Roll Cages... multiple threads merged

[baja-chris]

Those pics are from our race car build (there is a build thread here). It's way overkill for a play truck. Most of those tubes are 2" 120 wall 4130 and we added more triangulation that what is seen in the pics. The chassis is super stiff and we trust it to keep us alive in a high speed racing crash. It's more of a tube frame chassis. The frame rails are mostly along for the ride to meet class rules. We did weld the cage to the frame but for suspension pickup points we designed bolt on brackets since we think the stress at those points might have led to frame cracks if we welded the pickup brackets to the frame.

As a side note, we once had to replace the frame rails in a Stock Full race truck and when you have a bare frame it's about as stiff as a wet noodle. You could pick up one corner of the ladder frame and it would bend about 4 inches. That's one of the reasons old Fords 4-wheel so good, they pick up and extra 4 inches of suspension movement due to chassis flex. I'm sure many of you have dents in the back of your cabs from the bed hitting it. Anyway don't count on the frame rails to add much in the way of structural integrity if you are trying to build a stiff chassis upon which a serious suspension can work. Design the cage on the assumption the frame will flex all over the place, and also design your cage so the suspension ties into it instead of just the frame alone. Just my opinions.

[Wrightracing.net]

Good Advise Chris. The flex on my 86 frame and body is pretty bad. I have body cracks in both sides of the cab above the back of the doors. The stiffening of the frame is one of my plans as is the suspension mounts.

[Solo Motorsports 44]

Solo Motorsports has almost completed a protype WIY 1 3/4" DOM Bronco interior cage from our donor Bronco. It will be a "prerunner cage" that's prebent and prenotched similar to our WIY Ranger race interior cage. The Bronco cage will feature 1 3/4" DOM, lower pontoons for the cage to sit on instead of swooping into the frame at 90 degrees for A & B pillars. There will be A, B, & C pillars along with roof webbing. 2" poses a problem for the 92-96 Broncos as the A-pillar tube is too close to the headlight switch. All pieces will have their own lasor enscribed part # and alignment holes for proper tube fitment. We are not sure on the price; however, the cheapest time to buy is in the beginning. One more side-note, aluminum solid body spacers/mounts is highly recommended. We are working on this to bring the machine cost down. We are hoping to offer this around May/June. If you have any questions and need a fast response, give us a call. Thanks

[tcm glx]

Solo Motorsports has almost completed a protype WIY 1 3/4" DOM Bronco interior cage from our donor Bronco. It will be a "prerunner cage" that's prebent and prenotched similar to our WIY Ranger race interior cage. The Bronco cage will feature 1 3/4" DOM, lower pontoons for the cage to sit on instead of swooping into the frame at 90 degrees for A & B pillars. There will be A, B, & C pillars along with roof webbing. 2" poses a problem for the 92-96 Broncos as the A-pillar tube is too close to the headlight switch. All pieces will have their own lasor enscribed part # and alignment holes for proper tube fitment. We are not sure on the price; however, the cheapest time to buy is in the beginning. One more side-note, aluminum solid body spacers/mounts is highly recommended. We are working on this to bring the machine cost down. We are hoping to offer this around May/June. If you have any questions and need a fast response, give us a call. Thanks

That is awesome!!

[jjconn]

Solo Motorsports has almost completed a protype WIY 1 3/4" DOM Bronco interior cage from our donor Bronco. It will be a "prerunner cage" that's prebent and prenotched similar to our WIY Ranger race interior cage. The Bronco cage will feature 1 3/4" DOM, lower pontoons for the cage to sit on instead of swooping into the frame at 90 degrees for A & B pillars. There will be A, B, & C pillars along with roof webbing. 2" poses a problem for the 92-96 Broncos as the A-pillar tube is too close to the headlight switch. All pieces will have their own lasor enscribed part # and alignment holes for proper tube fitment. We are not sure on the price; however, the cheapest time to buy is in the beginning. One more side-note, aluminum solid body spacers/mounts is highly recommended. We are working on this to bring the machine cost down. We are hoping to offer this around May/June. If you have any questions and need a fast response, give us a call. Thanks

I want one! Shipping to delaware?

[93Broncobuff]

Solo Motorsports has almost completed a protype WIY 1 3/4" DOM Bronco interior cage from our donor Bronco. It will be a "prerunner cage" that's prebent and prenotched similar to our WIY Ranger race interior cage. The Bronco cage will feature 1 3/4" DOM, lower pontoons for the cage to sit on instead of swooping into the frame at 90 degrees for A & B pillars. There will be A, B, & C pillars along with roof webbing. 2" poses a problem for the 92-96 Broncos as the A-pillar tube is too close to the headlight switch. All pieces will have their own lasor enscribed part # and alignment holes for proper tube fitment. We are not sure on the price; however, the cheapest time to buy is in the beginning. One more side-note, aluminum solid body spacers/mounts is highly recommended. We are working on this to bring the machine cost down. We are hoping to offer this around May/June. If you have any questions and need a fast response, give us a call. Thanks

That is when I was planning to do my cage anyways!!!!! PLEASE!!!!! post a price here when you gents have it all squared away!

[damon1272]

Going to be in the 3-4k range I hear. Looking forward to it.

