OK, here's a question everyone can join in on. If you were to put a roll cage in your Excursion, how would you design it while still retaining the full use of the interior?

My knowledge of roll cages/bars is small, so I am looking forward to learning a lot!

It would need to protect all 3 seats, and not incur massive body cutting.

Remember, since the Ex has a roof structure already, the cage would not have to be as strong as one for a open truck or Jeep.

Let the ideas begin!!!

 

you do realize the weight difference between your X and an open truck or jeep?

Wes

 

do it on the outside like an exoskelitin i want to but i am still working on the drawing

 

Why do you think you need this?

 

The wieght difference between the open truck/jeep and the Excursion is mitigated somewhat by the roof structure that the Excursion has. The roof is capable of sustaining some of the crushing forces that would be imparted during a rollover, but definately not all.

As far as why do I feel I need this, I am a volunteer firefighter. Several weeks ago, we recieved a call for a MVA on a local highway. It turned out to be an Excursion that had a rollover after running off the road into and out of a shallow ditch. The roof had totally collapsed from the weight of the truck. It was a single roll, about 45 mph, and ended on its side on the edge of a farmers field. This caused me to contemplate a roll cage/bar as a possibility.

I do not wish this to happen in an accident that I could be in.

You can see pictures of the kind of damage I saw by Googling for 'ford excursion rollover' and then clicking on 'images' at the very top of the page. I have no pictures of the accident that occured near here, but it is very similar.

The driver and front seat passenger in the MVA that I responded to had serious head injuries from the roof collapse.

 

all I can say is triangulate. and make sure the doors will shut when your done. dont ask me how I know about the doors <<grin>> you can make it lots of ways but as you build it look at as if the truck was rolling over and try to picture where (in the event of a weld failure) the tube is going to go. A good cage will save ya a bad one could kill ya. and in the floor hook it to the frame cause it it comes loose in a roll its just one more thing thats going to slap ya around.
Good luck
Jeff

Jeff

 

Interesting idea, never thought I needed it in the Xbox, but you make a good point. Wost accident I ever had was in a '94 Bronco, was not a rollover but went down a small ravine with a lot of trees 6-8" diameter, not big enough to stop the car, just beat it to death. I could not believe how much lower my roof had gotten over the drivers seat, but worse yet the fiberglass roof in the back peeled like a sardine can. It did not come unbolted, but broke the fiberglass front of the fixed windows and lifte it straight up and back. Luckily this was before my kids since the rear seat belt attachment is on that roof, if someone had that seatbelt on they probably would be headless.

I still like the Bronco but would not have one without an internal roll cage and remount those rear seat belt pivots, seen one done but never bought another Bronco myself to try. Same idea would work -- I would think it best to leave unattached from the roof but make a custom cage with rails that thrubolt in the rear wheel wells, up along the roof then down and thru the floor behind the front seats (B-pillar?). Then you could extend it over the front seats also with a cross bar over all three rows of seating. Probably the biggest hangup to this would be you'd have to do some of the welding inside the car, so have to strip it or cover everything really really well. But it could be done. I know a guy that designs wakeboard towers for ski boats, put together with quick releas pins, so maybe that's an option to avoid the welding in the car, but they it would tend to rattle. Someone like that could do the custom bending and fabrication but in his case they are only setup to work with aluminum tubing, not steel.

Let us know if you proceed with this...

 

I've also thought of this while sitting in my X. I have 2 kids to think about if we rolled it...might be a very good idea!

 

Every now and then, while I've been sitting in the X with nothing to do, I think about it, and get more Ideas. Unfortunately, I have not had time to do anything about it. It keeps bugging me, though.

 

A roll cage in a dialy driver is a BAD idea. It will cause more harm then good unless you have a HELMET ON at all times. Imagine hittng a bump and being tossed aorund and your head hits this solide thick pipe. Might as well slam your head into a brick wall. Now imagine in an accident the kind of force your head will take hitting a solid immovable object? Can you say at the very very least a concussion in a minor accident and at worst your melon being split into peices like, well a melon.

Coming from years of being around street racers, that build single digit cars and drive them on the streets, a rollcage is a tough decision to make. It honestly does not belong in a daily driver.

Also note, your insurance may drop you if they find out about this. I know a number of people have had major issues due to a roll cage in their car when the insurance got wind of it. It is NOT safe unless you have a helmet on, and id say a 5 point harness seatbelt.

Bad, bad idea.

 

Couldnt you just stengthn the beams that go across the roof? That way you couldnt tell that anything is there and it would look completely stock.

 

x's 2, exactly what I was thinking reading this thread

 

I disagree with it being a bad idea, there are ways to strengthen the roof structure via a roll cage/roll bar and have it mostly hidden and or padded enough to make it much safer. I have seen cars with roll cages that are daily drivers where they address this problem by padding the bar, then wraping it in a material that matches their car (ei: suede, vinyl, cloth.) It not only looks good, it is much better than being smashed by the roof of an 8,000 lb SUV! That would obviously take care of the problem and you would more than likely bump your head on some padding than the pillar where the seatbelt mounts.

Just my 2 cents.

 

like someone else mentioned earlier, an external cage would solve the crushing issue, and not be a problem with the internal padding. Heck, it would look pretty cool too! But you'd look like quite the dandy if you had a rig like that and never took it offroading

Isaac

 

That would be the ultimate setup, i like that, especially for offroading!