Spring clamps are actually superior to worm screw clamps. We had to fix cold water leaks on Detroits all the time when some jack wagon would replace the OEM spring clamps with worm screw clamps.
Martin
Martin
CK5
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K10: Built HP60/241-205 Doubler/tons of tube
- Thread starter Avery4jc
- Start date
I hear ya'. I'm still not sure how I'm going to tie this rear section into my interior cage. I've been thinking all along that I'd hole saw a couple holes above the rear window and run my halo for the interior cage out the back and into the rear tube work. But now I'm not so sure.
I've been thinking lately about making contoured plates that would sandwich the cab above the rear window and tie it together that way with short pieces of tube going from the interior cage and exterior cage to the plates.
I guess my point is there might be more going on in that area than what's there now.
So, I've lurked here a lot on and off for the last 5 years or so and follow yours and a few of the other "epic" builds, started with greg72, Zimm, Ryoken, ect..(Please excuse spelling) but I really appreciate your tube fittment pics. I have friends that fill 1/4" or more gaps with scrap and weld it over. I'm not saying any of those others are not doing it right at all, I just like that you are showing that it does take an evening to fit one tube correctly. I know the time it takes to make those tubes fit right for even a straight angle(much less getting into bends, compound angles ect..), your workmanship is great. The way the X came together on the back of the cab looks great in my opinion. Keep up the great work. I really respect anyone that takes the time to properly fit tube and not just fill with weld.
Job Well Done!
Job Well Done!
keep in mind, there are multiple styles of worm clamps... full circle ones are far superior to a spring style clamp imo.. but the average joe doesn't know they exist..
ahighfivetolife
Registered Member
Some of the copes were far from a standard notch, good thing someone knew what they were doing
It was a good project for me to start learning how to do tube work the right way.
I like the attention to detail! Very clean build.
I must be skipping over it, but I can't find where you mention what size DOM you're using for this cage. 1.5" x .120?
Wow your quote is from a ways back! It's all 1 3/4" .120" hrew tube. This is a crawler, not a high speed desert rig so the price of dom wasn't worth it.
it must depend on the price/supplier. i know when we did the cage in the blazer, the cost of going to DOM over HREW ended up being like $5-10 per stick of 20'. at that point it was worth it.
If it was that cheap I'd do it in a heartbeat. At $10 a stick difference you're only talking 50 cents a foot difference which is crazy cheap.
in my case, DOM vs HREW was an easy choice.. HREW was VERY difficult to get here in Joysey.. SoCal is probably a very different story..
Dom was 4 dollars and change more per foot than hrew, in my area.
Locally the price between the two has shrunk quite a bit.
I have always told poeple that an HREW cage will save your life once, but a DOM cage will save you several times.
Unless you fall upside down off a 20 foot drop onto big rocks. Then it seems like most cages would have failed.
Is your cab solid mounted Avery?
The sandwich plates will tear if you are still on bushings. I kind of am assuming that you are going to solid mount the cab cage.
I think connecting the two takes more than just the bars up top that everyone does. Would like to see it connected at mid level as well as the lower level too.
I have always told poeple that an HREW cage will save your life once, but a DOM cage will save you several times.
Unless you fall upside down off a 20 foot drop onto big rocks. Then it seems like most cages would have failed.
Is your cab solid mounted Avery?
The sandwich plates will tear if you are still on bushings. I kind of am assuming that you are going to solid mount the cab cage.
I think connecting the two takes more than just the bars up top that everyone does. Would like to see it connected at mid level as well as the lower level too.
That's closer to what I've found as well.
Yeah it's essentially solid mounted. I put brand new poly body mounts everywhere then right after that decided to solid mount it so I welded my sliders to the frame in a bunch of spots then welded the top of the sliders to the cab floor the entire length of the door opening.
It needs more to be really solid mounted but I was planning on using my cage to finish the job.
A few posts back I posted some stuff I got from Kert which included some of his cab plates with the anti-shear pins that I'm going to use inside the cab to sandwich the floor in a few spots then on the other side tie it back into the frame.
After many trips in and out of the garage taking measurements and checking against what I was getting in bend-tech I got my existing tube work put in really accurately so I can try some different stuff and see what I like for the remaining tube.
I still can't decide what I'm going to do.
So far the idea I'm liking the best is to do a halo above the cab like a roof rack and tie that into the interior using some of kert's flanges with 1" shear pins through some flat spots on the roof of the cab. This would require cutting the interior skin out of the roof in a few spots but that's no biggie at this point. It would seal up well too.
