External cage extra weight

Ive heard a lot of mention lately about the adverse effects of heavy external cages on suspension sag, engine performance etc. Does anyone with a cage know how much extra weight is involved and whether the trade off with extra protection provided is worth it in their view. I already have the extra weight of all my underbody protection and ORA bumpers, winch etc. and wondered how it would affect my ORA +4.5'' springs and standard 108k mileage engine. Also would there be much welding/fabrication work to link a cage to my ORA bumpers and ORA rock sliders. My welding skills are reasonable bordering on mediocre!Cheers.

i carnt give u a number but i can lift my kap cage and carry it across works carpark
my winch is heavyer

Interesting. My winch is pretty damn heavy mind! So might go for it and make do til my engine blows up. Then il tell our lass "well have to get a 1.6 vitara lump"

Smoggy wrote: Interesting. My winch is pretty damn heavy mind! So might go for it and make do til my engine blows up. Then il tell our lass "well have to get a 1.6 vitara lump"

Does it have to be External cage?

Why not consider an internal cage? Perhaps OMP or something alike? It's a much stronger cage hence the diagonal tubing, and not as bulky looking as an external.

If you want an internal cage, which I have, it came from KAP Suzuki, but is made for them by Protection and Performance, and I think KAP have the exclusive rights to sell that cage design. P & P have an excellent reputation and their cages seem well made.

Yeah the internal cage is definitely worth a thought but if im honest i sort of fancy the body protection an external cage offers. Also from what people say there probably wont be a great deal of weight difference between the two.

As I mentioned above. One thing to consider, the extra protection of an internal cage has diagonal tubing which adds loads of strength. A external cage has none of this. So it's more for the looks and some body protection than real protection if the car rolls over or worse.

I have a KAP external cage, I do plan to fit a diagonal through the car. I believe Martin has done this.

Yes mine has a Kap external cage with an internal cross brace.

On its own the Kap cage, which welds underneath to the chassis rails, has too much flex and the car body hits the cage as it flexes. I have a flat plate welded to the central roof rollcage cross bar and this then bolts through to a flat plate inside the car where a cross brace goes through down to the chassis rail.

Martin

Sent from my HP Touch pad using Tapatalk

Im very intersted in exactly how youve done this Martin. Any chance you could post some pics please.

Yes, will do. Reminder me if I forget!

My Jimny would be a write off by now without an external cage.

You have to ask yourself what you want the cage for and get one made for that purpose.

If you want a cage to keep the trees off your shell - they will quickly write it off - you need an external cage.

If you want a shell that will save just you and your occupants but not the car in a roll and don't care about writing off your shell on trees, you want an internal cage.

If you want a cage that will keep the trees off youe shell and leave it relatively dent free and that will protect you and your occupants you want an external cage that has internal bracing through a sandwich plate in the roof and floor like Martin's or both an internal and an external cage both joined together through the roof and sandwich plates.

I would pop along to a local top level challenge event or a 4x4 garage that prepares people's car for top level challenge events - even if they are cars from the dark side and see how they do it.

Challenge trucks need lots of external protection and good protection for the occupants, so they have it all.

In the UK, a large number of offroad sites run through woodland and the trees like to play games with us offroaders and jump out into us!

Stuff the weight, consider how much a good second hand Jimny is when your roof is bent!

Mine only has an external cage and has been on it's side with minimal damage and my cage did flex and just kissed the bodywork.

When I drive the sites I go to, I think about what I'm doing before I drive bits and if I could go over. So far the only risk of going over has been up a steep hill and going over backwards. On those occasions I've used the winch on the front to prevent this, even if I could have driven it.

I am considering internal bracing but don;t want to loose my rear seats, so I'm considering a single diagonal bar which could be removable.

Kirkynut