I just bought 44 ft. of 1.5" dia. x.095 wall DOM tube.... The new 1.5" 180° die for my JD model 3 bender just arrived and Im going to start my roll cage this week/ weekend. I would like to see some picture of u-all's cages so i can get a good idea of what I really want. I have been scanning the pages of the last 3 years of off0road in my collection and no real good stuff yet. I did the search..:flipoff2: , but this is where im asking you faor a little imput......

EEeeeeeeeeeeer;)
Pottsy

Originally posted by Pottsy
I just bought 44 ft. of 1.5" dia. x.095 wall DOM tube....
Pottsy

:eek: uhm.... isnt that pretty thin wall... i mean. yeah, its DOM and all but daaaaamn thats thin, i wouldnt trust my kids life with it. anywho.. heres a pic of my junk.

Hey Pottsy,

You and I are in about the same boat. Building my fab tools up too. Got the JD-2 model 3 (went 1.75" instead), notcher and Dewalt Multi-Cutter.

While I haven't done anything worthy of posting with mine yet, I gotta second sceep... That tubing is AWFULLY thin walled, that die is rated for a MINIMUM of .095 wall. Personally, I wouldn't use anything less than .120 wall for a cage.

You got any pictures of how you mounted your bender? Trying to get some ideas there too.

Oh and :flipoff2: good luck.

.095 is fine for x-bracing and supplemental bars, but yeah, all the primary bars should be a thicker wall.

Our association is about to adopt new vehicle saftey requirements and min 0.120 wall tubing is one of the requirements, we got that list from United, so I assume many other associations are using it, the 0.95 is still good for bracing and supplemental bars, but I'd use at least 0.120 for all the main structure

Ok, Ok, I will stop by the steel shop today and pick up 120" wall for my mains...... :p

I found this while searching benders and it is good reading for all of you "New-Bei Benders" like me........:flipoff2:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/bendin_tube/index.html

My stand........ I took steel plate 16" x18".250.....Drilled .5" holes in all for corners then welded a 4"x4"x.125 by 3ft. long square tub to the center of it. I then took steel plate 8"x8"x.250" and welded it on top, centered on the square tub. This base gets lagged to the concret floor... I attached the bender to the steel plate top (8"x8") ..... It works good....

Pottsy

This isnt the best pic but hopefully it will give you a few ideas. This is a very simple design

Originally posted by sceep


:eek: uhm.... isnt that pretty thin wall... i mean. yeah, its DOM and all but daaaaamn thats thin, i wouldnt trust my kids life with it. anywho.. heres a pic of my junk.

Sceep!! This is an awesome pic and something I've been thinking about doing since I got back from the ERoCC finals. You have any more pics? Any idea on wether or not you shaved weight doing this?

Originally posted by rkcrawl


Sceep!! This is an awesome pic and something I've been thinking about doing since I got back from the ERoCC finals. You have any more pics? Any idea on wether or not you shaved weight doing this?

sure.. i got a few more pics. no idea on weight savings i'm guessing it probably shed a few pounds, but then they got added back in with those damn 3/8" angle iron sliders.. lol.

just a heads op on the expanded steel. Couple of problems i ran into.
1. sharp. but herculines easily ;)
2. exhaust back flow into the cab was HORRIBLE with the expanded floor in the rear. Make your floor out of sheet the first time.lol.

another

and last.

this last pic was done before i re-routed the fuel filler up into that triangular piece of sheet on the right side of the spare tire.

Originally posted by sceep
and last.

this last pic was done before i re-routed the fuel filler up into that triangular piece of sheet on the right side of the spare tire.

Cool. Thanks. Is this strictly a trail rig? Do you street is at _all_?
I'm think seriously about doing this, and I'd like to keep it _just_ streetable enough that I can take the kids for spins occassionally without have the police all over me for it...

yeah its streetable here in NM.. i dont know about FL though.. You can drive anything with brake lights and a motor on the street here.

