External Cage.

I'm considering putting an External Cage (made of Blue Band Tubing) on my Jimny.

So, if you have an External Cage fitted - can you put up here a photo of it, and:

a) Did you do it yourself - was it easy?
or

b) Did you have someone fit it, if so where and how much?

Here's mine:

and again:

and again - as I'm stupid and can't get more than one picture on a reply:

I did not do it myself as there is an excellent fabricator in my club who has done a few Landrover cages before.

It is not easy though as unlike SJ's and Landrovers, the Jimny is not square and is very shapley.

For ultimate strength it would be all welded and have a sandwich plate on either side of the roof with a cross brace going through and down to the chassis.

In order to keep my back seats it has not got an inrenal cross brace and in order to make it removable in part or whole it has half of each joining bracket welded on either part of ajoining tube and they are bolted together, like a Protection and Performance Landrover Cage.

Things to think of are:

Having enough bends in the main hoops so they follow the shape of the sides of the car and therefore are not to square and scaffold looking.

A cross brace across the screen is necessary or the cage could push in between the front door and the rear of the front arch. If mounted too high blocks your view out of the screen and too low stops the bonnet opening. Mine is removable so sits in the right place but has to be removed to open the bonnet.

If possible have stays that run from the front hoop across the front wing to the front bumper, however, they should be braced across the front of the car to stop them pushing in onto the wings. I could not get these to work in theory due to the design of my front bumper so they have not been made and fitted yet while I see how I go. If you are not careful the braces will either block the lights or stop the bonnet opening. Rhinorays works, see his. My bumper front bumper sticks out the side enough to protect the wings on banks and is an early indication that I'm about to trash a wing!

Mine has brackets attached to the original roof rail mountings for that little extra strength - not alot, but a little!

It needs sound mounting to the chassis via sturdy rocksliders. In front of the front doors is an issue as too far back catches on the door and too far forwards you end up bending the tube back to meet the rockslider - taking strength out of the design. You have to be able to open your doors though so a conpromise has to be reached!

Paint it in hammerite as you'll constantly be touching it up and it's just the easiest stuff to use.

Without an internal cross brace - try not to test it's protection abilities as a roll cage as it will have massive leverage forces on those welds on the bottom of the main loops where they meet the rocksliders. I'm sure they'll cope but not in a big heavy roll, just a gentle plop on the side maybe.

My rear bumper is an ORA one, which looks pretty and does it's job as a rear bumper, however, standard mounts do not look that strong. My rear hoop is rivnutted to it and whereas I don't mind using the rear hoop to rub off trees, I can see the rear bumper as the weakest link here.

I am happy with mine as being more for tree rubbing but think the bumper may distort a little in a roll. You might want your rear hoop going to your chassis. This rear bumper could never deal with a rear winch without substantial beefing up in it's construction and how it mounts to the vehicle.

It was not designed for that though so I'm not knocking the bumper, it is well constructed for it's intended purpose.

See the link to the photos on my Gatescarth Pass thread to see how my cage saved my bodywork on a bank. It also later saved it against sticky outy rocks as we drove between tight banks and also once on the way down Chapel Gate. The Rocksliders have saved the sills on more than a douzen times now!

Right I've woffled enough. You may have guessed by now I am unable to do concise! These are just the things my fab guy went through with me and I have to say, he knows his stuff as he is an offroader and professional fabricator who likes things just right - not half cocked. My cage is not the bee all and end all of cages and has compromises built into it.

Kirkynut

Here is my external cage
It was on the truck when I bought it.
It was made by Safety Devices but I don't know how much it was

Made by me for others. One disco one jimny in last couple of months.
Both windscreen bars allow the wipers to sweep and the bonnet to open.
Jimny windscreen bar has 5 bends in it, just take your time and measure twice cut/bend once.

Cages unbolt from sliders and can be totally removed.












Would knock an 8 point bolt on like this up for you at £700.
You would require steel front bumper
Anyway at least this gives you some ideas from 4 point through 6 to full 8 point cage. You can also go the route of internal roll over bar or as mentioned a brace through the cab as additional saftey measures.