My Hybrid cage build
 

Like many others have realized, a hybrid cage offers a great balance of protection and room. Being 6' 5", that was definitely the way to go! I have some previous fabrication experience. During my senior year of high school, I built a front tube bumper, and that next summer I built a rear tube bumper.

Build thread including both can be found here:
https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f58/tu...r-build-61729/

Now, I am about to start my sophomore year of college and have been plugging away at my jeep all summer.

First project was to replace my rockers with 2x6" box.

Chop chop, buzz buzz, and here's what I ended up with, although I must have gotten too excited because I forgot to take pictures of the final product.


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Then earlier this month (for my 19th birthday), my parents split the cost of the tube required for the roll cage with me. (yeah, yeah, my story is out of order. Whatever)

Mmmmm

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So I finally got around to bending tube again. I got my external halo all bent up. It has a total of 6 bends in the loop above the windshield, all of which were kept in the same plane. It looks like 4 bends, but the two bends in the middle are actually two 2* bends to make 4*. 2* wasn't enough the first time around.

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The cage is going to be super tight to the body. I wanted to weld it to the drip rails, but I cant fit the tube in the bender to bend the "tree slider" portion to the contour of the drip rails.

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The other day i got one spreader done. Herra frush (or "hella flush" as most honda rice car drivers would say). 6 bends total.

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Looks a bit crooked but thats because I tweaked the halo on accident so it isnt sitting level in the picture.

Got another one done last night and will be wrapping up the D-pillar spreader tonight.

Any comments or criticism will be greatly appreciated! Hopefully you guys can point out some of the things I am skipping over or forgetting about.

I don't know jack about cages but I will be watching this closely
and thanks for the seal flange

Maybe someone with cage experience can chime in, but if the cage is welded in place that close to the body, how do you prep and paint the back sides of the tubes to keep them from rusting?

I'll be watching this thread...

Ha, no problem man, hopefully the seal works out for ya!

Snowman, thanks for the reminder. I will have to lift the cage up (sliding all the internals up through the holes in the roof) to weld and spray paint the underside. Good thinking! Thats something I likely would have forgotten about lol.

I did a bit on the cage after work in the past few days. I was planning on having a TON more done over the weekend but decided to hit up the Sierras instead.

Heres where she sits now, with all 3 spreaders done. Don't laugh at the mess on my hood!

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There will be a nice shallow bend along the sides to follow the contour of the body as well.

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Next step is to cut some holes in the roof! :D

After work today I got both B-pillars bent, and cut one hole in the roof before the battery died in my drill. Not much to say about todays work, but I'm getting pretty excited!

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I wont get much done tomorrow due to a birthday celebration for my aunt, but hopefully I will get the other hole drilled in the roof.

And as always any comments, suggestions, or even harsh criticism are welcome.

Sub'd! Coming out good!

Looking good! I can't wait to start my hybrid cage this winter

wow that is some tight wrapped tubing. Man thats SO close, if you do ever need to use it, hopefully if doesnt tweak and start blowing out glass. That windshield tubing is almost to close but you are doing some nice work. Cant wait to see your welds and how you tie it all in.

Looks good dude. How you going to seal around the vertical tubes going threw the roof?

Looks bud.from what I can see on the app.

Sub'd! Can't wait to see how it turns out you're following by plans for mine exactly so far

I'm pretty sure that's plenty far from the glass.

Tho, changing the windshield out is going to be a *****.

Thanks for the motivation guys!

To seal up the holes in the roof I will be using silicone. The tube fits in there so tight that I'm not worried at all about it leaking.

Anyway, I got the other hole drilled and the second b pillar slid in. C and d pillars should be a breeze.

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My goal when it's all said and done is to have enough room for me to sit in the back semi-comfortably. Sounds crazy with me being 6' 5" but even with the pillars as is with the seats all the way back, I have plenty of room!

sub'd

Looking good so far!
I hope to start on mine this weekend

also subed. Nice work so far.

I like the b-pillars following the lines of the seats towards the rear of the jeep instead of bowing out with the b-pillar like a lot of people do. Keeps the driver from ever smacking his face on it and eliminates stock seat belt interference if you don't toss a harness in right away

Thanks guys!

I didn't get anything done on the cage build in the past week or so because I was busy wheeling with NAXJA for their annual Sierrafest. I will make up for my lack of updates with some wheeling pics :thumbup:

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Hopefully that makes up for my lack of updates!

Dude this is *****in haha now get to work so I can see it done. Just a thought, are you gonna run a harness bar from pillar to pillar? Cause it give anyone sitting in the middle a o **** bar lol

damn them are some awesome photos.

Love those last two pictures.

where are those pics taken?, looks like a wicked place, love seeing 4x4 pics from other countrys,cage is looking good,alot of winch challange trucks over here have similar hybrid cage set up .www.4x4challenges.org.nz
vaughan

Thanks guys. The pics were taken in northern California near the Bear Valley Ski Resort. Beautiful area.

Got some done on the heep yesterday. Got the C pillars through the roof and I've been starting the base plates to mount them to the floor. Here's the progress.

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We are cleaning out the shed today... Which means we will be cleaning out the garage some more. Which means more room to build a roll cage! Progress today will be slow but I should get some work done on the cage.