[PaulW]

Examples of frame tie in at the "A"pillar
Continuous from above or bolted between top and bottom of the floor
Plated at the frame and not plated at the frame. First pic uses an "A" tube that is continuous to the top of the roof.
In the case of my 96 Bronco the cage is welded to the frame and is stitch welded to the body. The result is head sets when driving is good due to all the noise transmitted inside. A safer design than the bolted examples.
The poly bushings used on my Jeep results in only a little increase in noise.
All my vehicles are play vehicles so the cage design meets that requirement which is way different than a design required for a racer. My goal was to keep the thing off our heads in case of a bad rollover and for sure the cage would be damaged. Of course many racers have rollover where the cage is designed to save the vehicle and the passengers and the design is much more complex and more expensive and hard to justify for a play vehicle.

[ChaseTruck754]

A safer design than the bolted examples.

How so?

You'd say your 1.75" dia. weld circle to the frame there is stronger than this bolted setup????

Sorry for the crap pic, but this was taken with an actual camera and then scanned in - before the days of digital. The tube ties to the body mount & the body and the body mount is bolted to the frame.

SI ranger.jpg (60.91 KiB) Viewed 2391 times

If you need to see more - check SI motorsports. Advanced Industries, Kibbetech & Newline are all the same pretty much. All taught from Larry Plank's shop.

Here's a Ranger Tom (SI motorsports) did. All bolt on and the way I like to do things. I'd say every bit as strong as your welded example above.
http://simotorsportsinc.com/andrew/rangerv8.html

[ChaseTruck754]

Damn not edit...

Just looked at that again & think Paul was saying his welded example was a stronger setup than his bolted pictures.


I'd say anybody with a few minute should click the link I gave. Look over that ranger & how it was done. Check the F-150 & other builds too. I can't see work like that enough SOOOOOO clean!

[BDKW1]

I'd say anybody with a few minute should click the link I gave.

Clean yes, But I really dislike the way the engine cage connects to the cab cage. Only 2 spots and they land dead tube in the middle of the dash bar. Frame is all ready welded on for the rear kick up so why bother bolting on the cage?

[ChaseTruck754]

Check his other builds as well. Don't think that was his typical way of connecting the engine cage. It may be customer input or I may just be wrong.

As for why bolting cage to frame - so you can separate the 2. I think the blue truck from the pic above had the cage & cab powder coated then they painted the body color over the light grey powder coat. They then line-Xed the underside & the inside floor, then it was bolted back to the frame, which was also powder coated. Much harder to do this with everything fully welded.

Also, I say "I think" because they did multiple blue trucks & I KNOW they did this way with many of their builds. From the pic above though it looks like the body mount on this particular truck may be riveted. Pic is from about 2000-2001 if I remember right & I can't say for sure what build it was now.


Frame kick up in the rear is for clearance at bump. Not positive why they do that vs. just running new tube, but they did it at Plank for the trucks that got their 4 link kit, and all the guys coming out of there seem to have done it too.
Frame is welded, yes, but then structurally reinforced by the cagework.

[cs_drums]

I really dont under stand reasoning for bolting on a cage. Is the idea that if you roll the truck you can re use it in another cab?

[ChaseTruck754]

I like it for a couple reasons.

1) you can separate the cage/cab from the frame if needed. No, you wouldn't do this often at all, but it can come in handy.

2) If you if a tube gets bent/tweaked or whatever it's a bit easier to replace. Well, at least on 1 end.

3) Cleanliness of work. And yes, this is my OPINION only.
Yes, there can be some clean work that is fully welded, but a lot of times stuff I see that's fully welded is due to laziness. Some people are of the "just zap it up & go play" mentality. That's great. I am not. Doing something bolt on takes more time, thought & effort typically. Makes for a much easier change out if you bend something or want a different design later one. That last part/sentence is more for bumpers, radius arm mounts, etc. but can also somewhat apply to cages.

[BDKW1]

If I was going to the trouble to make a bolt on cage, it would be bushing mounted............

[ChaseTruck754]

I think my next one will after all I've read. I used to want to do one the way SI does, but I'm leaning towards bushings for sure now.

[Travisfab]

How often do you really anticipate having to switch out tubes? Trucks roll all the time and are fine (cage wise), or need a tube or 2 re done. The tubes that need to be re done, are rarely the ones that would be bolted anywhere. Welds can crack, but bolts can come loose & break.

[BDKW1]

For Me it's not so much about replacement, it's about keeping noise out of the cab. Having ridden around in a Ramcharger with a bushing mounted cage it was much louder than a stock truck. That is where I want to go next time. Shocks and suspension can be hard mounted, everything else needs to be isolated. Maybe even urethane mounts for the shocks like the WOB crewcab pre-runner.

[tcm glx]

I haven't ridden in many hard mounted chase, but I love how quiet my bushing mounted cage is. No need for headsets, which was one of my goals.

[Rmc]

I'm my case solid everything and 40lbs of dynomat. If i dont get the tingles from my fingers up to my elbows like a dirtbike ill be happy.I can't hear anything inside this thing anyway. Wind wings whistling away, kids fighting, blown speakers, tires whomp whomp whomping down the asphalt. Head sets are cool guy status hahaha maybe then I could hear some music. See the secret here guys is horse power then you could outrun the speed of sound.