Ever since taking my 2 1/2 year old son Jack wheeling, I decided I needed more
protection than my 1985 Toyota truck can offer. With the added weight of 1-ton running gear, 4.3L motor, and all the accessories I carry, the weight of the truck would crush the cab in a hard roll. I decided I did not want an interior cage since at 6'2" space was an issue. After speaking with Toby at Triple-X Traction and seeing some of his sick tube work, I set up a time to bring the truck to his shop in Seaside CA to build an exo cage.

Toby Lavender has been in business for 5 1/2 years. He does general automotive and custom fab work. Toby competed in Top Truck '02 and Super Crawl '02 in Farmington. He knows what it takes to build a safe cage.

I showed up at the shop at 9AM Saturday morning. Toby and Chris were already there cleaning up from the previous days work. I knew the basic design I wanted, but I let Toby use his expertise to build a strong nice looking cage.

We started working on the front end first. We used a Triple-X Traction winch mount to mount my Warn 9.5TI. These mounts can be purchased from the shop and designed for YJ's and they works great for custom applications.

As you can see the mount is very stout! We had to trim some of the Toyota grill to make the winch fit, but it's in there really tight.

Next came the tube work. Toby uses a Mitler Brothers air over hydraulic bender. It's slow, but makes very precise bends.

Toby and Chris set up the front with a stinger and built the rest of the bumper around it.

Here is Chris fitting a front piece.

Being a perfectionist, Toby takes his time and checks everything twice. He also expects it from his staff. It’s a good feeling when he is working on your rig. One of my only requests was that the exo was built really close to the body. Here you can see how close it really is.

Toby tried to follow the lines of the truck to make it pleasing to the eye. I think he was successful.

Here you can see the top hoop and the side bars. Very close to the body.

Overall I am extremely happy with how the cage turned out. It follows the lines of the truck and looks great. Toby’s work is very clean and strong. The welding is clean and the craftsmanship is top notch.

Now I can take my son Jack wheeling with me and have piece of mind that if something bad were to happen, we would be safe.

My plan is to eventually cut out the back of the cab and add a 4runner seat for the kids. It will then go back to Triple-X Traction for a “X” brace behind the front seat and hoop over the rear seat.

Need some custom work done for your comp buggy of trail trig? Triple-X Traction is the place to go.

Contact
Lavender Brothers' Triple-X Traction
http://www.triple-xtraction.com/
lavenderbrothers@aol.com
Monterey County, CA
831.899.0603
831.899.2144 fax