtesy took the car away from them! (not sure of the validity of that story but heard it on the beach). Hope this bit of info helps!