OK, I have been meaning to update this thread with a real world stress test on a ZJ exo cage.

Let me start off by saying if you are wheeling a ZJ (or anything for that matter), and you do not have some form of a roll cage, you are taking your life into your own hands, and I will not ride with you on anything more than a gravel trail.

Here is why. I have been to Uwharrie at least 20 times and I have only been near a flop once and that was due to my stupidity and my "I bet I can make it up that rock" attitude at the time. But I did not flop that time, just came close. Fast forward to my last trip to Uwharrie. A buddy and me were out wheeling for what was supposed to be a half day of just enjoying the day, nothing too hard, just trail riding. We get to the highest peak at Uwharrie, park, and get out to just watch some other people and enjoy the great Fall weather. After about an hour we decide to head back to the trailer and call it a day. As we get into the jeep a group begins coming down the trail and an XJ is in the front of the group and he asks if he can park on the side of the trail where we were. I fire up the jeep and start to do a three point turn to get turned around and head down the trail. As I do, my back passenger tire climbs a rock that I didn't see and proceeds to get the ZJ off balance. Before I knew it, the jeep began to lean too hard to the driver side, and then over she went, and over, and over, and over...

We barrel rolled 5 times down a steep hill and got completely airborn once as we rolled, slamming back to earth hard each time. The exo cage with out a doubt save my life and my passenger's life.

Now onto what I learned about cages and why this is relevant to this thread. Exo cages, built properly, can save your life in a mutiple barrel roll; however, in doing this the cage sacrafices itself. Once the roll stoped, the DOM was flat in some places, pretzeled in other places, and plain bent to hell in others. An exo cage does not have the horizontal rigidity that an interior cage can provide, so the exo cage banged into the ZJ body during the roll.


In my opinion an exo cage is like a motorcycle helment, it is meant to save you once, and then thrown away.


I still like an exo cage for the interior room, but my next cage will incorporate an exo cage in the front and tied into an interior cage behind the front seats and in the back.