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Custom Roll Cage Ideas

Azbball11

Azbball11

Member
Member
City
Weston
State
WI
Looking to add a custom Roll cage to my '81. Current setup is the standard roll bar. Looking for recommendations and "lessons" learned when building your own cage.

1: Will more than likely design to use with a full soft-top and someday upgrade to a full hard top - As soon as I can find one!

2: Will look to build a center console into the cage or incorporate the Tuffy overhead stock console

3: Jeep is for on road 100%

4: Have full disposal of CNC benders, tube lasers, welding, and powder paint - (benefit of working at a tube bending company)


Any ideas, suggestions, input, Do's/Don'ts would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all!
 
Does the company you work for make roll cages for CJ7s or any similar jeeps? As you have probably seen there are no real options for full cages for the CJ8. The A pillar is basically the same for the 7/8 but the B and C mounting points and spacing are different.

I built a family style cage by adding on to the factory cage. Eventually I want to build a full custom cage. It takes a long time to scratch build without fancy tools. You probably could sell a fair amount of these if you made a poison spider/genright style lazer indexed DIY weld kit.
 
We do not do anything for roll cages, so everything will be custom. Once I have some designs, I will work on the mounting. Can make custom mounts as well so not too concerned with the fabrication, just interested in what works well and looks good.

Once I build mine, I will have prints and be able to plug in to our CNC benders to repeat , so hopefully I come up with a good design that may work for others. I see many cages max out at 2" due to limitations of bending equipment. I can bend up to 6" round so really no limitations.
 
There was a member(I can't remember who, somebody will) that had a really nice light blue/aqua CJ8 on here and it had a really nice looking custom cage. I think he was in the SE part of the country. It had some rectangles versus triangles in the design but it was very nice looking and would certainly offer much more protection than the stock bar. He sold his Jeep 5 or so years ago and I am not sure if still active on here.
 
The roll bar in my Overlander is a blend of CJ-7 / CJ-8. Diameter is 7. Front mounting points are 7. Rear mounting points are 8.

I plan to build a custom cage for my ‘82 that combines this style with the ’Rockhard’ front style and the ‘94 family cage YJ rear. A mashup of 3 different cage styles. That will maximize interior clearances. The stock cab portion of the CJ-8 takes up more space than the cab portion of the CJ-7. But with this hybrid style you cannot install a half cab hardtop.
 
This thread has some good design info. BW reposted pics at the end of the thread.

Postal full cage-with a couple twists

Ok folks, Saturday Matt (ScramFam) and I are taking our Scramblers to JCR in Kalamazoo for full cages. :D Here's what I was up to tonight in preparation: removing the passenger seat (back seat will come out tomorrow night after I drive it to get Laura from daycare, go to her swim lesson and...
www.cj-8.com
 
I think Manhattan's cage (power blue) was one of my fav's. I've been toying with the idea too. I'm likely not ever going to run a fully enclosed top; and was thinking something that had slider rails that came out and protected the sides of the jeep.
 
tower210 said:
I think Manhattan's cage (power blue) was one of my fav's. I've been toying with the idea too. I'm likely not ever going to run a fully enclosed top; and was thinking something that had slider rails that came out and protected the sides of the jeep.
Click to expand...
This is the one I was thinking of.
Screenshot_20240309_095158_Samsung Internet.jpg
 
Here's mine. One thing to factor in is the very rear hoop. If you want to run the Bestop full top, it comes down at a pretty good angle at the rear. I'm not sure it will work with my cage. Luckily I found a NOS Kayline which I ran for years and needed replacing. It is less of an angle at the rear.

Other things to take into account: Design it with the hard doors on. They extend in farther than soft doors. And you will likely lose access to the glove box unless you use stanchions like WFO sells. I designed a custom dash and swapped the right speaker and glove box position. You can see that in the pics below.

https://www.wfoconcepts.com/i-30504966-jeep-cj-76-86-roll-cage-stanchions.html

And I had to shorten the window crank to clear the cage with the door closed.

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1710036096852.png

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1710036817594.png
 
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Great stuff - appreciate all the input. Started to lay out some designs from what I like and what you have shown. I am sure once I get to bending and welding, there will be modifications along the way.

Thanks again and keep the ideas coming!

​

 
The best feature I did on mine was not running the front hoop through the door opening. I sandwiched the dash where the windshield hold brackets are. Then ran the lower half in front of the dash, to the floor, then the frame.

Pictures in my build thread ......
This was when it was an in cab cage.....later on page 29 is the full cage.

My old 1981 SCRAMBLER returns 25 years later

These are the valve covers, they are from summit http://www.summitracing.com/parts/cal-196192 They work............not bad for the price. the biggest problem is the gasket won't "stick" in the groove on the cover. So I had to glue my reusable gaskets with silicone to be able to install them. I...
www.cj-8.com
 
jbeemer said:
The best feature I did on mine was not running the front hoop through the door opening. I sandwiched the dash where the windshield hold brackets are. Then ran the lower half in front of the dash, to the floor, then the frame.

Pictures in my build thread ......
This was when it was an in cab cage.....later on page 29 is the full cage.

My old 1981 SCRAMBLER returns 25 years later

These are the valve covers, they are from summit http://www.summitracing.com/parts/cal-196192 They work............not bad for the price. the biggest problem is the gasket won't "stick" in the groove on the cover. So I had to glue my reusable gaskets with silicone to be able to install them. I...
www.cj-8.com
Click to expand...
I like your design and the ability to keep the stock lines and shape. I’m going to do my best to copy it.
 
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