Hybrid cage

[Cothran]

Thought you guys might be interested in seeing the cage we just got done, and maybe offer some suggestions for the seat cradle. The guy who bent it up for me had an idea he wanted to try. He would get hung up on his B-pillar a lot when sliding along trees, so he wanted this cage to be smooth all the way from front to back. He sleeved the Metaltech bars and extended the tube all the way to the rear, then the B-pillar just goes straight up so there's nothing to catch on. Edit: I still need to add some gussets from the B-pillar to the top bar as well as the frame tie-ins.

Click to enlarge:





What he's having a little trouble figuring out is how to do the seat cradle and keep the stock gas tank without raising the seats up too high. The bench will be replaced with another baja SS BTW. Does anyone have any examples of a seat cradle that retains the stock tank under the passenger seat?

 

[D'Animal]

Can you get a picture with the door open? I would like to see how the front hoop comes down. I like the downward contour of the front hoop bar.

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Check out some of FC187, will give you many ideas about trianglation and proper cage design, he can kinda weld also......LOL

 

[Cothran]

I'll try to take some pictures tonight. It's exactly like a regular Metaltech cage, but I left a little more room between the bars and the dash so I could still remove the windshield pins.

 

[D'Animal]

I don't want to be criticle but there is no triangulation built into your cage that can be seen from the pics.

I am not challenging your copy of a Metal Tech cage design but Triangulation is what gives a cage it's strength. I'm no cage designer. I have Don at FC Fabrication build mine.

I let the Pro's do what the Pro's do best.

 

[Cothran]

I'm open to constructive criticism; I'm no cage designer either. If I need to add triangulation I'm certainly willing to consider it.

 

[Poser]

Tim-


I have a cradle system with a stock tank (16 gallon) in my junk. It is removable, so that you can service the fuel tank or drive line without the cage having to be removed. Ran Baja molded seats for a long time and now run something from Jeggs that sit about 2.5” lower.

Here is a pic. I can get you more if you need them.

 

[Man Jerk]

I am not challenging your copy of a Metal Tech cage design

That is not a copy, it is a Metal Tech Cage, just modded a bit.

Looks awesome Tim.

 

[bustanutley]

here is what i did

 

[D'Animal]

Nice Triangulation!

Do the seat Brackets move so you can get to your tool box?

 

[bustanutley]

Thanks, I haven't rolled hard on it yet, but it should be safe.

The seats are pretty much fixed and everything is welded. I still use the tool box, the lid comes out of the truck and I can access all my tools.

 

[AZFJ]

mine was done close to the same

 

[Cothran]

Thanks guys, really appreciate the seat cradle ideas. I do like the idea of making it removable. I was just contemplating what a PITA it would be to have to take the entire cage out if I needed to get to something under that. Not that I'll ever need to, but it's good to have the option.

D'Animal, regarding the triangulation issue - you made me go back and study the MetalTech cages. I originally bought a standard MT profile cage and planned to use my stock rear hoop. Until we found out that the rear hoop wasn't stock and was actually pipe, that is. Basically this is what I would have ended up with:

I don't see much triangulation there. I do plan on adding the A to B gussets as seen in the above picture, but that can't be adding that much strength. Now I'm not saying triangulation isn't important, but there have got to be tons of people running this setup, and probably a lot of them have rolled with it. Is it prone to failure without more triangulation? I know we're on the internet here, and just so ya know I'm definitely not being a smartass.

After we scrapped my rear hoop, I decided to go with a full family-style cage. In comparing my rear half with the MT full cage rear, I only see I am missing the B to C braces. Are those necessary? I've seen some with and some without. I figured the triangulation you were talking about would go from the top of the B on the DS to the bottom of the B on the PS (or vice versa), but that's not part of the MT cages either.

I do plan on adding the hip guards when I do the seat cradle, as seen in the other pics in this thread, which would certainly seem to add a lot of strength from the A to B. I guess my question is, and this is not directed solely at D'Animal, where would you add triangulation to my cage? Or is it safe as it is based on what I'm seeing with MT stuff?

 

[Cothran]

Ok, right after I posted this I realized I don't have a continuous hoop going from side to side. My continuous hoop goes front to back. So how about adding a cross brace behind the driver and passenger - would that be sufficient? I should probably delete that entire post above, but oh well...

 

[bustanutley]

Your cage will be fine for one incident, but the problem is, that it will only be good for one incident. It will most likely be left bent after one good impact. This impact could come from a mild flop. So if you are ok with this reality leave it as is. In structural design you need to pretend joints don't hold moments, ie pinned joints. Currently you have parallelograms, if the joints were pinned it wouldn't even hold itself up let alone take an impact.

Nodes and triangles are your freinds. Here is a decent overall pic on my cage.

Cage design in more important than material selection.

 

[Cothran]

Ok, if I (myself not being a structural engineer) were to add bracing, this would be my thought. Would this be sufficient in your opinion? I obviously can't go back and redo the cage, but I would like to make sure it can take more than one roll. I can't afford to be doing cages every time I flop, although I do hope to keep that to a minimum.

Suggestions welcome.

 

[bustanutley]

You shouldn't terminate tube in the center of other tubes, you need to end at existing nodes.

I would do something more like this

P.S. nice paint skillz!

 

[D'Animal]

Fefereing to the pic in the upper right corner. Something needs to continue the Triangulation from the top of the cross bar to the bottom of the cage.

Ok, if I (myself not being a structural engineer) were to add bracing, this would be my thought. Would this be sufficient in your opinion? I obviously can't go back and redo the cage, but I would like to make sure it can take more than one roll. I can't afford to be doing cages every time I flop, although I do hope to keep that to a minimum.

Suggestions welcome.

 

[fc187]

You shouldn't terminate tube in the center of other tubes, you need to end at existing nodes.

I would do something more like this

P.S. nice paint skillz!

EXACTLY!