Thinking of building a ROP for my tractor

[Johndeere3720]

Those look great. Great job!

 

[GE222]

Nice job, thanks for sharing.

 

[deepNdirt]

Thanks! Guy's ........... after thinking about the height of this ROPS and how close it comes to hitting the 8" door opening going into my shop within 1" I'm seriously considering going ahead and cutting it down, I've also come to realize the the extra weight is mostly up high on the canopy, which would tend to make it a bit top heavy, So I might be eliminating the canopy all together which would of course resolve all issuesand then simply weld a cross bar over the top as a standard ROPS would have, Although! on the other hand I may start by dropping the canopy down about 8" and see how uncomfortable it will be to get on and off of, I really like the fact of having a shade to be under while cutting in open feild on hot days, at this point
its kinda 50% / 50% right now.... what would some of you do?

 

[joes_427_vette]

When you look at some of the examples if it wasn't for the metal bends in the thin tubing it would have little strength. I'm not a certified rops builder but I still can come up with something better than nothing. Most of the roll overs will end up laying on their side. The rops will keep it from going all the way over. Some believe they are made to be dropped upside down from a certain number of feet and sustain no damage.
A little corner bracing will go a long way towards safety. Better have than not.... build what you feel is adequate for your application.

 

[towmotor]

Deep n Dirt.

You're in Georgia, so there has to be a shop that bends roll cage tubing somewhere nearby.
I say that because I would NEVER trust life and limb to a roll cage made of 3 inch channel.
It's not a very strong section in the lateral direction.
Hopefully my little stick diagram comes out right. (edit. NOPE)

Anyway, I've never seen a race car with a cage made of channel, and there's a reason for that.
Roll cages (or ROP in your case) are made for the unexpected-you don't know before hand where the forces will be applied.
You can use some of your channel for attachment points, or secondary bracing, but the main "hoop" should be of a section with equally good (in all directions) buckling/deflection characteristics- something like heavy walled square tube or race car roll cage tube.

 

[deepNdirt]

Deep n Dirt.

You're in Georgia, so there has to be a shop that bends roll cage tubing somewhere nearby.
I say that because I would NEVER trust life and limb to a roll cage made of 3 inch channel.
It's not a very strong section in the lateral direction.
Hopefully my little stick diagram comes out right. (edit. NOPE)

Anyway, I've never seen a race car with a cage made of channel, and there's a reason for that.
Roll cages (or ROP in your case) are made for the unexpected-you don't know before hand where the forces will be applied.
You can use some of your channel for attachment points, or secondary bracing, but the main "hoop" should be of a section with equally good (in all directions) buckling/deflection characteristics- something like heavy walled square tube or race car roll cage tube.

Hello towmotor,
I suppose I should have written in ( update ) I toss the idea of building the ROPS from scratch with originally using the channel iron, the one I have installed is of a heavy gauge box tubbing and is a factory built ROPS, I did however have to extend it and narrow it down to make it fit between the fenders, no doubt this one is not going to bend, Have you ever seen the ones on a fork lift better yet! have you ever cut one off of a fork lift, I actually underestimated the weight and gauge of this ROPS when starting to cut it off from the forklift, I started out using a Sawzall and run the battery dead before getting thru one side, then had to get out the handy Hack saw, I cut through most of the way leaving just enough to keep it held together so that then I could grab hold and work it back-n-forth to break it loose, suddenly when it broke loose I felt the actual weight,I thought I had become weak from all the hand sawing so I then flip it off and let it hit the ground, I had to carry it approx 150 ft over my head to the scales to weigh it, and it weigh 108 lbs then I realized I wasn't so weak, I'm actually stronger then I thought
anyway Not to be concern of me making a wimpy ROPS... this ROPS is all heavy duty

 

[Kernopelli]

Good job dnd, I especially like the multiple attachment points. I wouldn't worry about the appearance of the height, as long as you can get it in an 8' door. I finally had to lop 3" off of my ROPs after 2 yrs of having to take trim boards off or letting air out of the tires every time I wanted to put mine in the garage.

One word of advice....(maybe you won't have the same problem) I used my tractor for about 4 yrs W/O ROPS and after finally putting them on, I had the hardest time adjusting to it being there when mowing around/under trees. I broke so many limbs off our fruit trees and dog woods, I thought my wife was going to kill me before I finally got used to it. Another thing is the ROPS will catch the limbs and give you a pretty good smack. Beware

 

[KLT3912]

I know some might say that its not a good idea to home build a ROP and in certian applications I might tend to agree, like with the larger tractors over 3-k lbs, although with my compact & FEL weighing under 3-k lbs I'm thinking I can build a ROP strong enough to serve the purpose maybe even stronger then factory, most factory build one I see are made from 3x3 box tubing which I'm sure is plenty strong enough, but I have some 4" C-channel iron that I think I can make v cuts into at various locations to form the shap and re-weld in the cuts,I should be able to use 1 solid pc for the complete ROP and at the bottom weld on some section of 3x 3 angle iron for attaching it at the point of where the U-bolts hold the fenders to the rear axle, there looks to be approx 1 1/4 threads left on these U-bolts that will provide enough to bolt it onto, in the top I will weld in some cornering braces, about half way of the Rop hight approx even with set level I will weld in a cross member with additional corner bracing, I can also drill some holes thru the ribbing braces of the inside fenders and runs some grade #8 bolts/washers just to give a midway point of securing it,
doe this sound like a game plan?

Hi,

The bracket must be at least 10 mm. The one I saw from a factory made is 16 mm mild steel.
Do u know any one who can help me with photos of the bracket of a ROP for 885 David Brown Tractor (white color)? I'm trying to build one but the bracket is quite complicated.

Thanks.

 

[sleuth]

Where did all the pics go?

 

[ThomasH]

Hi,

The bracket must be at least 10 mm. The one I saw from a factory made is 16 mm mild steel.
Do u know any one who can help me with photos of the bracket of a ROP for 885 David Brown Tractor (white color)? I'm trying to build one but the bracket is quite complicated.

Thanks.

If you are interested, PM me with your email address, and I will send you a few pictures of a DB 1210 (same as 885 and 990 but bigger) factory ROPS connections. I don't have a picture of the whole ROPS, but the upper part is just two uprights with a rectangular 2x4 steel post across the top.