I started welding the cage into my XJ last night and was having a bear of a time. You folks that can take the top off have it too easy :flipoff2: Anyway, how are those of you with rigs that have a fixed top welding in your cages? Weld the spreaders as best you can and just not worry about the part right up on the roof? Seems rather half-assed to me. I left a little bit of room between the cage and the roof, and I have a little more now that I yanked that stupid headliner, but I certainly have difficultly getting the gun to the joint for a solid weld. So the joints can be welded about 80% or so with a quality bead, the rest has me wondering. So, how did you do it, any tips?

Also, how bad is it to weld the floor plates to the floor? The A and B pillar hoops are no problem, I can put a backing plate on them easily enough and bolt them in place. The hoop at the rear hatch comes down directly on top of the spring hangers, so I was just going to weld the floor plate to the floor. I can't remove the cage without cutting it out anyway, so that doesn't bother me. Feedback please :D

i think i would bolt it to the floor or weld it to the frame. welding to the floor just seems a little hokey. :D

Doh! Forgot to mention that the backing plates for the A and B pillars are connected to tube welded to the frame.

Originally posted by Josh 89XJ
I started welding the cage into my XJ last night and was having a bear of a time. You folks that can take the top off have it too easy :flipoff2: Anyway, how are those of you with rigs that have a fixed top welding in your cages? Weld the spreaders as best you can and just not worry about the part right up on the roof? Seems rather half-assed to me. I left a little bit of room between the cage and the roof, and I have a little more now that I yanked that stupid headliner, but I certainly have difficultly getting the gun to the joint for a solid weld. So the joints can be welded about 80% or so with a quality bead, the rest has me wondering. So, how did you do it, any tips?

Also, how bad is it to weld the floor plates to the floor? The A and B pillar hoops are no problem, I can put a backing plate on them easily enough and bolt them in place. The hoop at the rear hatch comes down directly on top of the spring hangers, so I was just going to weld the floor plate to the floor. I can't remove the cage without cutting it out anyway, so that doesn't bother me. Feedback please :D

There are a couple ways to go about it....
1. you can remove the roof and weld it back on later (not really that hard)
2. weld what you can, and bolt in the rest..(cross bars)
3. use a flux core wire, and remove the gas shield... Black tape up the tip so you get into the tight spots without arc'n.... (works really well)

Don't let anyone give you shit aout weld'n to the floor, LOTS, if not MOST race cars are done that way......

Thanks Tin Bender...it looks like #3 is going to be the way to go for me. I just rummaged though my shop and found 2 spools of flux that I thought I had ditched when I stepped up to the HH175. I'll save hacking the top off for my first rollover in this Jeep :D I was going to do the bobbed top XJ thing but I didn't want that much work this season seeing as how I haven't had a chance to pull this out of the shop yet since winter.

The rear is the only hoop that is actually going to only be welded to the floor only because I have no choice. When I was designing the cage I could have moved the rear hoop forward a bit and had a backing area, however I wanted to support the area above the hatch better. Of the XJ rollovers that I have seen, this area tends to be completely crushed in too easily (lack of any support from that stupid 'glass hatch)

Thanks again for the tip, I'll let you know how it goes.

Unless you put the body on another frame, I though XJ's were unibody, so welding or bolting to the body is the only choice. I prefer to weld plate on the bottom of the tube and then weld the plate to the floor. I also like to tie my hoops into the body at 4 to 6 locations up the sides and top.

I am by no means an expert, but it just seems to me that the body and cage tied together this way makes for a much stronger unit. If you have a frame, tie into it by bolting on outriggers with poly bushings in them.

Depdog:usa:

Depdog, body and frame are one...but some parts of the frame are stronger than others :D I just got done welding in all but two of the spreaders tonight, as well as the floor plates. A little too late to be running the shop equipment right now without pissing off the neighbors. I'll post pics of the finished cage tomorrow as I have the day off and will cut the last of the tube.

Tin Bender's tip fawking rocks! Dude, if I ever run into you on the trail, :beer: is on me.

Just thinking...

Since most people run a piece of 1/4" plate under there cage legs, couldn't you mark the spot and hole saw out a hole to drop the cage a couple of inches to get the weld all around? Then raise it back up, slide your plate under and weld in place?

Just a thought...

Actually that had been my first plan and it wasn't going to work out too well. The A and B pillars would work just fine, however connected to the rear hoop it wouldn't work because there is no place to actually drop the cage as it is over the spring hangers. I also wasn't overly keen on the 2" hole sitting under my cage.