FWIW. it really sucks on the street though with 5.89's and non-turned knuckles on a SOA. lol. but its posssible. it is 99.9% trail only rig though, i keep it licenced just to get to my favorite spot 10 miles down the road.

good luck. was pretty easy to do.. i think from the time i pulled the sazawl out to the time i put down the last rattle can i only had about 20 hrs into it. mind you .. that was the back section only.. the front was done a few years ago.

Originally posted by sceep
yeah its streetable here in NM.. i dont know about FL though.. You can drive anything with brake lights and a motor on the street here.

FWIW. it really sucks on the street though with 5.89's and non-turned knuckles on a SOA. lol. but its posssible. it is 99.9% trail only rig though, i keep it licenced just to get to my favorite spot 10 miles down the road.

good luck. was pretty easy to do.. i think from the time i pulled the sazawl out to the time i put down the last rattle can i only had about 20 hrs into it. mind you .. that was the back section only.. the front was done a few years ago.

Thanks. Mine drives fine on the street, but its mostly a trail/comp rig now. The tub got beat up pretty bad at the ERoCC finals, and I plan on competing with it again next year. I'll probably be living in TN by then... My biggest issue right now to doing this is probably timing...and access to a bender. House is going up for sale shortly and I can't have it all torn apart with the garage being a mess...

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid24/p425a4585636f7406e343ce59f08ebbad/fd9137f2.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid24/pb919885864e63705850d1f8806da5370/fd9137f4.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid24/p8475291342ce69b39223e555bb878deb/fd9137fd.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid25/pbba0884af19bc0768d8c1d33416ece6e/fd8f253b.jpg

Originally posted by Snatch Block

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid25/pbba0884af19bc0768d8c1d33416ece6e/fd8f253b.jpg
what kinda flares are those? what size tires? :eek: bad ass:cool: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

Originally posted by Taso Stambolis

what kinda flares are those? what size tires? :eek: bad ass:cool: :beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

They look like:

36x12.50 SX's
TJ Flares, extended 6" flares, by bestop? (definately not Xenon)
SOA, probably a 3" body lift.

Hey snatch block-Awesome lookin' cage!!- How is the head clearance for tall passengers in your back seat? I want to do mine like that , but I wonder if there is room to 'kick' the rear croos bar up and still get the top on?

Those flares are probably warn's actually.

I like that cage though. I just put on an OR fab kit w/ floor mount onto the front of mine. I want to now, go back through and weld it in, and maybe throw in some addtions to the back end of my factory TJ rear bars like the pic above!

Looks nice!:D

Yes sitting in the back seat is a pain in the ass but I don't care. I could lower the rear seat 3" and that would give more than enough room. :D

Originally posted by Travis Waldher


They look like:

36x12.50 SX's
TJ Flares, extended 6" flares, by bestop? (definately not Xenon)
SOA, probably a 3" body lift.

Nice try..:flipoff2:

38.5 X 14.5 Grooved SX's & 15 X 10 rims.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid24/p122bea56f7695f33e2c0aa19847c2889/fd99c5de.jpg

Flairs are Warn 7" TJ's

here is my cage made of .120 wall DOM and the fire wall and floor mounts are 3/16" and 1/4".
http://groups.msn.com/TheMINIHummer/rollcage.msnw?Page=2

http://groups.msn.com/TheMINIHummer/rollcage.msnw?Page=1

It turned out just a little lower than I wanted, but it fit under hard or soft tops.

.

..

Here is a picture of my cage. Sides are one continuous piece of tubing, x-braced behind driver, dash tube w/ center vertical, top hoop k-braced, side bracing and horizontal tube at back for mounting hi-lift and tying in Scroth shoulder harness inertia reels. Sorry about quality of pics, don’t have any “driveway” shots.

Hey Sceep, your in Albuquerque? I’m looking at a position at UNM. How’s the rock crawling around there? I know all about Cruces & Farmington. So what else is there?

Second pic.