Jeep Wrangler Forum banner

cage design, seats and harnesses - looking for good ideas

18K views 103 replies 26 participants last post by  Rawkon 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi,

I've scheduled with our local fabrication shop guru, John - owner of www.HunterOffroad.com to build me a complete roll cage from scratch.

We won't start for another 5 weeks so he's given me a homework assignment to get ideas for what I'd like to have done.

It will be made to fit with my bestop supertop and it will have a cradle tied into the cage for the front seats. Aftermarket seats are part of this project so if you have good recomendations then please let me know. He gets 15% off of Corburu but I only felt comfortable in the ultra wide. I'm also considering mastercraft and anyothers you can think of.


The only thing I know for sure is that I want the cradle for the seats, a horizontal harness bar behind the seats and no tie ins to the windshield (cleaner looking and makes for quick windshield removal). And I won't be reusing any of the stock cage.

Post pics of your favorite cage designs or describe good ideas you may have seen or thought of.

I'm thinking of asking him to tie it into the frame using polyperformance stuff.

John is the best there is at tube bending and welding so I'm pretty excited. Not as cool as Jack's soon to be 10" but still cool. :D

fast back design? not sure how that would look but he mentioned it as an idea since I don't use the back seat anymore.

Thanks,

Ben
 
See less See more
#32 ·
Belts - remember a 4 point harness will hurt you bad in a crash. The lap belt has to be around your hips to be effective. If the lap belt slips higher up above your hips, into the soft part of your belly (the shoulder belts are pulling it up,) your stomach, spleen and other organs get smashed. That can be deadly.

That's why the 5th belt, the belt between the legs, it holds the lap belt down in position. Plus, it the lap belt was on loose, you can actually slip under it.

Most folks say they will, but don't put on the crotch belt.

That's why 4, 5 and 6 point racing belts are not legal for street use.

Check with your local authorities - most go by DOT rules.

Notice the shoulder belt on a stock harness attaches to the mount, not the belt like in racing belts. Problem with them is you can slide out the side of the shoulder belt.


Remember too - in a crash the body can move up - the body mounts break - if belts are attached to the frame but the floor and seat raises up - YOU - your body - is holding everything together. They make gopher traps like that.
Picture what will happen in a bad crash or roll, then prevent it.
 
#34 ·
The perception is the 5th belt is a nut crusher, but in reality it isn't.
When the lap belt is held in the proper position, it's impossible to slide underneath. Your bones would have to be pulverized into a liquid first - but then it wouldn't make much difference.
Unless you've put the whole thing on super loose - but any safety system used wrong can be a hazard.

The idea of a cage it to create a safety capsule. If part of the safety system, like belts, is attached to the body, and other parts are attached to the frame - what happens when the body mounts break loose from the frame and it shifts - even if it's only an inch or two?

You see all the time where guys attached the lap belt and seat to the floor, but attached the shoulder harness to the cage. Totally unsafe!

Notice a stock system the cage is attached to the floor, so are the lap belts and the seat. If the frame separates from the body - even taking the drivetrain with it - you are still in the safety capsule.

If one doesn't believe that bodies come loose from frames, take a look at crashed cars in a boneyard. The mounts break, the body shifts, then sometimes it settles back, so look hard.

NASCAR is different - they don't use convertibles or glass tops. The cage is entirely inside the body - trapped there.
 
#35 ·
You see all the time where guys attached the lap belt and seat to the floor, but attached the shoulder harness to the cage. Totally unsafe!
Notice a stock system the cage is attached to the floor, so are the lap belts and the seat. If the frame separates from the body - even taking the drivetrain with it - you are still in the safety capsule.
All the roll cages i've seen are attached to the body, not to the frame therefore whats the problem with connecting the shoulder harness to the cage? Also the stock shoulder belt system is installed to the (stock) role cage also isnt it?
 
#36 · (Edited)
jeep is still in the shop. progress is being made :) The seat are bolted to flat steel plate/strap that is welded to the cradle. The cradle is welded together into the cage, which will be attached to the frame.

FYI, i am going to use 5 pt harness, since it came up in one of the above posts. We are ordering those soon. Had to measure and position the seats and horizontal harness bar and X that go behind the driver and passenger seats first before deciding on which securing method to go with for the harness... wrap, tabs, etc. the harnesses will be attached to the cage.

John had to rework the overhead tube work because it came too close to my skull after the seats placement was decided on. Things were relocated and new bends were added to give more clearance.

