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*Official* Cage idea/pic/discussion thread

567K views 1K replies 282 participants last post by  FunkSkunk 
#1 ·
Ok, it seems to be a well debated topic of how to build a cage for your jeep. So post up your ideas, questions, pics, whatever and lets see if we can create a central location for all this knowledge. :thumbsup:
 

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#227 ·
zachv said:
We used to use and make B-pillar mounts like that, but then one day we cut that "bump" off and realized that it was for the body mount and now we use this plate to tie into the frame right there:


It is a great way to get a frame tie-in with little effort.
:thumbsup:
Zach I am a bit confused as to mounting this plate? Does your plate go both under and inside the tub sandwiching the tub between the plates? That is what I was planning on doing with the bottom plates being larger then the plates inside the tub. Then weld a bushing on the bottom plates and run tube to the frame with a fishmouth Joint at the frame.

I did see that the bump there inside the tub is the body mount bolt is. So are you using that bolt to bolt the inside bracket down?

My biggest concern was how I was going to construct the lower tub bracket plate (hope that makes since) 2 of the bolts for the inside bracket are blind and well over half the bracket is above the main body support channel.

tommaho said:
I made plates like Zach posted (4 bolts instead of 6 though), and tied in like this:



Yes I'm still running the stock mounts with a BL. No solid bushings. With 8 points tied in I like to think of the stockers as harmonic dampeners. :D

Tom
Do you have a picture where your frame tube meets the cage mount? I plate and tie in to the inner 2 bolts holes on my mounts without having to cut the tub or even make my plates longer towards the inside of the tub and get more then two bolts but I want to keep the lower parts of the B pillar originating from the same spot as the factory cage.

I plan on making the A pillar and C pillar tie ins with 1" solid pins that will be male and female joined at the plates. Very similar to Kerts at diy 4x4.
 

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#228 ·
No, I dont, but it's a mirror image of the foot you see here.



Instead of trying to maintain the support channel that goes along the underside of the tub I just cut it out so there was nothing there to collapse between the upper and lower plates. So I have a more or less solid sandwich of plate - tub - plate.

There's probably a better way to do it, but at some point I decided that the integrity of the cage was more important than the integrity of the tub/subframe. :dunno:

Hope that makes sense.
 
#229 ·
All we do is open that "bump" up with a slicer wheel and pound it flat so I can get the bolt through the body mount and so that the plate sits flat. Then, one of the holes in the plate is aligned so I can get a ~5" Grade 8 bolt through and after I drill out the nutsert in the tub I slide the bolt up from the bottom all the way through the body mount and then the plate and voila', instant B-pillar frame tie-in. I didn't see any pics on my computer, but if I find one I will post it up.

BTW, I understand the desire to use those shear pads in the picture above, but honestly, I have seen tons of cages roll, some that we have built, and none of the welds have sheared at the plates. If a weldor is competent there should not be an issue, but I guess it is never a bad idea. I just have a hard time hitting the same dead spot on a plate every time on some rigs, especially TJs when going through the dash. Either way, I guess overkill is not a bad thing.

Have fun.:cool:
 
#230 ·
zachv said:
All we do is open that "bump" up with a slicer wheel and pound it flat so I can get the bolt through the body mount and so that the plate sits flat. Then, one of the holes in the plate is aligned so I can get a ~5" Grade 8 bolt through and after I drill out the nutsert in the tub I slide the bolt up from the bottom all the way through the body mount and then the plate and voila', instant B-pillar frame tie-in. I didn't see any pics on my computer, but if I find one I will post it up.

BTW, I understand the desire to use those shear pads in the picture above, but honestly, I have seen tons of cages roll, some that we have built, and none of the welds have sheared at the plates. If a weldor is competent there should not be an issue, but I guess it is never a bad idea. I just have a hard time hitting the same dead spot on a plate every time on some rigs, especially TJs when going through the dash. Either way, I guess overkill is not a bad thing.

Have fun.:cool:
Good idea Zach. So, do you only use the 1 body bolts for a tie in or do you add other bolts around it?
 
#231 ·
tweba99 said:
Good idea Zach. So, do you only use the 1 body bolts for a tie in or do you add other bolts around it?
Depending on the model, we typically use 2-3 more of the holes and just use good washers on the bottom. There is not as much "up" push on a cage during a roll so the tie-ins see most of their forces down in that axis.
 
