Suzuki Club UK

Hi guys, I'm trying to keep my Sj as subtle as possible and I want a bit more protection. I am seriously considering the internal rollbar/cage route but I need some other opinions, I personally am not a fan of external cages unless you are doing challenge events etc. so the plan was to go internal, i like the look of a good internal cage but it seems like buying one from America is going to cost me over £1200 are there any better options?

Buy mine for £300 then?!

Tbh I think unless you are going trailing and just want a bit of protection in case you fall over, a decent rollbar will give you some protection in a low speed side roll.
An end over end roll is a different story though but I try not to get into that situation...
A full external rollcage is desirable as it protects the bodywork as well, something an internal won't do anyway

like twiss said, if you have an internal and do roll it the car is f**ked and youll have to take the cage out, a decent exo cage would be better for the truck.

look at this jimny with full internal cage after it has this roll haha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqqfvtxTzy4

An external cage only protects the bodywork where the tubes are......so if the ground isn't flat or you roll onto a tree stump/Rock it wont stop much damage, seen plenty of exo caged sjs with massive dents
It's also much easier to make a stronger cage going internal as you can add triangulation without going through the bodywork.
Personally I wouldn't want any cage without at least an X in the B-hoop, I've seen exo cages without cross braces turn into a parallelogram wrecking the body after a rollover, bray's old Lj80 cage deformed after a roll, if the roll was much worse it could have completely failed.




It's actually shifted the whole back end of the body, it's got a box section body lift that is no longer square.

I'm bending up an internal cage for the Lwb, then fitting rock sliders to help protect the bodywork from trees etc.

I want a cage that will save my life in a rollover in the worst case scenario not just a gentle flop. you can replace a suzuki body but you only have one life.

I'd rather have a good internal cage, personally. For all the same reasons Scottie mentioned.

Having said that, I did drool a bit at this.

What kind of weight is a cage adding?

Matt's cage is a pretty good design with the internal cross brace.

All depends on the material Anton.

I'm going to be using CDS for my cage and being internal I can use 2.65mm wall, if I build a cage with external sections or tubes that are likely to get hit, those sections will be 3.25mm wall.

44.45x 2.65mm wall 2.72kg/m
44.45x3.25mm 3.30kg/m

So if you say an average (very basic) Sj external cage would probably use a minimum of 16m of tube, if you used 44.45x3.25 that would be 52.8kg, not including outriggers and rock sliders.

A lot of places use larger OD tube as well, 2"/50.8x3.25mm is 3.81kg/m

52kg isn't the end of the world, but on a 900kg vehicle, adding 50kg up that high - does it mess with vehicle stability at all?

I want to assume not (thinking about Mike's monster) but I can't help but feel it's a lot of weight to add up high.

I had an internal cage in my old soft top, bit ruff but I didn't build it, was in there when it got it. When I rolled it, was a nice slow one, was so happy that it was. I had to replace parts, but its not hard on a soft top, 2 doors roof hoop and screen frame, better than being squashed

Anton wrote:52kg isn't the end of the world, but on a 900kg vehicle, adding 50kg up that high - does it mess with vehicle stability at all?

I want to assume not (thinking about Mike's monster) but I can't help but feel it's a lot of weight to add up high.

Not much of the cage weight is up high though, I would rather a bit of extra weight up top than to get squashed in a roll.