roll cage advice

[tony fat lad]

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hi lads im going to make a external roll cage for my sj whats the best size pipe to use for strength and weight .any ideas or advice welcome cheers

[ScottieJ]

All depends on your budget and use really.

Do you need it to be comp spec?

[gamble63]

Any cage should really be made out of seamless tube and around the 2" mark, bent on a proper bender. But then i have seen people use scaffold tube and take a few hits. One of those things though that you kinda want it to work when you need it

[donkeychomp]

Scaffold tubing is fine but when you weld the tubes together make it strong...very strong. Buy curved parts seperately, don't try and bend the scaffold it will make it weaker. Bought a shed load of it a while back for my Vit and it cost maybe a tenner.

[ScottieJ]

Noooooo scaffold pipe and weld in corners are not fine for a cage I wouldn't put scaffold near a vehicle of mine.

Also 2" is overkil for a light suzuki, tbh the MSA specs are quite over kill but it's for an insurance point of view and it's better to be overkill than use a sub standard material....like scaff. In 2016 For some events all tube will have to be seamless under new MSA specs therefore you won't be allowed to use blueband.. Only CDS

48.3mm blueband (3.2mm all) however I would rather pay the extra and use 1.75" 10swg CDS tubing (44.45x3.25mm) they are the current minimum spec for competitions ran under MSA regulations.

However if it was just hobby use I would happily run a well designed 1.5" 10swg (38.2x3.25mm) cage, I think big tube (2") looks ugly on small SJs and its the design of the cage that makes most of the strength. That's why I prefer internal cages as you can easily fit cross braces in the B pillar, to do this with an Exo cage you need to go through the bodywork.
I have seen a few external cages bend in bad roll overs because of the lack of cross bracing, yes they can protect the bodywork a bit more but you need to fit a crossbrace if you can, it won't save the body if it twists in a roll, plus you can still easily destroy bodywork with an Exo, it's only protected where the cage is.

[Edweird]

I wouldn't put scaffold near a vehicle of mine.

[donkeychomp]

oops...oh well lol, too late now..