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Roll over protection?

surewriting

New member
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Location
Buford, Ga
Howdy all! I've seen a lot of nice deuces here, but one thing ive not seen a lot of are roll-bars or roll cages or really any sort of roll over protection other than 'oh god oh god dont tip' and the windshield frame. Anybody have any sort of thing like that? or ideas? post pics if you do, or just have a cool idea!
 

ssgtwright-usmc

New member
530
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Location
Hawaii
For a M35A3 or anything bigger I have never seen a roll bar.
I have seen a few M998s but those are assigned to Batalion s' whoes job is Recon and thier mission.
I never seen one in any mil-vehicle for except for recon purposes but those are totally (differant vehicles) made for the purpose of fast in, fast out dont be seen.
If someone mods a MV other then its original purpose made then I hope they make all neccesary mods needed to keep one self safe and to others.
 
They put ROPS on the M151 series because they had a history of roll-over problems. I haven't heard of anyone rolling anything else. I suppose a bob would have more of an inclination to roll, but unless you're turning at a wrong angle on too steep a hill, and/or have a high load, the stock bigger trucks are designed to be more stable.
 

saddamsnightmare

Well-known member
3,618
80
48
Location
Abilene, Texas
October 18th, 2008.

Leave the cab door unlatched in questionable situations! :beer:

Sincerely,

Kyle F. McGrogan

1971 Kaiser Jeep M35A2 Wo/W "Saddam's Nightmare"
1968 Johnson Corp M105A2
1963 Swiss Army Cargo Unimog S.404.114
1967 Hercules MEP023A gas Gen Set APU
 
saddamsnightmare said:
October 18th, 2008.

Leave the cab door unlatched in questionable situations! :beer:

Sincerely,

Kyle F. McGrogan

1971 Kaiser Jeep M35A2 Wo/W "Saddam's Nightmare"
1968 Johnson Corp M105A2
1963 Swiss Army Cargo Unimog S.404.114
1967 Hercules MEP023A gas Gen Set APU
If your riding with me you may want to just take the door OFF!
 
Saddamsnightmare wrote:
October 18th, 2008.

Leave the cab door unlatched in questionable situations!

DaveP wrote:

If your riding with me you may want to just take the door OFF!
Dave, you never get OUT OF questionable situations, for a sane person. But for you it's normal, so just hang on and ride it out. If anyone would dump one it'd be you or Josh.
 

davidkroberts

Active member
1,453
23
38
Location
west tennessee
ive found that having military vehicles have made my offroad experience much safer. I spend so much time working on them i dont have any time to drive them where i might roll-over. :D

Seriously, I have a Gama Goat and a Unimog both of which could probably stand a rollbar of some type. I carry my kids wheeling with me sometimes. If someone does have a way of possibly integrating one under the softtop so i could keep the stock look i would appreciate some ideas. Im actually more concerned about the Unimog than the goat. The goat is very stable offroad.
 
Dave in Tenn--
A few years back, there was a 'Mog in one of the 4 wheel magazine tough truck challenge contests. They wrote about him turning around on a hill that scared the crap out of the watchers, but that he did not have any real stability concerns. I'm sure a local muffler shop could bend the pipe to your specs, matching the outside dimensions of the canvas supports.
 

55Cameo

New member
265
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Location
Gainesville, Fl
Please don't use muffler pipe for any kind of roll over protection. Muffler pipe is made to take exhaust gasses away from the engine. Use tubing of at least .120 wall thickness DOM or ERW. DOM is preferred. Bend it with a mandrel tubing bender not a muffler pipe bender that pre-crushes the corners for you. And make sure that you mount is to the frame, not the floor.
 

Jones

Well-known member
2,237
83
48
Location
Sacramento, California
If at all possible, don't get yourself in a jam to begin with... Deuces are a little big for extreme rock crawling.
That said; I know accidents DO happen and people do dumb things, sometimes on a fairly regular basis.

For anything as big as a deuce, 4"dia. (3" if you're doing the double rollbar style) schedule 80 .250 wall is minimum. And that stuff will require a big hydraulic bender.
An alternative would be the weld-it preformed radiuses and a GOOD welder who knows what he's doing. You'll still want to gusset the corners and cross-brace it where needed. All should connect to the frame; attaching it to the cab floor is a big NO-NO.

Another thing to consider is the use, at least overhead, of 1/4" wire or bigger 2" to 3" opening steel mesh screen to cut down on the possibility of a smaller boulder or downed tree limb coming through the openings between the roll-bar tubes and hurting you as you cart-wheel down the hillside.

For a material strength test; lay a couple of long pieces of the pipe you've chosen on blocks and drive your rig up on them. Next, lay on the ground under the pipe--
Feel safe? When you get pipe big enough to feel comfy laying under, that's the size to use.
This may all sound kinda tongue-in-cheek but you won't find it funny when you're looking at the ground where the sky should be.
 
You guys are right on the tubing size, etc. I stand corrected on that.

I'm curious about the connection to the frame as opposed to the floor of the cab. Wouldn't the cab plus roll cage create a cocoon/bubble effect and keep the occupants safe? Or would breaking away from the frame make it bounce like a ball and tumble for a longer time?
 

Jake0147

Member
782
18
18
Location
Panton, VT
The cab floor is not sturdy enough to mount the roll cage. It'll tear off completely, or just push through the floor when the truck falls on top of it. For a M35 it needs to be strong enough to have thirteen thousand pounds dropped on it from about eight feet if it's gonna be effective...
 

Jones

Well-known member
2,237
83
48
Location
Sacramento, California
ROPS frame brackets should be solidly mounted with grade 8 boltts or be hot riveted, of a shelf design and built so as to incorporate gussets, and be out of 3/8" or heavier material.
There's no such thing as "over-built" when it comes to protecting your hide-- or that of family or friends.
 

Global-M621

New member
6
1
0
Location
Norway
Bjorn is right. The Norwegian army made roll bars for the M621.
We have arctic conditions here, and it get’s quite slippery in the winter. There were quite many accidents with these trucks, so they decided to mount roll bars on all the flatbed trucks. The other variants of the series did not receive this modification because I think they provided sufficient protection as they were.

The roll bar is a quite ugly and heavy item made from square tubing approximately 4x4” it also has a big support plate on both sides. The steel quality used is high tensile steel usually used in cranes and similar constructions. I have dismounted the one that was on my truck because I have mounted a knuckleboom crane on it, but it’s still in my yard so I can provide some detail photos if necessary later this week.
 
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