Health and safety Roll cage's

a roll cage is only as good as the person who made it. if it is badly designed and welded badly it could be more dangerous than not having one at all. my jimny has a kap external but it is not as strong as an internal one with a x brace and rear stays on to the chassis directly, but then you dont get the body protection so ideally a combination of the two is needed or just scrap the body and trayback it as i might do in the future also they add weight and could make the car more top heavy and liable to rolling over

ed

Unless you have a soft top, you can then fit a bikini hood this lets you cross the rear at an angle which makes the cage very strong. Internal braced hooped is very easily made. Can be a little tight if you still have rear seats, but still possible.

I have though about doing this except keeping the body protection, but i would want it to be MSA legal
like this

How about sandwich plates through the roof to the cage and the floor to the chassis and a single diagonal that is removable to make the seats usable when it's removed.

Not as good as a cross brace but a good compromise and keep usability of the rear seats and thus the car. It's what I've been discussing with my fabricator friend and it's doable but I don't have the money right now to do so, nor the rear winch or the rear locker or the . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kirkynut

for me the seats are not a problem as mine is 100% offroad and will be used as a challenge truck, but i need a winch first

suzuki_ed wrote: for me the seats are not a problem as mine is 100% offroad and will be used as a challenge truck, but i need a winch first

If you need no seats and you're building a challenge truck you can have the cage just as it ought to be and I would listen to Brian and use his experience in cage building - he clearly puts thought into what he's doing - rather than just getting on with it.

If you have a hard top life is made a little more tricky but sandwich plates can be used as I have suggested and they can link up to rear stays which can be made at the correct angle - I think 45 degrees is strongest but see the MSA specs for guidance - perhaps via the AWDC website.

An internal hoop for them to connect to with a cross brace would be ideal and it needs to be as close to behind the driver's head as possible - as it's him (you I'm guessing) that you are trying to protect.

You could then use that cross brace to connect a centre winch to with a hole in the roof for the rope to come out of to a doughnut fairlead.

This is obviously moving on somewhat though as it sounds like you need your frint winch yet - let alone a rear and then centre winch.

I would love to see a full challenge spec Jimny with front, rear and centre winches and at least a rear difflock.

As much as I respect Rob Butlers Trayback Jimny - it's not really a Jimny anymore - I'd love to see a true Jimny Trayback Challenge Truck with 3 winches, front and rear difflocks, using the same axles, shell and chassis it came out of the factory with, just modified and improved.

As far as I know, it hasn't happened yet like it has with SJ's. I don't know why - whether it's to do with money, the image of the Jimny as being a little softer than the SJ or what - but I shall dream on as I don't have the money either!!!

If I were to win the lottery - it would be a challenge spec Jimny I ould build though - not a 100' Defender Hybrid Trayback thingy like everyone else.

I'd have to learnt to weld first of course - I need another beer . . .

Kirkynut

for the AWDC challenges that I'm planning on doing (the XL) all i need is a roll bar with a X brace in which i will do for now and keep the external for protection. and i think there hasn't been a traybacked jimny with the same shell is because body wise they are a big difference to a sami but there is one that could be made into one i saw some pictures of it doing howlin wolf a few years ago but that was only a truck cab

Kap have been doing some truck cabs by making a chassis cab effectively and then adding the truck bit on the back, so by using a KAP chassis cab and making your own tube affair at the rear - voila - you have a tray back!

If I had the money, I would ask Darren to make me a chassis cab body and create a trayback in this way.

The next best thing would be a soft top but without the top and a good cage made up around the rear to protect the corners and the cage could be used for the centre winch and the rear winch could be mounted on the chassis through onto the rear load bed. I've not seen this done either and it is really quite simple.

No different to what many have done to an SJ either.

Kirkynut

I've been dreaming on a truck cab! My jimny body is well battered (its been on its side) and this would be a perfect solution, with new wings/doors ect to look a minter. But I wont need a cage of extreme capabilities. But who knows where I may take it?

would love a roll cage but

1. price
2. hard to find good ones plus safety devices and other manufactures of cages don’t make them so they are not msa registers so cant be used in competition

3. if you have a roll cage you wont get cheap car insurance

Would a roll cage make much difference on a heavily modded jimny?

fatwelly wrote: would love a roll cage but

1. price
2. hard to find good ones plus safety devices and other manufactures of cages don’t make them so they are not msa registers so cant be used in competition

3. if you have a roll cage you wont get cheap car insurance

Frank Pickles does insurance for modified 4x4s only (not std) and are pretty cheap including ones with roll cages