Any body know of (writeup) or how i can build a roll cage for my fc?

 

It's really best to either buy a prebuilt roll bar, or to get a professional cage builder to build you a custom one. Maybe if you're a pro welder with good fabrication skills you can do it, but a professional has the experience needed, knows the local sactionning body inspectors (to get it certified) and will know how to do the layout for a good stong and stiff cage.

In the race section there's a long thread of "show me your cage pics". There's lots of discussion in there on cage design and there's both very good and very bad examples of cages. There's even some pros who post in there, ask them.

 

There are a lot of spec on cages that you must follow to be legal. Be sure you know what you are doing if you want it to be track legal

 

I've bee building cages on and off for a little over 15 years. I once had a friend who was an engineer borrow my bender because he wanted to do his own cage. He wasted about 80 feet of DOM trying to get the drivers hoop done even after I gave him a ton of helpful tips on the use of the bender.
If you have previous fabrication experience and access to a bender give it a shot. If not, consider that 1 3/4" DOM costs around $5 a foot and do the math for the experiment my friend tried. He did it back when DOM was running about $2 a foot though.

The third bend on a drivers hoop is what I call 'the money' bend. You screw up that one and you have a selection of short tubes you can cut out of hoop for use elsewhere in the cage.

 

ah
if i build it myself it might not be santcioned for tandems???


weaknacee

 

The SCCA cage requirements are quite rigid to say the least... They will inspect it with a fine toothed comb before it ever makes it into a sanctioned event... If you don't really know what you're doing, it would be best to at least keep a copy of the specifications handy...

http://www.advanceautoparts.com/engl...0040301rt.html

http://www.advanceautoparts.com/engl...0040301rb.html

There's some good info on the requirements...

 

I find it somewhat frightening that those links are from Advance Auto. In addition to overly simplifying the very complex process of cage construction, they are dead wrong in places. For instance where they say that the SCCA allows ERW tubing, which they don't (DOM only according to the 2006 GCR).

Either a) get a prebuilt or U-weld-it cage, or b) have a custom cage designed by someone who knows what they are doing. If you want to do the bending & welding yourself (and you're an accomplished welder) then at least consult with an experienced cage builder beffore you start and have them inspect your work afterwards.

-bill

 

http://www.ioportracing.com/Merchant...ry_Code=AP6590

thats the roll bar i just bought........... most auto x'ers use this company from what ive heard