#232 · (Edited)
tommaho said:
No, I dont, but it's a mirror image of the foot you see here.

Instead of trying to maintain the support channel that goes along the underside of the tub I just cut it out so there was nothing there to collapse between the upper and lower plates. So I have a more or less solid sandwich of plate - tub - plate.

There's probably a better way to do it, but at some point I decided that the integrity of the cage was more important than the integrity of the tub/subframe. :dunno:

Hope that makes sense.
That makes much better sense now that I know you cut the subframe support. For some reason I thought you tied in without cutting it.

zachv said:
All we do is open that "bump" up with a slicer wheel and pound it flat so I can get the bolt through the body mount and so that the plate sits flat. Then, one of the holes in the plate is aligned so I can get a ~5" Grade 8 bolt through and after I drill out the nutsert in the tub I slide the bolt up from the bottom all the way through the body mount and then the plate and voila', instant B-pillar frame tie-in.
I really like that idea and I just might redesign the mounts for the B pillar to flare out and have a hole located above that body mount. Not sure if I would rather do that or notch the subframe and run a bushing like the other points.

Love the ideas though and appreciate the help!

zachv said:
BTW, I understand the desire to use those shear pads in the picture above, but honestly, I have seen tons of cages roll, some that we have built, and none of the welds have sheared at the plates. If a weldor is competent there should not be an issue, but I guess it is never a bad idea. I just have a hard time hitting the same dead spot on a plate every time on some rigs, especially TJs when going through the dash. Either way, I guess overkill is not a bad thing.

Have fun.:cool:
I am running the 1" pins just to prevent side shear on the bolts. The tube does not mate perfectly with the plates but the two mounting plates mate perfectly with the pins. Thus the two plates can not seperate from a side to side force since not only are the grade eight bolts preventing it the 1" pins are.

I prefer to tack the plate with the "hole" on the end of the tube foot and drill the mounting holes. Then I break the tack and just have the foot mounted in the proper location and use the center hole to mark and cut the floor. Then if the tube is so off center on your mounting plate that it will not allow the male pin to enter inside the tube then you reverse your plates and have the male pin going through the floor (no effect on where the top tube mounts on the plate) and use the female plate under the floor.

Hope that makes some sort of sense:2thumbsup:

Zach, How many bends do you use on the front A pillar bar from floor to upper windshield? Is that a single bend or dual bend off plane? Do you have pictures of where the bar mounts on the floorboard?
 

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#233 ·
I know no one has posted on this thread for a little bit but I have a question. Does anyone have more pics of the first cage posted on this thread? I am in the market for a new cage and I really like that one. That and I like the center bars/harness bar from the last Bronco on post #11.
 
#234 ·
I am going to put in a cage soon and right now I have the back half which is identical to the backhalf of a stock tj.. what additions should I make to it, and it is designed to bolt to the back of the jeep body, should I tie it in to the frame instead? also I'm looking at these plates, so you cut a hole/square in the floor and bolt it to the body and have the pipe welded to the frame??
 
#235 ·
Are you asking what you should add to a stock rear half of a TJ cage? I put a plate on bottom and bolted through the body and mounted to the frame that way. As for other additions to the rear half look back at my cage (on the prior page I think) and add supports at "crush" points on the TJ cage. be super sure to add a spreader to the rear between the two down bars.
 
#236 ·
Heres my cage.....
Fred99TJ said:
Hey guys I was surfing on here and just found this thread.

I didn't read 15 pages but I flipped through them. There are some GREAT designs on here for cages. I too just did my cage. My first attempt was given to me from a frien who competes. He rolled over backwards and it tweaked the cage enough I didn't want to use it but it is being used in a jeep now.

This is my current cage:





I know some folks don't agree with re-useing the stock center and rears but thats what I did on both my cages. They are fully welded (even the bolted sections of the stock cage are welded). The front and rear came from TrailWorks in Nashville, TN and The 3 braces in the rear and the bottom windshield spreader I added. There are also braces along the floor board that I added. I know alot of people insist on DOM for cages too. We used HREW on the second DOM on the first. I did alot of research and re-useing the stock center with DOM additions is not totally benificial. The stock Cage portions are HREW and therefor the weak link. By braceing it and makeing the rest from HREW it distributes a hit a little better. Right now just the front two legs are frame tied, but when I finish it will have 6 frame tie-un locations. I am also going to add a few gussetts and grab handles.

