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Bender die questions

TerryD

TerryD

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I'm going to begin saving for a JD2 32 bender. The reviews are all good on it and I need a cage in the K5 and the pending G-Body Wagon project (if I can ever find a car).

Dies are expensive and I was wondering if you were going to buy ONE set of them to do a cage for both, what would you get? I may be able to swing two sets eventually, but at this time I'm wanting to try to just have the one set.

Both will be full "family" cages as I have three little girls who like to ride with Daddy.
 
1 3/4 minimum for a K5 because of the weight. A car can get away with 1 5/8 or if it's a light car 1 1/2. Thats only 1/4 difference so all around best size is 1 3/4. It's not huge. My K5 cage is 95% 2" DOM with 1 3/4 for the seat bridge and rear seat mount.
 
I would do a 1 3/4" for the K5 and 1 5/8" in any other car application. Yes you could use 1 3/4" in a car but IMHO that is too big for a car as things start getting tight since a car is smaller and you're looking for comfortable "family" space.
 
1.75 for one die, the more important aspect of 1 3/4 vs 1 5/8 is how much space the bend takes up. Going off memory I think they are both 5.5" clr meaning the bend will take up roughly the same space. So the bigger die is better for the 4x4 yet still works for the car
 
well, I'll be the difficult one.. ;)

I'm so glad I went with 2" on 95% of the K5.. sure, 1.75 is fine safety-wise on a well-built cage, but that extra bit of beef of the 2" makes it look vastly better than 1.75 imo...... the 2" just looks stout... now that mine is done, whenever I see one in 1.75", it just looks disproportionate to the vehicle imo.. like the wrong size tire to certain vehicles... and technically, 1.75" is borderline for that size vehicle, thus the term "well-built"..

I went with the smallest radius I could get for my pro tools... tho i only went for the 90 dies, as iirc the 180's where more money... the only time I might have needed the 180 was for the stinger on my bumper, but even than, I managed with just the 90..

all that being said, 1.75" is probably the best size to go with for best overall use for most people... my seat bars are 1.75, but straight..... my 2 dies are 2", and 1.5" for the console bars.. tho I definitely would like a 1.75 at some point...
 
ryoken said:
well, I'll be the difficult one.. ;)

I'm so glad I went with 2" on 95% of the K5.. sure, 1.75 is fine safety-wise on a well-built cage, but that extra bit of beef of the 2" makes it look vastly better than 1.75 imo...... the 2" just looks stout... now that mine is done, whenever I see one in 1.75", it just looks disproportionate to the vehicle imo.. like the wrong size tire to certain vehicles... and technically, 1.75" is borderline for that size vehicle, thus the term "well-built"..

I went with the smallest radius I could get for my pro tools... tho i only went for the 90 dies, as iirc the 180's where more money... the only time I might have needed the 180 was for the stinger on my bumper, but even than, I managed with just the 90..

all that being said, 1.75" is probably the best size to go with for best overall use for most people... my seat bars are 1.75, but straight..... my 2 dies are 2", and 1.5" for the console bars.. tho I definitely would like a 1.75 at some point...
Click to expand...


We're all saying basically the same thing. You're not being difficult. I went with the 2" soley based on Score off road rules of vehicle weight. Based on the weight of what 99% of most K5 are at when fully built, Score says anything over 4K and it's MANDATORY 2" DOM tube. We all know a K5 is in the 5800 to 6500 lb range. I agree I like 2" for a full sized rig. I said 1 3/4 since it sound like he only wants to spend the coin on one die....for now anyways.
 
OK, so if everyone agrees that 2" is pretty much a must, do you use the 6.5" or 7.5" CLR? What about the 1.625" stuff? What CLR on that? I guess I'll just have to save a little more and get the 1.625" stuff later, when I need it.
 
well, I'm not saying it's a must at all... Rob and I are probably in a huge minority here... I'm sure a procession of 30 guys will come in and say they run 1.75 with no issues.. and i'd bet it's true... I'm just saying I'm glad I went with 2 for the reasons I stated...

I run the small CLR die, i figured it'd be better to get the tight one, especially since i was going 2"...
 
ryoken said:
well, I'm not saying it's a must at all... Rob and I are probably in a huge minority here... I'm sure a procession of 30 guys will come in and say they run 1.75 with no issues.. and i'd bet it's true... I'm just saying I'm glad I went with 2 for the reasons I stated...

I run the small CLR die, i figured it'd be better to get the tight one, especially since i was going 2"...
Click to expand...

Not really one of those guys but there are alot of guys on here and not on here who run 1.75" tube on cages on heavy rigs.

The 2" no doubt is better but if you were going to run 1.75" dom or 2" hrew I would just run the 1.75. I think the 2" looks better too on a full size truck but when I do the cage on my Jimmy it will more than likely be 1.75 ( even though I have both dies) mainly because I can make the bends tighter and keep a couple of key bends out of the way of my head.

But I am a tall guy so hitting my head is something I have to think about all the time where someone who is shorter than me might not have too.



As far as CLR goes the tightest you can get. Rarely do you look at a bend and go gee I wish that bend was just a little big bigger, you look at a bend all the time and say gee I wish I could just go a bit tighter.

The tighter CLR helps you prevent hitting your head when you do the front portion of your cage, hitting your head can cause a severe of an injury as a failed cage. I have seen severe concussions from guys hitting their heads on an improperly built cage
 
yeah, there where a few occasions where i realized a slightly gentler curve would have looked nicer, maybe 1 or 2 out of 10 bends.. but usually you want the CLR as tight as possible in my experience..
 
OK, make sense on both counts guys. I guess I'd have to see a couple rigs/parts made with both 1.75" and 2" to see which I'd prefer.
 
well, here's a couple pics of 2" for ya for reference... I'm sure Rob can post some of his badarse 2" cage too... way more guys in here with 1.75 that I'm sure will be glad to whore a bit too for ya... :haha:





000_0006_2.jpg







000_0007_5.jpg








2" on the main tube/stinger and 1.5 on the angle supports...








000_0007-9.jpg






000_0004_3.jpg
 
The real reason most guys that can only grab one die go with 1.75 is because it is simply the most versatile die you can have. You can do almost any cage you want.

You can build bumpers for just about anything, you can do cages in cars, you can do all sorts of stuff. The 2" is simply to big for most cars, the clr is to large tubing just looks weird.

I agree I think the 2" cages look best on our big trucks, but I have seen a 2" cage in a chevelle and it looked out of place. The 1.75 looks a touch to small on our trucks and a touch to big in a car. Basically it looks less out of place.

Maybe I will test my skills some and a do a 2" cage in the Jimmy. Going to have to do some measuring
 
2" does look good on a full size but for a trail rig 1-3/4" is sufficient.

Here's some 1-3/4" on my truck...

DSCF0239.jpg

DSCF0682.jpg
 
I will have to stew over it a bit. I think the 2" almost looks too big, especially since I will be running a full back seat and the spare probably in the factory position with the hard top on it, at least for now. I'm not sure how the 2" will fit in there with all that in place, but then again it may be stronger with the 2".

Thanks for the article from ranger station too. Good reading, I'll have to go back and study it some more when it gets closer to time. Thanks guys!
 
Just a note to who ever might read this in the future.

In my experience if a sanctioning body states .120 wl. as a minimum thickness, any piece of tubing that is to be bent must start as a .134 wl. In the bend it will stretch and become thinner.

Just something to watch out for.
 
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