Building Roll Cage for CUCV

[bbbang]

I am in the process of putting a roll cage in one of my M1009's. I am using schedule 80 pipe, and gussets, and it seems to be shaping up pretty nice. Thought some folks might like to see pictures. Chris

 

[KsM715]

Good on ya for making it safer for you and your family. If your not doing anyhing high speed and just dont want the top to crush if you roll over that will do the job. Just dont expect it to hold up to a 75mph unexpected barrel roll. It looks good. If it were me Id rather have tubeing.

 

[Chevytruck]

on the safety


but why?

 

[Westech]

Not to be a downer, but that wont help very much unless you mount it to the frame and not the body. I have seen first hand a cage punch right through the body. You might be using some heavy pipe but with out a solid mount it might look good but not offer any protection.

 

[rideni]

^Ditto,
Roll cages need to be mounted to the frame or to a weight transfer plate mounted through the unibody, also I would have used DOM tubing, as piping would be sure to fail in a load situation, of course my only experience with cages is from sports car racing, and stupid redneck field car stuff

 

[3dubs]

I like roll bars and seat belts work upside down I went at least six feet up in the air and landed upside down and backwards at about 65MPH and walked away without a scratch. I love roll cages! If you do not go to the frame you to at least have a steel plate at the body. I like the roll cage to the frame and seats bolted to the cage. But some say I am crazy. But what do doctors know? Anything is better than nothing but do the best you can with what you got.

 

[jesusgatos]

Butt-welded pipe? Ugh. That's heinous. Sorry.

 

[bbbang]

When done it will be to the frame, not sheet metal. (pipe to plate to frame, otherwise I agree it is a waste of time). I am not that concerned on wheel wells, but certainly am on the two hoops. It is just partially tack welded now, and I agree not very pretty, yet. I like the prefab corners because it keeps everything uniform and letts you make perfect angles. You couldn't bend schedule 80 pipe in 90 degree angles, anyway. Anyone that has dealt with schedule 80 pipe knows how tough it is.

I will weld it up solid, with gussets outside the truck. Then grind the welds, sand it, prime it, paint carc green. Then put it back in the blazer. Then pad it in all the contact spots. I have four jeep roll bar speakers that will go in the corners, and even some green led lights that I will add to the bar.

Stay tuned I think it will fit the bill for as safe as it gets and score high for the "cool factor". It will take several man hours of welding and prep and I will post some more pictures as I progress. Chris

 

[jesusgatos]

...I agree not very pretty, yet. I like the prefab corners because it keeps everything uniform and letts you make perfect angles. You couldn't bend schedule 80 pipe in 90 degree angles, anyway. Anyone that has dealt with schedule 80 pipe knows how tough it is.

It's not about being pretty. A rollcage should like like whatever it needs to look like to do it's job. But what you're building is just not safe (compared to a well-built rollcage). Sorry dude, those corners just don't cut it.

 

[KsM715]

The problem with pipe is it shatters and does not give like tubing will. In a slow roll it will probably be fine. If your involved in a highway accident or roll down a hill side where it will pick up speed on the way over I wouldnt trust it. Dont let any of this thread get you down. Like jesusgatos said when it comes to safety, its about being functional not just looking cool. With that said Ill be the first to say Ive done many things that were not safe but it sure looked good I do love the paint job on your truck.

 

[DUG]

I'm all for safety, but I've never liked the roll bar "look" in a Blazer. I had a 72 Gumby Green Blazer that we used to run around Ki with the top off 9 months out of the year. Those were the ones where you were really TOPLESS, not halfway like the newer ones (they switched in 74/75 I think). The fastest spped limit anywhere on the island is 45 and doesn't last very long and I never did much that would cause it to get upside down. Man, I wish I had that truck back.

 

[jesusgatos]

Search pirate4x4 if you want to read some of the arguments for/against using poop-pipe to build rollcages. For what you're building, I don't even think that's such a bad idea. It's the 'corners' that I have a problem with. There's just no way that you can weld those up to be safe without sleeving them, and you can't do that at the bend. I would seriously suggest starting over and finding someone that can bend the tubing (or pipe) up for you. On the plus side, you can use what you've built as a template so you know it will fit exactly how you want.

 

[bbbang]

I will look into the corner issue. The corners are schedule 40 pipe, and gusseted on three sides. The friend helping me is a professional metal fabricator and welder, with lots of race expierence, but I do want to be safe right side up, or upside down. Chris

 

[KsM715]

What kind of race experience? If he is experienced in building racing chassis's (spelling?) and roll cages he should know better. Not all fabricators know what theyre doing? I took a piece of dom tubing to a welding fab shop here locally, been known to work on race cars, I asked him to bend it following my template for a winch guard on my Jeep and when I came back to pick it up I was disappointed. He used a simple pipe bender and kinked both bends. Hes been in bussiness along time and welded alot of stuff but didnt even know the difference between bending tubing and bending pipe.

 

[colomil]

I still can't get over the flame paint job! That is very cool!
I will be building an external cage on my M1009 using 4130 alloy 2" X .120" tube. It is expensive but it is much lighter and stronger than comparable low-carbon sched 40/80 pipe. I believe it is what SCORE class 3 racers use. To all of you that have negative comments, back off because his rollcage is better than nothing. If he was to race the blazer in Baja 1000 then yes, this would be a different story.

 

[jesusgatos]

I still can't get over the flame paint job! That is very cool!
I will be building an external cage on my M1009 using 4130 alloy 2" X .120" tube. It is expensive but it is much lighter and stronger than comparable low-carbon sched 40/80 pipe. I believe it is what SCORE class 3 racers use.

4130 is kind of a waste to use if you're just building an exo-cage. You can't get enough triangulation to build a very strong cage that way, so you might as well just use DOM. Many many racecars use rollcages built with DOM tubing, and unless you're going to take full advantage of the properties of 4130 I would suggest saving your money to put into other/better places.

To all of you that have negative comments, back off because his rollcage is better than nothing.

I've got to disagree here too. Butt-welded pipe junctions like those are VERY likely to fail in a crash, and could end up hurting the people that the rollcage was intended to protect.

 

[Cucvnut]

Go with DOM tubing poo poo pipe is bad if u want i can show you some pics of a really bad poo poo pipe roll cage