Well, tax time is here. I offered Frau Castle the opportunity to put new counter tops in the kitchen and she seems to be balking on it. Instead she mentioned maybe putting some money in to the Bronco. So, I checked to ensure she hadn't been replaced by an alien pod person. Nope. I'm thinking I'd like to drop some coin on a cage/roll bar so I can start pulling the top off during the summer.

So, let's see some of your cages/roll bars so I can figure out who I want to go with. I don't need anything too extreme. Looking at family style as eventually junge Frau Castle will be bouncing around in a back seat. Also, I want it to sit a little higher than most off the shelf stuff. The intent is to cut the sides off a stock hard top and bolt that to the top of the cage, as a safari like summer roof. Still needs to be able to accommodate a stock hard top in the winter though.

Thoughts?

I'd be inclined to go custom. It isn't that much more and you'll wind up with a nicer cage as a result. I've seen the work done by Scotty's team at Addicted Offroad in Greeley and it is top notch. They'll be doing mine when it comes time to add a family section to my cage. It is a bit far for you to have to drive, though.

Seeing as I have only seen your rig once, on the street, I'd like to know what your future plans for your rig are. If I were to do mine over, I know several things I'd like to do differently and things I'd like to remain, but they are due to off-roading experience, not so much a mild off-roader/street machine.

I'm with Justin - go custom, but that sounds like your plan anyway.

By the starting of this thread akaFrankCastle is hereby committing the funds of said tax return to improvement of the bronco in his ownership

There's it's in stone now...

Future plans: psuedo-frame off. Nothing wild. More mild than anything. I want to keep the truck as original as possible, while still adding some capability/comfort. Off roading will be nothing extreme. Don't expect me to be bashing in rockers and laughing it off. I'll likely stick with around a 3.5" lift. 33's. Drivetrain will remain mostly unchanged (axles and what not). The cage is more a safety and convenience type purchase. Safety increasing survivability in the event of an accident/roll over. Convenience being the ability to mount a safari style top as well as hard mount tools/accessories.

On the safety note: A few months ago on my way home from work i witnessed a rollover accident on I-25. The kid was driving an 80's CJ. Truck went over on the side and then end over end at least once. Over-braking and bad brakes (truck pulled hard right, tires hit and grabbed the rumblestrip when he laid in to the pedal) were the causes. End result: fiberglass top disintegrated; windshield caved in; crap thrown everywhere; no injuries. He had a cage installed in the Jeep. Not for any hard core stuff. He just wanted it. The cage stopped the windshield and frame from collapsing in on him. He also had a 5 point installed. As force of habit, he happened to be wearing 4/5 points when the accident took place. Had the cage and harness not been there, he wouldn't have been able to be standing there next to me less than a minute after the truck rolled, not a scratch on him.

In reality, it's not the idea of an on trail accident that is driving this decision. More the likelihood of stupidity on the part of other drivers in and around the city. A few recent examples of this type of stupidity include the recent roll over accidents and "fleeing the scene" cases that have taken place on I-25 south of Castle Rock and I-70 west of Denver.

I would contact CrawlerCreations - after seeing his work from mild to wild and the dream family cage in his current Bronco, I would definitely have him do mine. The idea of adding the exact custom options you want is awesome.

Joe & I built mine, you can swing by anytime you want and take a gander at it. It sits about as high as you can go inside the cab and as far out as it will go to the inner drip rails. As a matter of fact, I barely have enough room between the cage & roof rails to put a piece of cardboard between the two. If I had head liner, it would have to go inside the drip rail rather than the original mounting position, which is what I wanted.

It seems the "standard" cage design (if there was one) is to have a hoop up from the A, B, & C pillars (upside down U-shape) and then connected together at the top and sometimes at the bottom. That's how mine is done for the most part. It's held up fine in a flop, but it was an easy flop.

