kay, say you have a newer Jeep.  You've been eyeing the Tuffy Overhead Console for a while and you figure out you have enough finally to break down and buy it.  You go to you favorite online distributor to enter your plastic's digits, only to find the years for fitment don't go as high up as your Jeep's. 

In fact the note in pricing guide specifically reads:        Part #048: Jeep CJ, YJ, TJ (will not fit '03 + TJ's)

Only the single compartment console is supposed to fit the newer Jeeps and it just seemed like a waste and frankly looked silly like it was missing something.

 

So now it's time to either throw away the idea, or try to figure out a way around it.  The first thing to do is to figure out why exactly it supposedly doesn't fit.  We decided to contact Tuffy directly, and were blown away by their response.  First off, they responded incredibly fast.  Second, instead of just a simple answer, their customer service department gave us a detailed answer and even possible ways around the problem.  They even encouraged us to contact them back if we had any more install questions.  Up for the modification challenge, Jared went ahead and ordered the double and while we waited for it to come in, we planned what all would go into

his "custom" console 

 

 

 

 

has had a CB for a good while now.  Back when we installed it, we used the flat back part of his center console.  It made a great mounting spot except for the fact that the speaker faced the behind J, and any sound was lost in the wind when the Jeep's top was off.  The good thing about the spot was that it was out of the way, didn't look like it was just glued to the dash somewhere, and was relatively hard to see when peeking in the Jeep.  Now that the console was on it's way, we could get it up over J's head for the speakers and locked up and secure from the peekers.

 

 

 

With the new set up, we wanted to utilize as much space as possible, so we figured out a few different layout configurations.  The most elaborate mockup designed on the computer included all kind of extra stuff: extra speakers, switches, and a digital compass/outside temp gauge.  The speakers we picked up were some 4" cheap mess projection speakers off  Ebay, but they sounded like cheap mess, so we tossed them.  Jared also wanted some aircraft missle-style toggle switches so we picked up 4 of them for $10 each.  When the console arrived we were able to actually see what could be placed where.  We weren't able to place the switches in the middle as planned because of the Tuffy locking mechanism, but further back past the CB, they would fit just fine and still be plenty accessible (and plenty visible : )