Building roll cage

[ArlyA]

I believe its for moving machines and materials on jobs sites when rubber wheeled machines PSI can't do it.

 

[Sittingbull2]

Does it have a seatbelt ? If it does be sure you put it on. Don't care what kind of a ROP cage you have. If you roll it and thrown off could get rolled underneath it. I used to be a Heavy Equipment operator and seen some terrible things happen to people cause they didn't wear a seatbelt because they were thrown off the machine. Same as our tractors we should use them I do.

 

[Streetcar]

Nice Machine. That's no Toy, Boy!

Back in the 80s, a friend and I went halves on a VW dunebuggy. Some guy would build them in his garage with a Canadian Tire Buzz Box. Long story short. My friend Rolled it, nearly killing him and a passenger. He was just scraped up and the passenger got a concusion. EVERY weld on that roll cage broke! I guess the guy couldn't even weld one new piece of tube to another but welding to an old Bug would be even harder.

My point is, the welding is more critical than the material it's made out of. If the material is not up to the task, it may bend or crumple somewhat, but if the welds fail, you have nothing.

There is no way I would trust my welds with my life

 

[aczlan]

I might contact someone like this guy: ****Dozer D8H Parts**** - heavy equipment - by owner - sale or Bulldozer - heavy equipment - by owner - sale who is parting out a similar weight bulldozer and see if you can buy the FOPS from them. Then you just need to mount it to your machine.

Aaron Z

 

[dnw64]

...see if you can buy the FOPS from them. Then you just need to mount it to your machine.

4 very important letters. Don't minimize them.

 

[aczlan]

4 very important letters. Don't minimize them.

True, but it would require less critical work than building your own FOPS...

Aaron Z

 

[bdog]

There is no way I would trust my welds with my life

I would and do.

I think it would be hard to fit an existing cage to my machine due to having to fit around the cab and the limited options for mounting.

I have been running the machine for 3 years with no cage so anything will be better than what I have. It does not have seatbelts but I plan to add them.

I went down a hill the other day that dropped over 400 feet in a short distance. Steep enough if I rolled I would have tumbled all the way to the bottom.

 

[3Lfarms]

You could do it with .120 wall 2” DOM tube. If you are only protecting one seating area like the first picture, it wouldn’t take all that much tube. It would look like the cage in a NASCAR, but it wouldn’t be too hard with a pretty inexpensive bender. I built the cage in my desert car with a Williams low-buck bender. It slow, but it makes nice bends.

 

[BLSXJ]

When selecting a tube size for the chassis of my rock crawling buggy, I referenced some racing league rules and assumed my completed weight would be around 4000lbs.

at 19,000 lbs.... I couldn't find any reference material. generally speaking the larger the tube the stronger it is for a given weight.

If I were in your shoes... I'd start by finding out where you can mount the cage, and how much room you will have. I'd be planning on a B-hoop with a X built from the biggest steel you can find and weld.

after that is in place.... brace, brace, and brace. triangles are your friend, 4 sided shapes are not. if your going to "gusset" your corners, take the time to make sure your not creating a stress point.

I will point out its very possible you can build something that will help in the event of a slow speed flop. But surviving a tumble down a 400' hill/cliff with a 10 ton object is likely out of your reach

 

[ArlyA]

I'm impressed that the OPer is concerned about his safety or the rolling over of this machine. Safety is doable....