Weld in cage kits

[Georgia Mike]

I finally got around to installing mine and ran into a few fitment issues. The rear spreaders land well rearward of where the photos & instructions on the website suggest they should be, and the main hoop is around 3" further back from where the instructions say to put it. This puts the seat belt bar pretty close to the back seat passenger's chest so I emailed them about it to see what's up. I don't know if I just got a set of front spreaders meant for a 2 door, or if I'm doing something wrong. Looking at Will's setup, his main hoop looks to be even further back than mine, but my front spreaders are a little closer to the dash so that could be the difference. How did your rear legs fit for you, Will?

Here are a few pics of mine.....











Compared to their (tiny) pictures.....

 

[94xjsport94]

Yep. I would trim some off the front and rear pieces to allow the harness bar to come up closer to the B pillar and let the rear actually get in the Jeep. I had to make mine work like that... I settled for having the harness bar behind that B pillar and plan to tie it in to the pillar soon.

 

[94xjsport94]

Also, you can no longer turn your headlights on. That's why mine is so far back.

 

[Georgia Mike]

Headlight switch works fine. It barely clears the bar on the side but it's fully functional. I got a reply from Eric at D&C. He agreed that something was definitely not right and that they indeed look like front spreaders meant for the 2 door models. He's sending me a new pair of front spreaders for a 4 door. We'll see if that works.

 

[94xjsport94]

Wonder if that happened with mine...

 

[Georgia Mike]

I dunno. We'll see what the new ones look like when compared to the ones I have now. I'll post pics either way for future reference.

 

[Georgia Mike]

I find that the older I get, the less of a hurry I tend to get in. :cheers:

This past Saturday I went to test fit the new front tubes D&C sent me....and they're the same! That puzzles me because I sent Eric photos of what I had going on, and he agreed that he thought I'd gotten the wrong front tubes, too.

So, since I'd already fully welded the originals to the foot plates, I pulled them out and shortened them to where I felt the main hoop should sit according to their instructions, and I am going from there. That was enough to slide the main hoop forward and out of the door opening, and more important to me, it gets the seat belt bar a little further away from my daughter's face.

New position:

 

[94xjsport94]

Interesting. Now your rear pieces should fit correctly. Should... How do you plan to tie it into the unibody both frame rails and pillars/ sheet metal?

 

[Georgia Mike]

I used giant 1/4" plates for the feet (4"x7") so I have plenty of surface area to weld to the floor, plus I'm going to add another plate under the body. They will bolt together through the floor and sandwich it, and the bottom plates will be welded to the rock rail legs. The lower plates will be offset to avoid work hardening and breaking the surrounding metal from the unavoidable flex that will occur.

I do plan on adding tie-in plates to attach the cage to the pillars, as well as gussets for the tubing intersect points. No "set in stone" plans for how I'll do the pillar tie-ins yet, but it should be pretty simple. Just weld a flat plate to the pillar, then weld the attaching plate between that and the cage.

As for the rear tube, I think I may wind up having to shorten it a bit too but maybe I can get away with not having to do it. I think I may try to take advantage of the extra tubes and see if I can use them to make it an 8 point cage. I *might* be able to cut them up and use them just behind the rear seat from the rear tubes to the floor, and add another cross bar. It may not work, but it's worth a shot!

 

[94xjsport94]

I added a C pillar to the tops of the wheel wells. I also added a spreader between the C pillar area. I have a huge X on the B pillar and no more rear seat so that wasn't in any of my consideration. My shock hoops and gas tank were all in my way when trying to install it.

 

[Lowrange2]

My b-piller is sitting flush against the factory b-pillar. My harness bar was custom made so it doesn't stick back nearly as far.

 

[Georgia Mike]

I added a C pillar to the tops of the wheel wells. I also added a spreader between the C pillar area. I have a huge X on the B pillar and no more rear seat so that wasn't in any of my consideration. My shock hoops and gas tank were all in my way when trying to install it.

Got any pics of the C pillar bar? I'd like to see that and how you tied them to the wheel wells.

 

[94xjsport94]

This is the only thing I have handy. I just bent some flat stock and welded it to the wheel well as a foot plate.

I wish my welds on the cage looked as good as I can do now. They're fine, they just look ugly compared to what I can do now


Edit: they aren't even in that picture. I am dumb.

 

[Georgia Mike]

Haha I thought it was me. I was like "am I stupid? Where are they?" lol

I know how you feel about the welding. I can weld bumpers, sliders, whatever together and the welds come out strong and looking decent. Throw a tube joint at me and it looks like a 2 year in China booger welded it together! That's why I'm tacking mine together and letting my buddy Aaron burn it in. I think he used to be a welding instructor, so I'm sure I'll learn some pointers along the way!

 

[Lowrange2]

Will, do you think Walmart has had enough time to recover their stock of pool noodles since you last visited?

 

[94xjsport94]

If I am comfortable my welds look good. My neighbor is a welder I went to high school with. I got him to come over and try to go over some I had ground down but he said they all looked fine so I guess that makes me feel better. Once I get all twisted up and with my MIG they just look rough. Oh well.

I had to go to K Mart for my noodles. The Carrollton location is in this state of if the Walking Dead was really happening that is what the store would look like. It's rough.