I know this isn't the greatest cage in existance but I definatly feel safer with it!!!!
 
#237 ·
I may just have to throw out the back half b/c the previous owner just made it to where it bolts to the top of the "tailgate"...this would crush the body if it did roll obviously, so I think I'll model mine after yours, what did all the piping set you back, and do I have the whole bar to plate to frame right?
 
#238 ·
First lets correct your terminoligy. It's Tube. Most of my cage is HREW 1.75".120, but the rear is 1.5" DOM. The DOM didn't cost me enything but I had a source for it at no cost to me. The top part cost me $175 for the materials pre cut and bent and notched. All the welding I had done by a friend and I paid him $100 plus 2 rolls of welding wire so I have about $350 in this cage total including paint. Something we did, which I don't know how well it will benifit, but is wehret eh center of the stock main hoop bolts together, we loosened the bolts and once everything was welded in place we tightened them down the welded that seam so this cage is kinda "fit" to my jeep. It would still bolt into any TJ but we felt this would make it fit better into mine, and make it a little stronger.
 
#239 ·
Fred99TJ said:
First lets correct your terminoligy. It's Tube. Most of my cage is HREW 1.75".120, but the rear is 1.5" DOM. The DOM didn't cost me enything but I had a source for it at no cost to me. The top part cost me $175 for the materials pre cut and bent and notched. All the welding I had done by a friend and I paid him $100 plus 2 rolls of welding wire so I have about $350 in this cage total including paint. Something we did, which I don't know how well it will benifit, but is wehret eh center of the stock main hoop bolts together, we loosened the bolts and once everything was welded in place we tightened them down the welded that seam so this cage is kinda "fit" to my jeep. It would still bolt into any TJ but we felt this would make it fit better into mine, and make it a little stronger.
what'd you paint it with?
 
#242 ·
#245 ·
This thread has been very educational and I want to thank all of the contributors. I started the process of adding strength to the stock setup on my TJ. We threw away everything except the B hoop. Using a version of Zachs methodolgy we attached the hoop to frame. I am unsure of the strength compromise doing it this way but seems signifcantly stronger than stock.

I did not want to cut away the tub channel as I live in a muddy environment. We used a hole saw to open the cavity and fabricated an aluminum block that tightly fits around the nut cert and provides surface contact to the base plate when it is installed.


We fabricated a base plate out of 3/16', installed it under the factory foot, and tacked them together. We also reinstalled the soft top to assure there would not be any issues with the slightly lifted height.


Stitched the two plates together 4 sides.


Painted with rubberized under coating and filled open joints with body filler.


After installing, the welded nuts on the pinch weld seemed kind of comical. I drilled them out and added a third hole thru the pinch weld and fabricated this angle to sandwich the pinch weld.




 
#247 ·
That is indeed one of the best ways to run a full cage for most rigs. The challenge doing it that way for a TJ is the bend at the upper windshield location usually gets in the way of the door surrounds if the owner is still going to use them. For example, below is one we did in a TJ like that where the owner said he would not be using the door surrounds so we were able to do that, but you can see where the bend would be in the way. For YJs and CJs it is very nice to do the whole tube in one piece...as long as you can keep in the same plane of bend.



Here is the link to that picture if you want to see it bigger:
http://atozfabrication.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=random&cat=0&pos=-18
 
#249 ·
Cage is done for the most part! Just have to set it out, and do the final welding on a couple spots that we couldn't get to. Then spray bomb it and set it back in and weld it solid to the frame. Here's a few more pics. I'll have some action shots after next weekend, who knows I may even test it out. :D






 
#250 ·
Hey guys I have been reading through this thread vigorously and alot of the jeeps that get pictures up are really into hardcore wheeling. My jeep is my dd and is used occasionaly on the trail, more of a weekend warrior than what most of these are. I want to build a simple cage, but tough. I want to know what size pipe to use and whether to use hollow or solid pipe. I have a welder and all the tools its just the building of the cage i get confused about. Correct me if im wrong A pillar is on the windshield B pillar is behing the seat and C pillar would be the biggest upright in the back.
 
#252 ·
Does pillar B have to be tied into the frame??? My CJ-5 has such a small wheel base, Pillar B will be in the way of my 38.5's suspension travel. Can i brace Pillar B to Pillar A with a tube? Pillar C WILL be tied in on the frame no problem. Gussets will be use on just about all angles where i can see that the extra strength will be needed.
 
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