TOTM: No Holds Barred Cage Thread

[rstrucks]

This is my cage about 85% complete. It is all 1.625" .120 wall DOM except for the straight rear c-pillar supports, they are 1.5" .120 wall DOM.

From my build thread;

Cage is just about finished. There are a couple of braces to add and the front A-pillar will also tie into the wheelwell protection but for the most part it's done. I know it is not as strong as it could be but I'm pretty satisfied with how it turned out and I really didn't want to add another hundred pounds of tube to an already heavy rig. I figure it should handle a light roll or a flop with out too much carnage. If it gets hurt too bad I'll just swap my drivetrain parts into a TJ or something. The purpose of the int/ext cage was more to protect the passangers in a roll and to help keep the sheetmetal somewhat clean by allowing me to lean up against trees or limbs without worrying about busting the glass out of it........ hopefully.

I tried to build it as low profile as possible as it is right now I may have a hard time getting the ZJ out of the garage.













Inside pics....


Trying to keep the headliner in good shape and have the cage poke through it was fun.



















And here it is with the rest of the interior in it.













And a few more of the outside.

[chadjans]

Ryan I like the internal portions of the cage. Still on the fence about the outside.

One question though, do you think your C to D kickers would have been better served with a different shape? Like starting from a higher node with a longer vertical and horizontial leg or maybe a tie in to the outside portion that exists in that area?

I ask because I really don't see that kicker serving a purpose in its current shape other than supporting your shoulder harness bar. Just curious of your thinking.

Chad

[rstrucks]

One question though, do you think your C to D kickers would have been better served with a different shape? Like starting from a higher node with a longer vertical and horizontial leg or maybe a tie in to the outside portion that exists in that area?

I ask because I really don't see that kicker serving a purpose in its current shape other than supporting your shoulder harness bar. Just curious of your thinking.

Just for some support for the C pillar. I thought about a long, straight (top of) C pillar to D pillar (base) kicker. I also thought about one that followed the roof line but just decided to go with the harness bar height tie in. With the way the C pillar leans forward there isn't a lot of angle between the kicker and the C pillar so I felt ok going this route. This kept it cleaner looking (to me anyway). When building it I tried to balance strength, weight, and trying to make sure it didn't look like a jungle gym inside as I still still drive this thing on the street. I know the "way it looks" should be lower on the priority list when building a cage and I think I kept things in the right order.

This cage could be stronger (and heavier) but with the way everything is tied together I am confident that I'm in good shape. I also tried to leave room for improvement in the future. Should this thing end up with a really dented up body and busted out glass, I may add on to what I've got built already.

[BigClay]

Going to bump this up. I am contemplating a cage and I am still torn between interior, exterior, or a combo like Ryan has done. I need advice on pros and cons of each set up. My rig is still full bodied and I want to keep it that way.

So throw out some more opinions.

[SB406]

Exo will save the body and glass better, but interior looks better. Interior cage takes away from cabin space. You have to be careful with an interior cage so that you don't hit your arms or head on the bars.
A ZJ isn't terrible to fit bars inside though. My latest project is caging a VW Beetle. Not THAT is tight.

[BigClay]

What about strength, would one be better than the other?

[SirFuego]

A triangulated interior cage will be stronger than an exo cage with no internal supports.

The shape of the cage dictates strength. Triangles are extremely "strong" shapes. When you run an exo, you can't run cross-bracing in the important areas (i.e. the B pillar) to create "triangles". Although you do arguably have the structure of the chassis of a full-bodied vehicle to compensate for the lack of triangulation -- so it may still be "safe", but it's not going to be as strong as a triangulated interior cage using the same materials.

Ryan's cage (with respect to full-bodied rigs) is one of the best I've seen because it has the triangulation of an interior cage, but the exo part makes for a much more comfortable interior. Maybe you could convince him to use your rig to show the finer points of making a roll cage for an episode of Trucks! He already has experience in caging a ZJ

Maxx and CrawlerReady have nice interior cages as well that you could probably snag some ideas from.

[BigClay]

Excellent idea... so Ryan want to do a cage in my ZJ on an episode?

[blackbeer]

Does maxs rear halo gradually decline from front to rear? If so is there a reason? The top hoop connections being above the rest desirable? Any other a pillar and dash designs? My plan is to get the pillars bent and add the straight pipe myself. Guesstimate of how many sticks it takes to do an internal cage? Great thread but itd be great to see more and hear more info for those of us w zero experience in this department looking to do it right

[rstrucks]

Going to bump this up. I am contemplating a cage and I am still torn between interior, exterior, or a combo like Ryan has done. I need advice on pros and cons of each set up. My rig is still full bodied and I want to keep it that way.

