I seen these kits you can buy to turn your factory roll bars into a roll cage, are they worth it? I can weld, I have a Mig, Tig, ANd stik welder. Just wondering if they are durable.

the one from orf which mounts to existing roll bar and attaches at front dash works well for me. leaves clearance for feet and seems good and strong. if you're concerned about real strength, add a bar going accross dash from in the front. spreaders are good also, they are option with the orf but a pretty good sized rock could make it through between front and back w/o the spreader bars.

here man check this out this is what I found useing the search.
roll cage search (http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/search.php?s=&action=showresults&searchid=350624&sortby=lastpost&sortorder=descending) .........................ltr

for the cash you would drop on a bolt in cage you could save a little more and get a bender and go all crazy:D
hell if i get stationed here i will "rent" you the one i will be getting.:flipoff2:
but if you want a pre-made cage i have heard no complaints about smittybuilt and there was just a thread from a guy who rolled his realy nasty and it held.
also search:flipoff2:

the smitty built cages do work well, seen 2 take HARD hits and do their job

the TxT 'cage' works great for me. Okay so it's a bolt in :flipoff2: it will hold the TJ together and your butt in case you roll at low speed (rockcrawling).
A weld in cage (attached to the frame) would be better though, especially for high speed roll overs.

My cage went together real easy, from Tennessee off-road, modified a little for strength.


Ignore the dork trying to steal the cage. :rolleyes:

Ive got the TOR weld in cage too, plenty strong. I got it on a group buy for $200 shipped to my door and welded it myself.

http://www.carolina-performance.com/club/gallery/Jon/TORcage/cage_3.jpg

http://www.carolina-performance.com/club/gallery/Jon/TORcage/cage_2.jpg

Homemade rear spreader
http://www.carolina-performance.com/club/gallery/Jon/TORcage/cage_1.jpg

Originally posted by Jeepin_NC
Ive got the TOR weld in cage too, plenty strong. I got it on a group buy for $200 shipped to my door and welded it myself.

http://www.carolina-performance.com/club/gallery/Jon/TORcage/cage_3.jpg

http://www.carolina-performance.com/club/gallery/Jon/TORcage/cage_2.jpg

Homemade rear spreader
http://www.carolina-performance.com/club/gallery/Jon/TORcage/cage_1.jpg

not busting on your ride but...

I wouldn't trust my life to any of the bolt-in "cage kits"...the brow bar is too far back, there's no triangulation of the spreaders, the tube is too small to make up for the design weaknesses, etc...

for less than a set of bling-bling rims get yourself a real cage built...it may save your life someday...

the TOR cages have been tested rigurously, and do just fine with how Jeepin NC has his steup,

an eventhough it is not as strong as it could be with triangulating, it will hold up in rollovers, many of them have

Originally posted by jeepik
the TOR cages have been tested rigurously, and do just fine with how Jeepin NC has his steup,

an eventhough it is not as strong as it could be with triangulating, it will hold up in rollovers, many of them have

ok...I'll bite...what's your definition of "rigorous" or "many"?

The only pictures I've seen of a ORF cage that survived a bad roll showed the dash mount separated from the dash. Driver survived.

I still think he got lucky - what would have happened if it had taken another hard hit to the top after the mount separated? It could have very likely puntured his leg or abdomen. Not sure if you understand medical issues, but suffice to say that's some serious shit. :eek:

Thanks, but I'll take a real cage over that piece of shit.

Paul

I agree in that if you are going to do it, do it right.

We are all involved in an extremely dangerous sport wether you like to admit it or not. Why save a few hundred dollars to skimp on something as important as your life? Is the $150-$200 you save really worth the price you may well pay down the road?

OK, so anyone have pictures or design templates for what an ideal cage would be then?

Originally posted by mikeyhaken
OK, so anyone have pictures or design templates for what an ideal cage would be then?

I'll bet there's been about 20 threads like that in the last year alone on POR. Search. :flipoff2:

Paul

Originally posted by nasvik
The only pictures I've seen of a ORF cage that survived a bad roll showed the dash mount separated from the dash. Driver survived.

I still think he got lucky - what would have happened if it had taken another hard hit to the top after the mount separated? It could have very likely puntured his leg or abdomen. Not sure if you understand medical issues, but suffice to say that's some serious shit. :eek:

Thanks, but I'll take a real cage over that piece of shit.

Paul


Are you talking about the roll at Hell's Gate? He had one of the bolt into dash cages and I agree one more roll could have been deadly. The Red cage above goes behind the dash to the floor, definitly stronger. I would just add some gussets to it, still not as strong as a full triangulated cage but much better then stock or any bolt on.

Originally posted by Beast40



Are you talking about the roll at Hell's Gate? He had one of the bolt into dash cages and I agree one more roll could have been deadly. The Red cage above goes behind the dash to the floor, definitly stronger. I would just add some gussets to it, still not as strong as a full triangulated cage but much better then stock or any bolt on.

Yep - my mistake. :D Stay away from the bolt to the dash variety.

Paul

Originally posted by mikeyhaken
OK, so anyone have pictures or design templates for what an ideal cage would be then?

mines held up fine so far.

