Folding ropes..

   / Folding ropes.. #43  
I actually am an engineer, and have build my share of race car roll cages. The way you spliced the top of the hoop is solid. The only thing that could have been better would have been to drill some half inch holes in the outside tube on both sides of the weld for rossettes. I don't think that would be an issue though.
I will not be critical of your work, but I will say that the design with the hinge has a strength issue. I know you are saying that the hinge carries no load, but if you apply a load from the rear of the tractor to the ROPS, the bar will want to rotate around the pin you have in there. The problem is, the resistance to that rotation is the hinge, which will have little resistance to failure. Same would go if force applied to the front of the ROPS. By no means am I saying that the work isn't nice or well thought out. If there was room for a second pin a decent distance away from the first, that would be a good solution. If you are OK with the compromise in strength, that is none of my business. There is nothing saying it will for sure fail, but it would for sure fail easier than the factory design, which looks like it has two of the large pins. For what it is worth.
 
   / Folding ropes..
  • Thread Starter
#44  
I have had the tractor for 2 days, not planning on selling it quite yet.. :) I'll cross that bridge if i ever get there..

Brown this is really buggin you aint it.. You have posted the same thing about 6 times already, I get it you don't agree.. To each there own, but why keep posting the same opinion over and over.

I am confident in my welding and my fab, no worries at all.. Its just a steel roll bar, people build them every day. Most 4x4'ers modify and re-enforce thier bars first thing.
 
   / Folding ropes..
  • Thread Starter
#45  
Thanks Conservation, finally some constructive critism.. I like that kind.. I also have been thinking about adding a second lower pin... Not a monster like the top one, just a lil smaller one..

I actually haven't welded the top bar yet, so i will take your advice and drills some holes and weld it up, great advice thanks..

Question though, when the force is from the rear, it will rotate on the pin, but all that for will put into the 5" of over lap and back into to the lower bars..? EDIT - (Never Mind I see the light now...)
 
   / Folding ropes.. #46  
Something about tractors.
I do not know anyone who has been killed in a car/truck. But between my wife and I, we have two friends and a neighbor who have been killed in tractor rollovers in the last ten years. One tractor had the rops removed to work a maple sugar bush. One was not wearing a belt and was thrown from the tractor right before it rolled over him. We were never clear what happened with the neighbor, although his tractor was fitted with a rops.
SO I do NOT think that tractors, by any stretch of the imagination, are safer then cars/ trucks as was suggested. Around here we have hills and people roll tractors over. People die. Rops and seatbelts save lives. Not everyone, but most.
Would you modify your brakes?
 
   / Folding ropes..
  • Thread Starter
#47  
Yes I have helped change two cars from drums to disc.. My point was lots of things are dangerous, smoking kills more people each year then anything.. Any smokers here... :)
 
   / Folding ropes..
  • Thread Starter
#48  
Update...

Took Conservations advice and added some rossettes to the top bar. It proved to be a bit of a pain to weld, glad i just tacked and tested fitted to double check.. Cuase just with a lil tack heat it moved.. At any rate after the thrid attemp i was able to get it done..

I put eight 5/8" holes, way over kill but only took a second. (stepped bit rips through the metal)
holes.jpg


All welded up and grounded smooth again.. Getting close...
weldedup.jpg
 
   / Folding ropes.. #49  
Sounds like you got it, but in the future you can wrap a come-a-long around the legs to "tighten" the hoop up a bit. If its too tight you can place the middle of the bend down on a block of wood and smack the inside of the leg with a dead blow hammer to relax the bend a bit.
I used this method quight often on tight race cars.:p
 
   / Folding ropes..
  • Thread Starter
#50  
Yeah thats what i had to do, i cut a piece of wood just to make sure it kept the right distance apart, kept drawing in, then when i weld the bottom starting going the other way so had to put a strap on it too.. :)
 

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