Has anyone ever heard of and/or seen a pressurized roll cage? I know adding internal pressure would help in dispersing impact, but does anyone have any insight? Additional advantages and drawbacks are what I'm looking for.

 

It'll be a pain to fit, won't it?

 

The pressures you would have to run to make even a small difference in strength would be such that you couldn't afford the certification as a pressure vessel. And even if you managed to get it sealed without certification, you'd basically be sitting in a bomb. Get some decent Chrome-Moly tubing, have it tigged up nice and call it a day.

 

I had a tube bumper that I sealed up but I used it primarily for putting air in my tires after wheeling on the beach...Tj

 

I know that some formula one cars have an extinguishing agent stored in their roll cages (Haltron, I think) with nozzles with fusible plugs. A fire would melt the closest fusible plug, discharging agent, and extinguishing the fire.

 

It was a thought that was being batted around at the shop today. The original line of thought was to add a pressure gauge to detect leaks that may be from breaks in the metal. It doesn't seem like it would matter much, but a small crack in something like that could result in failure. Then I got to thinking about how you pack tubing with wet sand when it kinks during bending and so on. Figured I would take the 30 seconds to post something and see if anyone has had any experience with it.

 

I like that idea. Would be handy to be able to air up without a compressor.

 

Shouldn't be too bad. I do a lot of fabrication and working in the field I do, it's been drilled into my head for the past eight years about taking the time and doing it right. So much of what we do is tedious and time consuming, that it would just be like another day at the office.

 

That makes sense, then.