11 replies to this topic

[Mart!]

i'm looking for pics of a roll cage installed in a long wheelbase mini - estate, traveler, etc.
thinking of making a custom one and incorporating the rear top damper mount to the rear cage legs...

advice and helpful tips welcomed!

[cookie4343]

I think your like me cant sleep to many ideas plans going around my head there is a cage in a clubman estate on the forum somewhere ill try find it
link http://www.theminifo...howtopic=109961

Edited by cookie4343, 14 January 2009 - 04:19 AM.

[dave21478]

My advice would be to not make it like the one in that link.
Looks to me like it would be of very minimal use in a roll-over, and unless you drive around with a helmet on all the time, just another thing to clatter your head on in a lesser accident.
Lack of proper triangulation, no diagonal bracing, cut-n-shut angles instead of bending the tube....I would be interested to know what spec tubing he used, and see some close-up pics of the welding just to complete my horror.

[998dave]

I'd have though buying a triangulated hoop, and front cage assembly from safety devices would be a good start, then either modify a rear cage, or build your own based on the safety devices standard rear cage.

The one in that link looks like more of a frame, there's no point going bast the rear arches as there's nothing to protect.

Dave

[mini_mad69]

I don't know enough about estates etc, but wouldnt it be possible to use a standard mini rear cage and then just extend the front section to meet the front? or is the rear arch assembly different?

[998dave]

I don't know enough about estates etc, but wouldnt it be possible to use a standard mini rear cage and then just extend the front section to meet the front? or is the rear arch assembly different?

It's the rear arches that are moved further back. Most cages bolt to front bulkhead area, bottom of B-pillars and into rear wheel arches.

D

[Mart!]

thanks for the link, but i'm aiming for something a bit more ummm, professional looking. thinking of having the regular hoop (like Safety Devices), with the 2 side legs extended all the way to the rear wheel arches. here's a quick photoshop sketch i made:



i think i would make the X and the horizontal bar linking the bottom of the 2 front legs removable, otherwise the installation might be a bit hard... the rear seat will not be used.

what do you think?

[dave21478]

That design is much better. If I were making one, I would start out with a bought normal rear cage, so I had the main hoop pre-bent to shape, then I would modify the rest.
Im not sure you would really need the shorter lengths that go up from the feet of the main hoop rearwards and join in the barces from the rear turrets? but I would also consider putting in another diagonal from the bottom of the left main foot where the horizontal bar meets it up to the corner behind the drivers head.

Whats the car to be used for? If its road use, roll cages have one big drawback I hinted at earlier - whilst the help prevent the shell collapsing in a serious crash, they also provide something very solid to burst your head open on. Ways around this are to either wear a helmet all the time - impractical and silly for road use, or to have bucket seats and 4-point harnesses that will keep you strapped firmly in place and away from the cage in a shunt. Again, this has disadvantages for road use.

As an absolute minimum, have the cage padded properly. It frightens me the amount of people who think pipe-lagging is up to the job! any motorsport accessory place will sell proper FIA approved crash padding for a cage.

[Guess-Works.com]

I'm going to be having a similar problem when I consider caging my van, the main problem will be, I still want to be able to use the rear load bed. May end up putting a bulkhead in behind the drivers seat with the triangulation behind that... obviously the cabin area is the post important part.

However, my main aim is not protection in a rollover situation, it's so I can mount a rack on the roof which you can stand on, hence will be bolted through the roof skin into the cage.

[dave21478]

I'm going to be having a similar problem when I consider caging my van, the main problem will be, I still want to be able to use the rear load bed. May end up putting a bulkhead in behind the drivers seat with the triangulation behind that... obviously the cabin area is the post important part.

However, my main aim is not protection in a rollover situation, it's so I can mount a rack on the roof which you can stand on, hence will be bolted through the roof skin into the cage.

Interesting. I asume you are making the external rack with a floor strong enough to supprt the load and your not walking on the roof skin? What sort of weight is it to take? A couple of people for camping reasons, or 5 fat chicks riverdancing? The pillars in a shell are pretty strong as they are. If I were doing that, I would look into triangular gussets that fit to the inside of the skin and brace down the a, b and c pillars. This would provide your external mounting points. The weight would be directed vertically down each pillar. I would tie each pair tgether with a horizontal bar to prevent them tending to bend outwards.
Please excuse the crapness of the paint diagram, Im on a laptop with no mouse...
This sort of affair repeated at each pair of pillars...


Plus, for extra support, a vertical bar could be mounted behind the tail lights between loadbed and the gussets which would add a lot of strength without affecting access to the load area.
I would say that, combined with a halfcage behind the seats as shown above, but minus the X between the rear legs, and including the missing diagonal I talked about should do the job. The mainhoop of the cage would also be tied into the gussets.

[Guess-Works.com]

Something along those lines, it may well end up also supporting the rear suspension, and acting more like a space frame, with the actual 'body' of the van just being a skin, but that's yet to be decided upon, what fashion of rear suspension is not yet decided . The front cage is to be taken through the bulkhead (between the twin bolts) and coming over and down to meet the front of the subframe ( will have a carbon front )

Edited by GuessWorks.co.uk, 15 January 2009 - 12:14 PM.

[Mart!]

i've been looking at it last night and i think i'm going to start with a regular cage (hoop + 2 wheel arch bars) with a possible diagonal. i've been thinking about removing the braces for the rear seat back and everything to make the sketch posted earlier work, but i think it will just look bad. i'll keep the rear seat, make the rear arms shorter so they come up at the wheel arch before the seat back "sides". i will make a the mounting plate of these bars go all the way back to the top damper mount - for added stiffness as i plan to use coil-overs.