Build Vs. Prefab Roll Cage

[boxbronco]

I am looking at the cost of building vs. buying a prefabricated "family" style roll cage. I know that “building it yourself” in most cases cheaper, but I have to buy or borrow a tubing bender.
I have looked at many threads of custom build cages and I have to say, there are some very talented people on this forum. I do have some questions about these cages:

1. How much did it cost?
2. How much material did you use? IE Tubing, Plate
3. Did you use 2" .120 wall tubing?

Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[trailpsycho]

Short of you already having everything you need for building a cage...including experience; it would be best to order a kit of prebent tubing from one of the shops (Crab, Broncobob, Protofab, Complete Offroad, etc). They all have jigs and can provide you with excellent designs and fit. Much easier than starting from scratch. Otherwise, if your on the West Coast, call up one of the roaming cage crews and pick up a keg and some charcoal...those guys are really good too. Good luck.

John

 

[welndmn]

Building is always nice becuase you can make it how you want it.
I have a OLD wild horses Cage I have been welding to and changing over the last 5-7 years, to make it what I want.
But this summer I am selling it and making one with everything to fit me and my rig just the way i want.
If you have no experince bending tube, order 3x's what you need because you will screw up......... a lot. (I only need 2x's what I need, and I 've been bending for years, LOL)
For a family cage, I would guess about 150 feet is a good place to start.

 

[IronBenderII]

Building is always nice becuase you can make it how you want it.
I have a OLD wild horses Cage I have been welding to and changing over the last 5-7 years, to make it what I want.
But this summer I am selling it and making one with everything to fit me and my rig just the way i want.
If you have no experince bending tube, order 3x's what you need because you will screw up......... a lot. (I only need 2x's what I need, and I 've been bending for years, LOL)
For a family cage, I would guess about 150 feet is a good place to start.

I agree. There is a lot more to it than just sliding the tube in and putting a bend in it. I put a minimum of 20 hours into each cage...

If you don't have the equipment/experience it's a no brainer. Buy a cage or have one built for you...

Jack

 

[eds66bronco]

if i didn't already have a rollbar and front cage kit in the bronco, it would have been cheaper to order a complete cage. i bought the smity bar and front weld in cage for about 300 when i first bought the rig. i spent another 350 for materials and bending time at a local fab shop for the family cage rear section. most all the cage vendors have kits that you can weld together. as cool as it would be to own a bender, it just wasn't worth it to do myself. if you've got pics of what custom things you want, again, most of the vendors will do custom add-ons. you are looking at $600+ for a bender and die plus tubing costs. if you plan on starting a small side business or want to build a tube buggy then go for it!

 

[BoltBuster]

Two ways to look at this, What you want and how fast you want it, and how do you want it to look or just want function.

The best thing for me is to either pay the local drag guys to assemble one bought or have them custom fit one in and be done with it.

Since I dont own a welder or want to take on the task it, would be easier for me to have some one else to do it and well worth it for there time. I was considering a Crab Family Cage built or assembly required.

Now Im going out on the deep end to get it because Crab is on the West Coast and Im on the East and shipping charges are going to cost me about what a get here. But I like the look of his functional cage.

 

[daddyg]

I just got a Crab cage from the mass buy. I am in the South East and shipping was less than I thought. I believe shipping was between $150 and $200 for a fully welded family cage.

 

[eds66bronco]

shipping was going to be over $600 to get one here to Vermont. i was a bit shocked, but that's what i get for living in the sticks

 

[Steve]

I just finished building a new cage from scratch. Pics and description are in this thread. I had never bent tube before, but I have done a lot of metal work and welding, and I didn't waste much. I had a friend who loaned me his air/hydraulic powered bender and a notcher; I had the welder and a chop saw. Here's some summary info:

I bought 3 sticks (~18' ea) of 1.75" .120 wall DOM, 2 sticks (20' ea) of 1.5" .120 wall HREW and 1 stick (20') of 1.25" .120 wall HREW. The A pillars, B hoop, C pillars and front crossbar are DOM, rest of cage is 1.5" HREW except for seat mounts which are 1.25" HREW and .25" plate. All of the tube and about 8' of 2" x .25" plate for seat mounts ran me about $475. Powder coating was another $100. I didn't waste much tube at all, and I have a couple of feet of 1.5" and about 8' of DOM left. There's between 100' and 110' of tube in the finished cage. I had an estimate of $1800 from a shop to build the same cage for me, so I saved lots of $ doing it myself. All told I probably have around 40 hours of my labor in it.

Should you do it yourself? If you want to tackle that kind of a job (I had fun building mine) AND you trust your life to your welding skills, go for it, especially if you have access to borrow a bender. It really depends on your individual situation, skills and finances.

 

[SteveL]

when i saw what they wanted for cages I bought a bender and built 2 cages for less than it would have cost to buy 1(including the price of the bender). Plus they fit how I want. It took about 60' of 2" .120 per cage that was about $75 each. The crab cages are a great deal for the price. When I was looking most family cages were abot $1000.

 

[boxbronco]

Wow, I love this forum, lots of good info. I am still up in the air about what I am going to do. I have friend that has a nice electric over hydrualic bender. He said he would help me with the cage. I am going to help him with a cage in a landcrusier this weekend. I want to see what is involved (also want to see his work).

Thanks for all the input

 

[boxbronco]

I just found a post from Feb 2003, regarding mounting a roll cage to the body vs. to tying it to the frame. In the post was link to this video. It made me rethink building a cage myself.
http://meb.bronco.com/past_events/fawlcrawl_02/nick_hopman/Drew RO.mpg
I am sure most of you have seen this. In the Feb post it was said this guys cage was not tied to the frame, so when he did roll, the cage punched through the floor pan.

I watched this video and thought to myself how many times have I been out wheeling in far worse areas with out a second thought to the danger. It just goes to show that you could roll at anytime.

 

[Steve]

I just found a post from Feb 2003, regarding mounting a roll cage to the body vs. to tying it to the frame. In the post was link to this video. It made me rethink building a cage myself.
http://meb.bronco.com/past_events/fawlcrawl_02/nick_hopman/Drew RO.mpg
I am sure most of you have seen this. In the Feb post it was said this guys cage was not tied to the frame, so when he did roll, the cage punched through the floor pan.

That's why I mounted my seats and harnesses to the cage, not the body. (I also mounted the B pillar to the frame.) If I ever do have a roll violent enough to separate the cage from the body/frame, I'll still be inside the cage strapped to the seats by a 5 pt. harness.

 

[Ponyboy69]

Dose any one know what happend to the guy in the roll over? ?:?

 

[Flash69]

I just found a post from Feb 2003, regarding mounting a roll cage to the body vs. to tying it to the frame. In the post was link to this video. It made me rethink building a cage myself.
http://meb.bronco.com/past_events/fawlcrawl_02/nick_hopman/Drew RO.mpg
I am sure most of you have seen this. In the Feb post it was said this guys cage was not tied to the frame, so when he did roll, the cage punched through the floor pan.

I watched this video and thought to myself how many times have I been out wheeling in far worse areas with out a second thought to the danger. It just goes to show that you could roll at anytime.

It looked like he only had one hoop behind his seat. Looks like thats not enough for wheelin.

 

[Flash69]

I bought 160ft of 1.75 120 dom. Me and my son built 2 full cages with it.Still have 40 ft left. Im going to use some for more bracing. We had never built any and we didnt mess up any pipe. We made sure we measured right and put a lot of thought into the bends and how we put the pipe in the bender. Take your time and you can do it. If you have a buddy that will loan you the bender and help you too you wont have no problems and will save a lot of cash. You will have a lot of fun and satisfaction.