I think SB406 and Jared pretty much summed it up. Ultimate strength goes to the interior cage. I like to think that mine is mostly an interior cage with some of the benefits of an exo. While my cage (and Jeep) isn't going to survive a hard roll-over without substantial damage, hopefully I will. I'm also hoping that in a light roll or flop I can get by without too much damage where as if I had a full interior cage I'd be screwed.

Excellent idea... so Ryan want to do a cage in my ZJ on an episode?

Hmmmmm, bribes can be sent to my Paypal account. I know you have insurance money so don't cheap out on me!

[BigClay]

Hmmmmm, bribes can be sent to my Paypal account. I know you have insurance money so don't cheap out on me!

Payment sent

[BigClay]

OK, another question. I see we have mentioned 1.75" .120 wall and 1.625" .120 wall for exterior tube; are these good standard sizes for a cage? Is 1.5" not recommended for external tube in a cage?

[paulkeith]

I would avoid 1.5 for an external cage. I think it can be appropriate in certain secondary structure applications, in areas that can't see point impact, etc. but for exterior lines of an exterior cage, i would never go less than 1.75 .120 DOM.

[cowboy63b]

subscribed, i wanna see where this goes.

[BigClay]

Well I have a guy lined up to do an exo cage for me, but I just found out that he quoted me 1.5" HREW... he said he has built many cages with this and they have worked just fine...
I asked if he could do 1.75" DOM and he said he could do DOM for a higher price (which I understand) but his bender can only do 1.5". So my question is, how bad would it be to go with 1.5"? I am having a delima because the price is right for this guy, so is 1.5" worth the lower price...

[rstrucks]

Well I have a guy lined up to do an exo cage for me, but I just found out that he quoted me 1.5" HREW... he said he has built many cages with this and they have worked just fine...
I asked if he could do 1.75" DOM and he said he could do DOM for a higher price (which I understand) but his bender can only do 1.5". So my question is, how bad would it be to go with 1.5"? I am having a delima because the price is right for this guy, so is 1.5" worth the lower price...

Seems strange. Most cages (especially ones built for a santioning body) are made of 1 5/8" DOM or 1 3/4" DOM. Does he have much experience doing cages? Not saying he's not the right guy but I would be hesitant to have a guy build me a cage that doesn't really seem to have the equipment to do it correctly.

I wonder if his bender can only handle 1.5" or he just doesn't want to buy as new die set for larger tube?

Ulitmately it's your call. You'd "probably" be fine but you may want to look around some more.

[AgitatedPancake]

We have pretty heavy trucks when it comes to caging vehicles, I wouldn't skimp in that area. I plan on 1 3/4 DOM for mine all around

[zj95maxx]

Does maxs rear halo gradually decline from front to rear? If so is there a reason? The top hoop connections being above the rest desirable? Any other a pillar and dash designs? My plan is to get the pillars bent and add the straight pipe myself. Guesstimate of how many sticks it takes to do an internal cage? Great thread but itd be great to see more and hear more info for those of us w zero experience in this department looking to do it right

I did not mean to have the halo decline. It was too big of a halo... Oh well

[BigClay]

Well I went with 1.75" 120 wall DOM for all of my cage. This is a pure Exo, so I don't think one has been posted up in this thread yet.

*Pictures stolen from my build thread.

[Horus]

My no holds barred cage.





From my buggy build. We kept the dash, windshield frame and the firewall on the drivers side. The whole chassis is DOM. Factory unibody runs from the nose to about the firewall. From there it is box steel from the pedals to the rear link mounts. Should do okay in a roll.

[FortCollinsZJ]

That looks super bad ass. Really clean and smart lines. I like the idea of keeping a windshield. Please update it as you get more done!

[Horus]

That looks super bad ass. Really clean and smart lines. I like the idea of keeping a windshield. Please update it as you get more done!

Thanks. I thought about starting a build thread on here as I don't bother with the one on NAGCA anymore. The rig should be sitting on it's own suspension in a week or so.

[SirFuego]

Thanks. I thought about starting a build thread on here

Please do. Those are some sweet looking lines on the cage and I'm curious what you come up with for your suspension.

Are you welding the windshield frame to the cage? I still have everything from the B pillar forward and that rattles all the time on the cage...

[1ABrian]

All I can say is WOW. The construction of all these and cage designs are fantastic. I wish my GC wasnt my daily rig so I could chop it up

[SirFuego]

Just realized that I didn't put in any real pics of my cage. These are the highlights, but more detail can be found in my build thread starting here:
http://www.mallcrawlin.com/forum/sho...l=1#post237228