Hi all.

Did a search but didn't find the answers I was looking for.

I'm starting my roll cage and have some mounting questions. I can't decide if I want to mount the legs to the floor of the cab or to the frame.

To get to the frame I'd have to go through the floor, make a 90 deg bend and run it 14" to get to the frame rail. (This is only a concern in the front cuz the cage has to stay clear of the pedals.)

To go to the floor, I'd make a steel plate on top of the floor that the leg is welded to, and another plate of the same size underneath, and bolt the two together through the floor.

I'm not too keen on 14" horizontal legs holding the cage in place, but like the idea of mounting it to the frame. Especailly because I want to run it out the back of the cab to the rear of the frame.

So, for those of you that have actually done this to an off-road truck, please give me your opinion.

Thanks!

Kevin K.

 

i had the way you're talking about and took that apart and tied the cage into the frame. I didn't like the fact that the cage is dependent on the body holding together. What I did was take 4" square tubing and had those extend out from the frame. They just look like real long body mounts. Those work just fine, depending on your welding skills. I can take a few pics of my setup if you want.

 

Thanks for the reply.

I hear ya. With as old as the body is on mine, I'm a bit leary to mount it there. I like the tube steel idea, too. That's kinda how the loader on my tractor is attached. Would it look something like this?


I think I could weld it up and make it hold.

Thanks again!

K.

 

Mine is very similar. Mine isn't a bracket with a square welded to it, though. It's just a 4" square welded to the frame, and the end with the cage mount is bevel cut for appearance reasons. I was gonna make everything bolt on, but I decided not to.

 

I'm thinking I want to go with bolt-on for fabrication purposes. So if I screw it up it'll be easy to remove.

That brings up another question. Since the cage sits so close to the interior, how the heck do you weld it? If I weld it up first, I'll never get it into the cab. I was thinking about sleeving and bolting it somewhere in the middle so I can put the two halves in seperately. Probably tack weld as much of the seam as I can, too.

K.

 

That is a question I can't answer. I know with my welder, I don't get a lot of splatter everywhere since I changed over to the gas, but the heat is still present. On my rollcage, there are 2 points that bolt together, and those hold pretty well with the 7/16 grade 8 bolts that hold it together. Yea, I'd try and fab up as much as possible to get it in there, and remove all fabric and plastic components around the areas that you must weld in cab to keep damage to a minimum. Or else go with the bolt together method.

 

kjkozak2,mine is put on the frame something like what you drew up with a backing plate , and gussets that is bolted to the frame rails, I didn't want to weld on my frame none of my stuff is welded to the frame it's all bolted with 1/2 grade 8 bolts, and 1/4 plate for a backing, now mine goes through the floor, but mine is off road race only, but if you don't want to go through the floor with the actual cage do like you suggested with the plates on both sides then weld that to the frame mount underneath the floor board. If you want I could take a pic and post it or email it to you let me know if you need it but your drawing is close.

 

Thanks guys!

I would LOVE to see some pix of what you guys did!

I spent 3 hours last night staring at the interior trying to figure out where all the bars will go. The rear hoop is prety straight forward and the front looks pretty easy, too (once I took the entire dash out). Where to put the bolted connection between the front and rear is the question.

Also, did either of you put a bar at the base of the windshield or along the firewall anywhere? What about the rear hoop? Did you put a cross member below the window or all the way down at the floor?

Diagonal bracing is another thing I'm curious about. I'm thinking I'll have an upside down "V" in the rear from the bar at the floor to the top. Also thinking about running a bar from the rear hoop to the front hoop at the floor, and a diagonal brace there as well (stratigically located so I'm not banging my side or arm on it).

I'd like to have another from the top center of the rear hoop down to the tranny hump, but I'd need something there to bolt it to.

Tha four legs will go through the floor and into sleeves on the mounting brackets. I'd like to be able to unbolt it there to remove it if I have to.

Please let me know if you think I'm way off track or if I'm at least close.

Thanks again!

Kevin K.

 

You're doing good so far. As for where to have your bolted together sections, I'd want them somewhere that if I banged some soft part of my body in that general vicinity, there's not some object wishing to deface my skin. I'd put the bolted joint behind you somewhere.
You can check out my gallery and see the part that's bolted together on my Bronco.

 

here is a picture of the body roll bar mount underneath, and the rest of the pics you can view by clicking on the hyperlink after the picture. it's also in my galleries under misc gallery.


roll bar pics

 

Thanks for the pix guys. They answer a lot of questions and helped me simplify my setup.

momudder, I can't see where yours is bolted together in the pictures, but after seeing the whole thing, I think I know where mine will be.

I have the PS front bracket done and am working on the DS. For the rear, i think I'll just use a square tube or channel bolted to the top of the frame rails. There's nothing in the way back there so it should be pretty simple.

I'll put up some pix as soon as I make a little more progress.

Thanks again.

K.

 

Thats how my roll bar is set up. Roll bar terminates in square flanges which are bolted to square flanges underneath. The square flanges underneath are directly connected to the frame via tube. The bottem connection can be welded to the frame, or terminate in a flange which is then bolted to the frame. I'd just do a flange on either end and bolt 'er up. Taping up cardboard to the interior of your cab is one way of keeping boogers off everything when you're welding it up.

 

I got the front hoop done yesterday. I made the brackets like pictured above and welded a 4" peg out at the ends. The bars slide down onto the pegs and I'll run bolts through them both.

I'm starting the rear hoop tonight but I'm not sure how I want to mount it. I can do it the same as the front or I can put a low horizontal member in, move the legs in and run them straight down to the frame like this.


I could also go with my first thought and just run a piece of tube steel across the whole frame and bolt the legs to that.

Any thoughts?

TIA.

Kevin K.

 

well I have a piece of 2x3 square tubing across the frame at the back of the cab that mine go straight throught and are welded to, that tube is also my rear cab mount as I had to fab all the body mounts up, and provide some body lift to make it sit straight on that frame.

 

I hear ya.

I had to make a rear crossmember for my 78, too. The original one broke into 3 pieces right where the body mounts go. If I knew at the time I'd be putting in a roll cage, I would've done what you did.

K.