Eric, any ideas?
I still can't decide what I'm going to do.
So far the idea I'm liking the best is to do a halo above the cab like a roof rack and tie that into the interior using some of kert's flanges with 1" shear pins through some flat spots on the roof of the cab. This would require cutting the interior skin out of the roof in a few spots but that's no biggie at this point. It would seal up well too.
Eric, any ideas?
So I am not a fan of roof racks when they use bigger tubing. About 1" max for me or it looks weird.
While your halo idea would certainly tie the 2 together it might create some stress points if you rolled hard.
Gotta build em for the worst possible outcome. You could put em right above the down tubes but its going to be hard to get them to be placed just right so it possible you could create a shear point on the cage.
What I would do is alot more work. I would do the interior cage as 2 side bars. Meaning the A pillar and roof bar are on the same tube. It has to be tucked up higher than the roof will allow so it will require cutting into the roof. Just the first layer though.
It looks like you could meet your x brace bar just below where it attaches to the b pillar.
This would require some gusseting itself so you don't create shear points but I don't think it would be too hard to do and would look cool.
At this point another B pillar inside the cab being just a single bar that ran up to the roof bar with another bar across the back would allow you attach to your middle bar. Another single bar between the two at the roof level inside the cab.
If doing it this way I would attach the interior to the exterior in at least 6 points, if you do that then there is no need for another x brace inside the cab being you are using the x brace in the bed for the needed rigidity
That leaves you with only one bar behind the seats not several.
I have a couple more ideas roaming around, too. I am tired though and they are too.
Thing about attaching a bed cage like that to an interior cage is its never easy. Even going about it the wrong way its never easy.
Although if the roof rack were more like a light bar type of deal, that might look cool. You still run into the problems of proper support
While your halo idea would certainly tie the 2 together it might create some stress points if you rolled hard.
Gotta build em for the worst possible outcome. You could put em right above the down tubes but its going to be hard to get them to be placed just right so it possible you could create a shear point on the cage.
What I would do is alot more work. I would do the interior cage as 2 side bars. Meaning the A pillar and roof bar are on the same tube. It has to be tucked up higher than the roof will allow so it will require cutting into the roof. Just the first layer though.
It looks like you could meet your x brace bar just below where it attaches to the b pillar.
This would require some gusseting itself so you don't create shear points but I don't think it would be too hard to do and would look cool.
At this point another B pillar inside the cab being just a single bar that ran up to the roof bar with another bar across the back would allow you attach to your middle bar. Another single bar between the two at the roof level inside the cab.
If doing it this way I would attach the interior to the exterior in at least 6 points, if you do that then there is no need for another x brace inside the cab being you are using the x brace in the bed for the needed rigidity
That leaves you with only one bar behind the seats not several.
I have a couple more ideas roaming around, too. I am tired though and they are too.
Thing about attaching a bed cage like that to an interior cage is its never easy. Even going about it the wrong way its never easy.
Although if the roof rack were more like a light bar type of deal, that might look cool. You still run into the problems of proper support
So I decided to switch things up and make one big piece for the roof and A pillar area. I'm going to cut some holes through the back of the cab inset a little from the corners and tie the two pieces together.
The plan for this afternoon was to bend up the front part of this...
Had handy dandy bend-tech on hand...
Here's what I came up with. Now I just have to figure out how to get it into the cab.
My dad helped me pull the driver's door off and it's surprisingly close but just won't make it. I'm thinking removing the windshield and cutting a few holes in the floor and we'll make it in.
Once this piece is in the rest should be pretty straight forward. A lot of straight tubes with simple notches so it should go fast.
The plan for this afternoon was to bend up the front part of this...
Had handy dandy bend-tech on hand...
Here's what I came up with. Now I just have to figure out how to get it into the cab.
My dad helped me pull the driver's door off and it's surprisingly close but just won't make it. I'm thinking removing the windshield and cutting a few holes in the floor and we'll make it in.
Once this piece is in the rest should be pretty straight forward. A lot of straight tubes with simple notches so it should go fast.
Were you using the K'NEX to make a model cage?
Martin
Martin
Nope those are Christmas lights that slipped through the cracks of clean-up. I need to take them out to the shed and get them put away but that's not nearly as fun as bending tube so there they sit.
chevysmithz71
1/2 ton status
Updates??
Meant to ask did you ever finish the tbi setup and run the truck with it?
