Roll Cages... multiple threads merged

[damon1272]

Wanted to get guys thoughts and input on construction of a cage for a Bronco. Thought this would be a good primer thread for people to discuss design, types of materal, and types of tie in points in the design of a cage for a Bronco.
My self I am looking to make a 4 seater Bronco with pass through to the rear for passengers and using leaf springs in the rear. I am looking to provide a way for harnesses for the front seat occupants without really impacting the access and rear seat for the passengers in the rear.
That said, please offer comments on how one would set up thier truck for pre running or race. Any photos would be a great help. Thanks for your input.

[Polarcub]

Great topic and always debated....THe first thing to say is once you cage it you are goign to comprimise your accessability to the rear seats. I am goign to be starting my cage next summer and her eis wha ti have decided to do. I am going to go with 1 3/4" DOM .120 wall. THe cage will not be a full race style cage as I am building it to provide piece of mind for the day that I finally dump it and I have passengers aboutrd. I am goign to run 2 beards/mastercrafts in the rear tha twill be set up for harnesses as well as the front. THis is one of the challenges with accesability to the rear seat for the shouler mounting points. Currently my shock hoops extend into the rear of the cab and will be integrated into the cage. The cage will be mounted to the frame and tied into the engine cage. There is a good chance we will not have the v up front and add bracing in the corners. I will do a solid mpount to the frame and it will be welded to the body. Unfortunatley I cant post it at the moment but i have a picture of a bronco that has a good cage set up that was relatively non intrusive. Ye sI iwll be sacrificing a bit but this bronco will not be raced and is the family hauler/play toy. THe question you relaly have to ask yourself is jsut what you expect out of your vehicle once its caged. While safety is the point of concern in each application you can build a safe cage that will protect the occupants but may not preserve the overall vehicle as well as compared to a full race set up that woill weigh more but provide a greater degree of vehicle survivability as well. Along with that comes less room, brace bars in inconvinenat locations etc.
Materials are much debated as well. 4130 will save some weight but adds to the cost and is more difficult to work with in osme ways but if you plan to race this is the way to go. DOM is more forgiving and less costly. What I have decided to do is purely based on my own research and what I use my bronco for. Hope it helps.

Here is the cage I was referring to

prep888889226n2.jpg (45.57 KiB) Viewed 2992 times

[PaulW]

For starters answers must be tempered because every fab guy has his own approach. My 96 was a pro built with my and my sons inputs based on real world study of many Broncos. Your solution will be different.

4 seat with 4/5 point harness for the two front seats. Big comprimise required.
Caution, it is unacceptable to have people in the rear seat in a short WB Bronco when driving in the desert or for jumps. The ride is unacceptable on anything except smooth roads.
The 4/5 shoullder attach must be at or slightly higher than your shoulders. That means a cross member B to B or what I did which is a diagonal at the B to allow the belt attach. My rear seat passengers climb over the stock console. This presents damger to my radio, switches and GPS. It works OK. I decided that the 5 point was a hassle so for that quick trip for fuel so I put the 3 point back in. Much faster.
The B-B cross member is even worse. So the fix for that is a removable bar and a set of 3 point belts for leasure driving with rear seats occupied. You can buy/build an attachment that has only one bolt on each end for attachment.

Rear suspension: shock tower will have to be placed where the seat is which is why almost all Bronco builds with a full seat have the layed forward shocks. That is not a big comprimise. The vertical shock means one central seat = a 3 seater or a 4 seater with children. 3 Seat Broncos are fairly common.

Other comments:
Use 1.75" main tubes out of 4130 if you are a pro welder, otherwise study the different DOM materials and choose the stongest. Low heat is required for 4130 and mild steel dosen't care. Weld cage tubes to the frame and body.
Tie the main cage to the engine cage, shock tower, and core support.
About the"V" at the windsheild. The purpose is to link the engine/tower tubes to the "A" hoop. If they are not used than its best to add a second A-A tube in the cowl where the wipers reside. This means two A-A tubes. Typical for race and prerun setups. The compromise is much less stiffness and more crush if one lands on the top. Probably OK for a prerun Bronco. Not for a racer. Leaving out the "V means you can locate the tube under the dash and that saves the defrost ducts.
Where are you at? Try to find a good caged Bronco and copy it.
The above comments do NOT apply to a race Bronco.

PW

[magic carpet XLT]

i just recently ditched the rear seat completely. i found that it wasn't so much my passengers that got tired of crawling under the B-B bar, it was me that got tired of having a seat back there taking up valuable cargo room, and being in the way when trying to do stuff back there. since no one ever rides back there i feel i made the right choice.

i'm with paul, riding in the back can be really really rough and the rear passengers see a lot more compression G's.

[damon1272]

Thanks for the comments guys. Good information to chew upon. A possible compromise to the B pillar hoop I was think about was to do a hoop with in a hoop that is tied together. This would for a bulk head of sorts possibly with a v supports running up to the B pillar behing the front seat? Any thoughts or just added wieght?
I like the suggestion of running two tubes for the A pillar support. I am looking to keep as much as the dash as possible and make it some what liveable.
Another question that I had was in regards to tieing into the frame. In the January 2010 issue of Off road magazine shows Keith Sato's prerunner the outrigger style. Any opinions in regards to strength or concerns? Any opinions towards welding or bolting to the frame?
I know that opinions are scattered throught the web about building a cage but I think that consolidating the many opinions into a thread would be helpful for many. Thanks again for your comments.
http://www.off-roadweb.com/features/100 ... to_04.html

[damon1272]

Jeremy,
The pic that you posted is along the lines of what I was thinking for my build. Thanks

[PaulW]

Examples

PW

[tcm glx]

I stole some pics from Mark Keifers builds.... I like some of these in particular:

For the front, without the A bar.

[damon1272]

Nice work on the Keifer cage. Does he weld it striaght to the frame or was it bolted?

[monkei]

So umm, say you want a clutch-pedal, e-brake AND a full cage. Whaddya' do then for the bars on the drivers side at the front of the cage?

[bajascott]

there are ways around that monkei,
i built an explorer for a guy ,5spd and he wanted to keep the e-brake.
no pics but you can off set the e-brake pedal,and with the clutch and brake pedal, they fit.

[Devin]

I've always wondered.....

If one were to move the ebrake to the right, to the center console or floor (with new cables & brackets of course) would everything still function the same? In theory it seems that it would? I have always thought it would be cool to have a rally-type ebrake for desert stuff. Anyone know if anybody out there does this already? I only ask because I have never seen, or heard about one.

[bajascott]

cutting brake.

[PaulW]

Stock location for the E brake Just route the cage A tube in the correct location
PW

[bajascott]

good pics,when i built the explorer,it had all the wiring, and crap, and my time was limited.

[Blueblood]

thanks paul for the pics

[PaulW]

thanks paul for the pics

You are welcome.
The camera works fine. I reduce the pics size to ~50k for quick load.
The best part of my cage is it was done by Glen. A real pro. No issues at all just great design and build $$. All done with MIG and no cracks so far and I beat it pretty hard. 5k miles just in the last 12 months. Not counting one trip to CA on the highway.
PW

[TrevorPiggott]

So lately I'm trying to get ideas for a cage going and can't seem to find a thread on cage pictures.
So if anyone has a caged Bronco and would not mind posting up some pictures of their own cage or pictures they have found of other cage ideas it would be a huge help.
Thanks ahead of time
Trevor

[tcm glx]

Check out mar keifers photobucket. He has a link to it on his sig here. He has some of the nicest cage builds up on their.

[ChaseTruck754]

Last time I tried (middle of last week?) both of the links in his signature were bad. Time to try again I guess...