Daily Driver Roll Cages?

[philofab]

Any daily drivers here have roll cages? I'd like to put a cage in my car but I dont really want to give up my back seats. Without the bracing behind the front seats I don't think the cage does much. Anyone have pics of their cages? Do you like your cage or is it a pain in the arse? I'd like to see falcons or novas as they're closest to my rambler.

[GM Muscle]

you could put swing out bars on the sides and make a removeable cross brace behind the seats.. it probably wouldnt be legal but i would deam it safer than having no cage at all.. ill see if i can find some pics..

[sinned]

Remember that getting into an accident with a roll cage on a street car will in all likelihood lead to substantial injuries if not death. You are surrounded on 3 sides by steel tubing within 8" of your unprotected head and impacting any one of those tubes will take a 30MPH fender-bender into a major injury accident.

[GM Muscle]

good points... but theres always padding and such for roll cages..

[sinned]

Ahh, but hitting your head against a halo tube even with padding at a slow speed impact (less than 35MPH) will still tear it wide open. I can't even imagine what it would do at 70MPH.

Grab a peice of 1.75 and wrap it with cage padding, then swing a 10 lbs sledge at it (about the weight of your head) at a moderate pace, listen for the tell-tale ring of metal on metal.

My new job has be working on lots heavy equipment in really cramped quarters, I have hit my head more than once against the I beams or 1/2" plate we use...it hurts A LOT. Nothing feels quite like banging your noggin against thick solid steel, just something to think about.

Another point, if you have passengers and one of them bangs their head and causes serious injury...you insurance company is going to tell you you are on your own. They won't cover injury caused by a roll cage.

[GM Muscle]

Originally Posted by sinned

Ahh, but hitting your head against a halo tube even with padding at a slow speed impact (less than 35MPH) will still tear it wide open. I can't even imagine what it would do at 70MPH.

Grab a peice of 1.75 and wrap it with cage padding, then swing a 10 lbs sledge at it (about the weight of your head) at a moderate pace, listen for the tell-tale ring of metal on metal.

haha.. well just wear a helment around town

[awesometool]

I say no back seat for mine. I looked at it today and with the dse tub/quad it could work fairly easy but the dse roll bar leaves me 2 1/2" for lower seat to lock in and the stock one I have is 5" big problem. I sure buckets or something could work. After reading this post the rear passenger " my two kids" head would be about 2" from the cage. Ya I probably will not get in a collision but they ever got injured and I knew prior I would never forgive myself (LOL more room for some subs). here is a picture of it.

[tyoneal]

To All:

I've retracted this post because of time constraints, and the complications associated with this subject.

Without really going into depth completely, and boring the hell out of everyone, at this time it is best to drop the arguments that were being made one way or the other.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled program.

Thanks for your understanding.

Ty

[gt1guy]

Couple things.

BSCI Dual Durometer Padding is the padding you want to get. It's the best out there.

There have been some very good points made on this subject so far. I'd like to make one more. A roll cage is only one part of a system. The other two parts are a quality seat and the harness. You really do need all three parts for the system to be safe for you, and safe as far as it doing it's job. With a crap seat and a lap belt, the cage will probably kill you if you get in a bad wreck. That doesn't help anyone. But, it's also not the cages fault. You didn't stay where your suppose to be, you went flying all around. That's where the QUALITY seat and Harness come in to play. If your held in place so you can't fly around, the cage is no longer a danger to you. The system is complete.

And any part of a cage that any part of your body might be able to come in contact with, needs to be padded.


Kevin

[sjakes]

Wow guys, great thread.

A bit of history about me....

Raced dirt circle track for the past 10 years or so.

New hobby, I bought a 68 from a friend that the sheetmetal is mostly restored and I was planning on turning it into a Trans Am Race Replica Car. So my dilema now after reading all these posts..... wow, now what should I do. Without a cage, my project is a bust!

These were my plans. I have a 10 pt. cage being installed, although my plans were to leave the back seat in and I wasn't going to have the cross bar installed simply for the safety of any rear passengers, so I guess subconciously I was already thinking of this discussion, just didn't realize it. In all the haste, didn't even consider my safety or my passengers safety in front.

I'm really stuck of what to do.

This would necessarily be a daily driver, primarily car shows and "roll ins" But even at that, there was never a though of any safety equipment with the exception of belts.

Like I said, its a great thread, just feels like someone pizzed in my oatmeal.

I'm stuck right now....... hmmmmm......

Any insight?

Shawn

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