Should i keep this or lose this??

Since i had to return the rented bender i had to come up with something else to cross brace the bottom of my main hoop to the bottom of the front cage legs. Not that i could of bended a difficult design like this with my bending capabilities!! :flipoff2:

This is what i came up with, i think it look's ugly as hell and i am not convinced that it's strong enough, the whole thing is built out of 60mm(2.3")- 40mm(1.57") wall thickness 4mm (0.157"). I gusseted all the corners.

Will this be strong enough or should i start over again wit another design? Should i keep this design or should i lose it?

Christof

another angle

Since it's a diesel the diesel vacuum system (or whatever it is) is in the way, so i couldn't make a straight cross brace but had to go around the diesel thingy :flipoff2:

Christof

last one

I looks plenty strong...

Its just UGLY AS HELL!!!

Does it look like something rolling off a factory floor, fully welded up by robots? No. Does it look pretty killer anyway? Yep.

I'm thinking about putting together a cage for my cruiser and will be thrilled to death if I can put something together that nice! It even looks strong enough to save your bacon... you might have some repair work to do if you do use it though :)

Now that you have experience with building cages, you should just improve your whole design...
Dump what you've done until today, and build a better one from scratch....


When can I come and pick up the scrap ? :D

If it's as strong as it is ugly, you should keep it...
Yet it's looking better already with the gusseting...

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=698076

Keep for sure...

Originally posted by denis
Now that you have experience with building cages, you should just improve your whole design...
Dump what you've done until today, and build a better one from scratch....


When can I come and pick up the scrap ? :D

If it's as strong as it is ugly, you should keep it...
Yet it's looking better already with the gusseting...

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=698076

I've been thinking of buying a real TUBE bender and a notcher and then make cages for $$$$$.
How much do you think a cage like mine should cost (honestly :flipoff2: )? Offcourse everything would be cleaner.
I love to bend tube, and I am even getting good at it (little bit :D ), and i am a professional welder.

Notcher and bender should set me back +/- 1500 euro's, so If i'd make cages at 500 €(have no idea of a price but this seems cheap) + raw materials only three cages and i would of earned my money back. Throw in some bumpers, sliders,... and i could even make some profit.

Christof

I'll keep it for sure, better to have safe ugly cage, than a "showtruck" cage that will fold if some stress is put on it.

Christof

Originally posted by Diesel_Cruiser


I've been thinking of buying a real TUBE bender and a notcher and then make cages for $$$$$.
How much do you think a cage like mine should cost (honestly :flipoff2: )? Offcourse everything would be cleaner.
I love to bend tube, and I am even getting good at it (little bit :D ), and i am a professional welder.

Notcher and bender should set me back +/- 1500 euro's, so If i'd make cages at 500 €(have no idea of a price but this seems cheap) + raw materials only three cages and i would of earned my money back. Throw in some bumpers, sliders,... and i could even make some profit.

Christof

Sure you could... I could buy your first commercial cage, but you'd have to build it with my own design.
500 EUROS sounds like a fair price to me, since the raw materials do not cost that much... But take care I'm a demanding, annoying and challenging customer...

Where would you find the professionnal bender ? any links or ???. I wish I could find a used one for cheap one day...
Or just buy a new unit with a few friends I could convince of the absolute necessity of having a cage... and shares in my tube bender

I was talking about having a JD2 bender shipped to europe, shipping would be around 300$ so 1500 euro's should be enough for a bender and some dies. I've asked around in some local professional Hardware stores, but none of them have ever heard of a manual bender that pulls the tube around the die instead of the usual pipe bender.
All they could offer were the proffesional high $$$$$$$$$ benders, but those were a bit out of my price range.

Just out of curiosity, what cage design do you have in mind??

Christof

http://toy4x4.free.fr/cage.gif

I see some stuff in your "professional" :flipoff2: drawing of your cage that does not seem right.

- Those front legs don't need to be tied into the frame(IMO) because they come down directly above the body mount, so it's already tied into the frame.

- I see that you want the front leg of the double main hoop to come down to the body floor instead of coming down on top of the fender. This way it will be next to the seat instead of behind the seat and could be dangerous in a side impact, i didn't feel comfortable having a bar nex to my head.

- The spreader bar from the bottom of the main hoop to the bottom of the front hoop is very difficult to bend because to be able to clear the diesel fuel system thingie (don't know what it is, the small box behind the passenger seat where all the hoses go to, i guess it has something to do with the diesel vacuum system) you'd have to make some bends close to each other.

Don't want to sound like a pro or something, but these are things i noticed while i was building my cage, my original design was almost (except for the rear legs) identical to yours. Another thing i found out is that instead of a front hoop two sperate front legs connected with spreader bars is much easier to bend, because all of the bends are on the same axis. (hope this makes sense :D )

Christof

Chris,

You sound like a pro... heck.. in fact you ARE a pro...
As for the sencond hoop, that's something I have considered, too (head issues...) but it the hoop is wide enough, and just at the bottom of the frnder slope, it would not be that much different from a hard-top. I like the idea of that hoop going there to the frame, because the fenderwell is very tight for stock-width-stock-w/b cruisers. I mean for tieing to the frame...
As for the fuel airline and trap, I don't really worry about this. That stuff may very well move a little for accomodating the cage.
The front hoop issue in interesting, but I'm questioning the design of it. To me a full vertical hoop would be stronger than what you described and did, and you don't need to gusset (as much) in the plain middle of your vision angle to the front and the front/side... Anyway I have no bending issue, cuz I have no bender :crybaby2:

that junk is all breathers for your fuel tank.....its not 100% necessary........ we have run without them, but i put them all in on mine....as i think when fuelling up it actually fuels quicker, cause its letting the air out, but thats all it does.........not important

the front hoop is better i think done separate as another hoop THEN add your braces up to the twin maine hoops, and a couple of backstays

another angle