Rear Roll Cage/Bar

[ancapn8]

I'm close to getting my '76 K5 back on the road, and I'm planning on putting a softtopper on it. I'm swapping to a 2001 suburban third row seat in the rear and want to make sure my kids are safe, so I'm looking into roll bars. I have a rear factory rollbar out of a 80's Jimmy, but it's kinda rusty, so I've been looking for alternatives. I like the family rollbars on the DIY4x cage, but I don't want a full cage, mostly just want to protect the back in case of a rollover. I live in flat oklahoma, and don't foresee any extreme offroading in our future, mainly just want to ensure the kids are safe with the soft top in the event some asshole on his cellphone drives under us and flips us, lol. I'm also concerned that the added cage may be a hazard in a wreck without a helmet. Anybody have any pics/ideas of what they've done for similar situations?

 

[nvrenuf]

I only have pics of a full diy4x cage that you're familiar with but I have seen a few folks buy a "B" pillar hoop plus the family bars to build just the rear half of a cage.

 

[ancapn8]

I only have pics of a full diy4x cage that you're familiar with but I have seen a few folks buy a "B" pillar hoop plus the family bars to build just the rear half of a cage.

Oh sweet, I didn't think of that. I really dig the look of the back half. How close is it to the head of the rear passengers? Do you just run regular seatbelts in the rear?

 

[muddybuddy]

Here was one i had saved off of BaT. Certainly not the strongest design, needs more triangulation, but for a street truck, I would think something similar would be huge from safety perspective

 

[nvrenuf]

The height is "adjustable". All of the vertical tubes come a few inches long so you can trim it to the height that you want, I left mine long / tall for headroom but I also do not have any kind of top to worry about the overall height.

As for headroom and seatbelts, I have a 2000's Sub 3rd row seat for the rear and there's decent headroom for a 5'10" person BUT it's because I made my own mounting bracket which puts the seat 1.25" off the floor. If I had used any bracket(s) that retained the latches for the fold & tumble function the seat would have been 3"-4" higher. Since I don't have a top I don't know if or how much lower the cage halo would need to be to fit.

 

[ancapn8]

The height is "adjustable". All of the vertical tubes come a few inches long so you can trim it to the height that you want, I left mine long / tall for headroom but I also do not have any kind of top to worry about the overall height.

As for headroom and seatbelts, I have a 2000's Sub 3rd row seat for the rear and there's decent headroom for a 5'10" person BUT it's because I made my own mounting bracket which puts the seat 1.25" off the floor. If I had used any bracket(s) that retained the latches for the fold & tumble function the seat would have been 3"-4" higher. Since I don't have a top I don't know if or how much lower the cage halo would need to be to fit.

Cool, this helps a lot. Guess my main takeaway is I need to get a top installed first and than can adjust it to fit. Thanks!