Anyway, if I were to start over, I think I'd prefer a "Halo" design where there is one continuous tube that wraps around just under the hard top and then bring your connectors up from the pillars to meet that. Reason for that is I have seen many people get hung up on trees while on the trails with the standard design above. If it's one tube, you can continue to slide by and not get caught by a bend hanging out there. Or start at the driver side A-pillar floor, come up to the top, straight back, cross-over to the passenger side and then back down to the passenger side A-pillar floor. Then connect with a dash bar and overhead bar above the windshield. I think this design also maximizes interior clearance, so you may want to look into it for that reason.

My other modification is one I've seen on a friends bronco in TX. Someone along the way narrowed the dash just enough to allow a tube to slide beside it just behind the windshield. This greatly improved egress and ingress because the tube didn't have to go around the dash.

Also, incorporating seat mounts is a good idea too. Envision mounting your seats inside the cage "cube", buckling in and rolling it off a hill. You'd want tube connectors side to side and back to front. So tying the A & B pillars together top and bottom and side to side is a good idea, even tho it may make getting into the back a little harder. Triangulation adds much strength. Ideally an "X" behind the seat to the B-pillars is ultimate in strength, but that makes getting into the back nearly impossible. So maybe add a 18" piece of tube in each corner to act as a gusset instead. Speaking of buckling in, if you tie your seats to the cage, you need to tie your seatbelts to them too. You just have to make sure your seat mounts are as low as possible so you're not raising your seat height so much you can't see stop-lights and are hitting your head on the overhead bars with every bump.

Finally tying it into the frame in two or four spots is a good idea, but only thru a bushing to keep noise down and still allow the body to move somewhat independently of the frame.

Remember that every bend in a tube weakens it, so while you can go around your dash and bend the tube forward to give your foot more room, that s-shape is a weak point. My cage is made from 1.75" x .120" wall HREW. I think that's a good size. I wouldn't go any bigger. You can use DOM tube to add a little strength.

There are four features of my cage that I have added and like.

Overhead CB mount, which also acts as a way to keep the bikini top/car cover from filling with water in the rain.


A way to mount a shovel:


And a way to mount my hi-lift:


I don't have a recent pic, but I have a bar that runs along my dash from A-pillar to A-pillar and built into it is a grab-bar for the passenger.

I just got done doing my cage for my bronco and there is diffentily some things that i would have done differently.I bought a 6point cage used i just added some bars across the top so if i ever roll my heads protected, Added a harness bar to the back, and a bar that goes over the dash to mount a grab handle for the passanger. Heres some things that i am going to do on the next cage that i build. 1st off i'd go custom, in the end it's going to be more to your liking of what YOU want in a cage not what YOU have to work around i'm 6'4 my cage is WAY to short for my head room that i would like. 2nd i would build the cage with seat mounts and tie the cage into the frame in certain points just like Jesus_Man said. that way if you DO have a violent roll everything is tied into to eachother, and you bassicaly have your own roll cage bubble. Theres a video of a guy rolling his bronco at tellico a couple of years ago that is the reason for building the cage tied to the frame and having the seats mounted to the cage.
Jesus_Man did'nt you post that roll up before??
Goodluck on the cage hopefully some of this info helps you. Matt.

Addicted Off-Road in Greeley did my cage and Scott and team did a great job...Custom fit for my needs, was quick and cost was spot on.

Here's our cage. I would change a few things of we were to do it again but overall am happy. Wanted something different and not wanting a big family cage nor just a roll bar so here is where we ended up. We also tied into frame for additional support.

I think I was picking up the viper built tranny the day you saw that rollover as I remember you telling me about it.

Here is mine. I would change some things too. I would do rear seat mounts integrated into the cage and front seat harness tubes.

A other vote for Scotty at Addicted....he did mine last year....here is the build...

http://www.addictedoffroad.com/index.ph ... cts_id=295

I went for max head room under the Bestop.

Zack, there are a bazillion ways to build a cage. The most important part of the build is to ensure you have enough bracing where you need it and to have enough triangulation to reinforce the main tubes/junctures. I have several examples if you'd like to check them out.
Joe

you also might contact chris hefty over at hefty fabworks here in town he does great work, and can help you figure out what would suit your needs best here's his contact info : (719) 499-8126

his shop is right up here by my house off of austin bluffs and templeton gap