Got some more done today and yesterday. Just getting all the small things worked out is taking some time. Im being super OCD, but hopefully it pays off in the end!

Got my triangulation all "done" with the exception of my C-to-D Pillar bar (just a single straight bar). Almost got it done but I fried my last hole saw.

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B-pillar mounting plate. The tube is not in the correct place, and I dont think the plate is either, but you get the idea. It will be welded around the edges and plug welded to the floor, then (eventually) holes will be drilled for frame tie in plates.

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Heres a suuuper crappy shot of my C-pillar plates. Plate wil be welded to the floor. Tube will be welded to the plate and to the side of the wheel well if all goes as planned.

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Rear shot:

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Random shot:

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Put it to work tonight holding down the garage floor.

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And finally, the to-do list.

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Im getting there! If all goes as planned, what you see now will all be welded in place by the weekend. Just need to get my hands on a nice welder.

its lookin nice , real nice haha. if you ever come down to so cal for any trails or events down here let me know i would love to check out the rig

looking good man. im glad i caught this.

dude you need to pick up your own welder now. Thats just a necessity with your skills

What kind of bender are you using? I'm planning on buying one and building a hybrid this winter. I'm thinkin about dropping the cash for a JD squared bender.

your cherokee is deliciously gorgeous

very cool pictures man. Wish there were sights like that near my neck of the woods.

Love what you're doing here... Nice truck.

Thanks for the motivation everybody!

Just snatched one last night. Millermatic 180 Autoset with a good sized (171cf) C/25 tank. Got it for a steal, and just in time!

Im using a Pro-tools 105 manual bender. I like it, but it has its quirks. some of the holes that the pins go through are getting wallowed out (probably user error) but other than that its great. I think JD2 has a better angle finder design as well. but the 105 was cheaper for me.




Well today ended up being a success. Got both A-pillars done. It turns out that a 35* notch fits PERFECTLY on the awkward halo bend. I have no easy way to pull the windshield though, so if the window breaks I will chop off the A-pillars and put in flanges or tube adapters.

Then I spent a bit of time getting everything centered and aligned and got it all tacked together so I could pull it off the jeep to weld up.

My buddy Zach ended up dropping by after work and wired up a 220v outlet for my welder, and then I spent a few minutes practicing on scrap before I moved on to the cage.

Everything is burned together right now. Tomorrow I will go back out and look for any little gaps I missed and will be grinding down/re-welding a spot or two.

Heres some pics:

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mmmmmm, welding with gas is lovely.

The part of the cage that you see plus the B and C pillars will be done and burned in TOMORROW. Here is a list of all that needs to be done tomorrow (this is mostly for myself):

-Look over welds and grind/reweld
-Cut and cap ends (by D-pillar) and grind smooth
-Clean off slag
-Paint
-Make A-pillar to cowl tie in plates
-Put halo back on
-Tack B and C pillars
-Weld base plates
-Lift through roof and weld B/C pillars
-Drop down and weld B/C pillars to plates.
-Paint interior tubes
-Burn A-pillars in to rocker replacements and cowl.
-Notch fenders to fit around a-pillars
-Reassemble (trim, carpet, front clip, etc.)
-Admire my work
-Leave for school

Dude you have amazing skills with bending tube. I started my cage a while ago and wish that i could have seen this before, i would have done a cage like this! Im definitely subd to this and can't wait for more pics!! good luck on finishing it! If i could ask one thing though, do you have a pillar supports? Or what is supporting the a pillars inside? Sorry if its a dumb question or i missed something

Thanks a lot! The A-pillars will be welded to my rocker replacements and to a plate on the side of the cowl. Instead of making a fugly cowl bar, I will use the cowl itself. With any luck, Ill throw up some pictures of that tomorrow for ya.

That'd be awesome help! i might tear out what i.have so far and start over with something like this! you should check out my build thread and let me know what ya think if ya got.time!

thats a nice welder to be using. Doin some good work there. nice welds

nice work man! anyone know what it would cost to have an XJ done like this? exo's are the way to go

Nice work bro, lookn good.

I charge around $1800-$2000 for a cage like this, and I am prob one of the cheapest shops in town.....



Awesome work Jeep450r! I like the look of hybrids. They just look right! But I beat my junk too much to not do full exos on mine!

Lookin forward to the final product.:cheers:

what happened with the progress?

^ got busy and just moved up to school. Heres the latest.

Heres a shot of how I tied the A-pillar into the cowl. Welded a plate to the cowl and then welded the pillar to the plate. the pillar didn't line up as well as I had first imagined (too far back) so I added a little brace to the front of it to even out the load on the plate.

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Then I notched the fenders around the tube both on the top and the bottom.

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And then I took some pics. Not all that great of pics since I was on my way out to school, but pics nonetheless. I will have some better pics to show when I get back from the Rubicon this weekend.

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Overall it fits pretty tight, except for the D-pillar spreader which sits a tad high for my liking.

My biggest concern right now is that the spreader that goes forward from the B pillar spreader to the front (center) above the cage is touching the roof right above the windshield. Hopefully it doesn't put any pressure on the window itself because if the windshield breaks, I wont be happy. At all.


Soooo... Waddaya think?

Looks fantastic man! I like it!