The emissions stuff (evap canister and LDP) have been relocated into the tub ontop of the rear wheel well.

John did some cool customizing of my new genright rocker guards to have them flow/look better with my custom front tube fenders. He's got some pretty cool shop machines, an Ironworker called The Paranha that can cut and punch thru 1/2" steel like it was butter.

He's working this weekend on the rear of the cage, additional reinforcement and stuff. The comp cut is going to be last after all the other stuff is done. Then I'll drive it over to AO for the 10" stretch.

I'll post more pics next week but here are a few.





 
#41 ·
saw a lamborghini convertable driving home today so I have to post the pic.


here are more new pictures of the jeep cage.






relocated emissions stuff from underneath the fender to ontop of the wheel well to get ready for the stretch






I'm getting out my Summit catelog to order up the harnesses
 
#44 ·
Thanks man, yep, getting the stretch same as Jack's and Lance's jeeps. I talked with Joe about coilovers but I'm going with regular coils all around initially.

I've got okay/decent axles under it now with the 35 spline shafts in the rear. If I'm not stupid crazy with the jeep they should last forever... the ring and pinion are a different story but if I'm careful they should last a long time too. Up front is the tj d44 but with chromo 30 spline shafts and yukon superjoint u-joints. Its the balljoints I'm mostly worried about.

If I breakdown alot because of axles I'll probably eventually go D60 or hi-9. 14bolt are heavy and hang super low.
 
#46 ·
I'm on smallish 38's. lol. I was thinking of stepping down to 37's but with the stretch in the works and the added room I think I'll keep the 38's for awhile longer. we'll see how the axles and driveline hold up to it. double D30's... can't go wrong with that :D
 
#49 ·
Today I ordered the belts/harnesses

Crow -
5 pt 5 way H setup
3" shoulder and lap belts with extra padding sewn in
pulldown duckbill latchlink
tension spring option added to one of the harnesses (for drivers seat)
all grey in color
tab/bolt mounting points... but for the shoulder belts I'll be wrapping them to the harness bar.

I ultimately decided on the good ole latch & link buckle instead of the easier to use camlock design. I've been reading alot (and most of it may just be myth and hype) that the camlock can get jammed with dirt and mud, etc and fail to lock or unlock. SO I went with the latchlink just to play it safe.

Should arrive Friday :D so cool, can't wait! Getting close to completion
 
#50 · (Edited)
woo hoo! My friend Cole at 4wheelers Supply in Phx (www.4wheelers.com) called my yesterday to let me know my Crow 5pt harnesses had arrived and so I drove over to pick them up.

These are "duckbill" latch which I hadn't seen before but had read about on pirate www.pirate4x4.com/tech/billavista/Harnesses/. that article is very interesting by the way. some of it may be myth and hype from a keyboard warrior especially about the camlocks but very informative none-the-less. The harnesses I ordered are just like the normal latch link design except the belt adjustment is built into the latch/buckle instead of midway on the belt. Gives more elbow room when pulling down to tighten the belt straps. It also makes the latch/buckle about 50% larger than a normal latch buckle since the belt doesn't tapper down to a 2" tab before reaching the latch.

Hunter is installing them this weekend and also finishing up the welds. Its looking killer but I won't post pics of the cage again till its all done and painted. Attached is a closeup photo of the duckbill latch/buckle.
 
#58 ·
John, the owner of Hunter Off Road here in Tempe is one of the most SOLID fabricator in the US. He's a one man shop that has been open for over 10 years.
 
#57 ·

^^^ I think that would be considered overkill even for the pope!

and to answer someones question: the point of the cage on top is protection for his weird pope hat
 
#62 ·
Yeup, one and only one. He's usually in pretty good demand so at times he might be working on a few different projects at the same time. But he does such killer work that no one cares about waiting an extra day or two.



Oh, and White. What cages are you seeing that have extra tube behind the front seats? Those are only going to be for harnesses and I've honestly never seen bolt in cages that have those stock. Also you can also leave them out if you don't want them.
 
#60 ·
The cage fab is looking great.

Not to hijack his thread but has anyone seen a cage that still allows for use of the rear seat? Tyhe after market ones I have looked at all have the cross bars behind the front seats that pretty much eliminate access to the rear seat (such as a 2 door has anyway) unless your loading midgets.
 
#61 ·
Genright makes a great cage. they ship you all the pre-bent tube work and you weld it together. check their website to see it. it does not interfere with the rear seats or access to them. Its the cage I was considering before I decided to go all custom.


go go power rangers!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top