The Best safety equipment you can add to your 4x4 is a well-designed and properly installed rollcage. A plethora of quality bolt-in and weld-in cage kits is available, some of them good and some lacking the basics of safety design. When selecting a rollcage it's important to keep in mind that you are installing safety equipment that might save your life. Why cut corners?
Looking at rollcages for our Scratch Built Scrambler, we had considered numerous bolt-in and custom-fabbed weld-in designs. We found that there isn't a complete cage kit available for a full-length CJ-8 that doesn't utilize the factory rollbar. But we didn't want to use a factory rollcage because it's so massive. We also didn't want to sacrifice safety, so we decided on a complete weld-in rollcage from Gen-Right Off Road.
Gen-right doesn't offer a cage specifically for the CJ or the Scrambler, so we had to improvise with a YJ kit and fabricate rear extension tubes to fit the factory length of the tub. These kits are well designed and easy to assemble, and if your welding skills are spot-on, then you won't have a problem installing one of these cage kits. With some additional fabricating, these cage systems would probably fit in other vehicles as well. We employed the help of Off-Road Evolution, since the shops team has a full crew of experienced cage and chassis builders.
1. The complete rollcage kits...
1. The complete rollcage kits from Gen-Right include everything needed to assemble a cool safety cage. The kits are available for Jeep TJ, LJ, and YJ and come with easy instructions and a diagram showing where each numbered piece of the cage should be installed. We used the YJ cage because the dash pieces fit the CJ dash mounting points.
2. Professional tubing benders...
2. Professional tubing benders can be expensive, but for the home builder a decent used or new one can be found on the Internet for just a few hundred dollars. We needed to extend six pieces of 1 1/2-inch DOM tubing for the rear section of the Scrambler tub. The extension of the Gen-Right cage worked out well, and we ended up with an eight-point rollcage.
3. We figure you aren't going...
3. We figure you aren't going to attempt to build a rollcage unless you already have welding and fabricating experience. However, if you are just starting out, it's always important to have the right tools for the job. Properly notching tube can take some practice, but doing it right is important in the structural integrity of a rollcage.
4. The dash pieces (stanchions)...
4. The dash pieces (stanchions) were built from 3/16-inch laser-cut steel, and we modified them to fit the Jeep CJ dash panel. Legs bolt to the bottom of the dash panels, which are welded to a lower plate and then bolted to the Jeep's floorpan. Even though this is a weld-together rollcage, it still bolts to the floorpan. This make it easy to remove for powdercoating or painting.
5. We had to improvise and...
5. We had to improvise and modify some parts since the cage wasn't designed for the Scrambler. It's always easier to start with paper templates when fabricating new pieces. The templates will save time and money since there is less chance of wasting sheetmetal and tubing.
6. We've all heard horror...
6. We've all heard horror stories about a vehicle body coming off a chassis on a bad roll. A good cage is always attached to the frame. This can be completed by cutting a hole in the floorpan and welding tubing directly to the frame, or using this frame tie-in-kit from Gen-Right.
7. The key to a structurally sound rollcage is good tight joints. If there are large gaps between the two pieces of tube that are being welded together, then the joint won't be as strong. The joint shown here is perfect, and it will easily accept a proper weld. Also, while fitting the cage in the vehicle, tack the tubing together first. Once the rollcage properly fits in the vehicle, all the joints can be fully welded.
8. We are ecstatic with the way the cage turned out on the Scrambler. It not only looks sporty, but we don't have any doubts it will give us the safety we are looking for. Using the Gen-Right rollcage kit saved us a day or two of fabrication and gave us about three-quarters of the material we needed for this custom installation. Once we calculate where the front seats will be mounted, we'll weld in another center crossbar with safety harness mounting points.