Originally posted by mikeyhaken
OK, so anyone have pictures or design templates for what an ideal cage would be then?

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid24/p529e8b79d353a26d546953a45aa4d6b0/fd9137f3.jpg

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid24/pc56314f9c32331ba7437c856088a6735/fd9137f7.jpg

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

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

Wow that's a lot of tube!!! :eek: You could build a cage just as strong with less tubing and more triangulation. How is that cage anchored to the frame? Seats included? Lap belts/harness? I ask because with that much tube I hope the rest of the design is thought out, too.

Paul

Originally posted by nasvik
Wow that's a lot of tube!!! :eek: You could build a cage just as strong with less tubing and more triangulation. How is that cage anchored to the frame? Seats included? Lap belts/harness? I ask because with that much tube I hope the rest of the design is thought out, too.

Paul

Thanks I think :confused: . The cage is to the frame but not the seats. I will be making tube fenders & then I might tie the seats to the frame.

You guys have some nice Jeeps, and Roll cages. I cant think you guys enough for helping me out. I was showing these pics to my neighbor who is a Farmer. He has a friend with a welding shop who has steel out the dizzo. "butt" . Thanks guys and girls if there was any. I will be constructing one here as soon as this Damn snow melts. :D

Originally posted by nasvik
Wow that's a lot of tube!!! :eek: You could build a cage just as strong with less tubing and more triangulation.Slightly less tubing, MUCH more triangulation. Cage didn't twitch in flop. Jeep fell about ten feet - front right tire was on a 3 foot ledge, did a flop to the side/endo backwards at the same time, and landed on the front right conrer of the cage and the hood. :grinpimp:

http://home.off-road.com/~mithrandir/trails/4xadventure/DCP01981.JPG
http://home.off-road.com/~mithrandir/trails/4xadventure/DCP02053.JPG
http://home.off-road.com/~mithrandir/trails/4xadventure/DCP02057.JPG
http://home.off-road.com/~mithrandir/trails/4xadventure/DCP02061.JPG

Another jeep. Less tube:
http://home.off-road.com/~mithrandir/trails/4xadventure/DCP02036.JPG
http://home.off-road.com/~mithrandir/trails/4xadventure/DCP02038.JPG

The Toyota version. This cage and the White YJ's were done by the same guys:
http://home.off-road.com/~mithrandir/trails/4xadventure/DCP02062.JPG
http://home.off-road.com/~mithrandir/trails/4xadventure/DCP01966.JPG

So suppose a...uh...random guy had purchased a MORE bolt in cage before he had access to a welder and knew any better.
Could it be welded with more supports and gussets added to provide enough strength for a minor flop?
Safety is definitely important, but I'd hate to think that I...I mean...some random guy wasted a load of cash on a useless chunk of metal.

It would be a very good idea for some "random guy" to truss up the bought cage with some triangulation factor. I have a bought front bar with 2 spreaders that I bought from4WDH, added a little to it, and intended to pull it out and start over. I will most likely bend my own rear section and make it safe for people in the back, and just keep what I have with some more trussing.

Couple things, just some corrections...

The ORF cage that some speak of was actually a Challenger Cage (nearly the same design) that was welded with the exception of the dash mount. The he was actually a she. Finally, the roll was a long ways down Hell's Gate. That cage took two and a half to three end over end rolls, covered a great distance and survived pretty well. One more roll may have done the cage in, but we will never know.

http://www.stu-offroad.com/rollcage/tracey1.jpg

With all of that said, I still went with a weld-in cage from TOR though.

Point that needs to be addressed is that anything you add to the OEM cage will help, if installed properly, whether it is bolt-on or built. :flipoff2:

Originally posted by Jeepin_NC
Ive got the TOR weld in cage too, plenty strong. I got it on a group buy for $200 shipped to my door and welded it myself.

http://www.carolina-performance.com/club/gallery/Jon/TORcage/cage_3.jpg

http://www.carolina-performance.com/club/gallery/Jon/TORcage/cage_2.jpg

Homemade rear spreader
http://www.carolina-performance.com/club/gallery/Jon/TORcage/cage_1.jpg

I have a question about these kits. Would you be able to mount the front door surround and have it seal properly? Is the bar coming from the original main bar bent in more than one plane? What I am looking at is the fact that to come in to where it goes through the dash would either require multi-plane bends or give up use of the door surrounds. Is that true.

Thanks.

BTW, I built this for a friend and it is definitely stronger than stock and does not have any of the disadvantages of going through the dash or taking up space. Again, it is not as strong as a full cage, but will survive the common flop that most of us encounter.

If anyone is interested the video I got of Tracy's roll is still out on the Toys by Troy website. It can be found at: http://www.toysbytroy.com/Products.asp

The video link is under the cage info.

With the small image in the video its hard to get a real sense of this roll. I opted for a weld in cage, but I was very impressed with this cage. It may not be the best but it sure saved Tracy. That jeep drove back up and continued the rest of the run.

The other part that allowed this jeep to drive back out was the front bumper hoop that save the radiator.