Offroad-Express

Going to make an exo skeleton roll cage for my hilux, just after ideas on which is the best type of tubing to buy, what size, thickness etc.
Or even ideas of different ways to do it different designs etc, the vehicle is being turned into a winch truck so its number one priority will be safety!

PM darinz. He is passionate about cages. The tube used in my cage is a specific roll cage tube from Fletchers (I think it was) Good design is just as important as the tube. Triangles are your friend.

lexulance wrote::? Going to make an exo skeleton roll cage for my hilux, just after ideas on which is the best type of tubing to buy, what size, thickness etc.
Or even ideas of different ways to do it different designs etc, the vehicle is being turned into a winch truck so its number one priority will be safety!

Get a copy of the oranz rules and start reading

Yeah ORANZ rules are the best option for winch challenges. I would argue that NZFWDA rules aren't suited due to the difference in speeds between trials and WC. NZFWDA cages are really about multiply slow speed rollovers and being able to continue after them. ORANZ is about saving your life in a high speed impact.

MY advice is fit an internal cage to save your life and some external bar work to protect the truck! Best and safest option.

The hardest part with an exo cage is getting strength into the A pillar / door hoop. I would suggest that you need to build a strong rock slider and then mount the cage to that. If it is a single cab then chassis mount the mainhoop behind the cab with a full X in it. You should also put a diaonal in the roof.

If you use rollcage tube (38.1 x 2.6 medium tensile welded tube) then it relies on good design for the strength. In this case I'd suggest a diagonal (removable) across the windscreen.
If you go with something heavier eg schedule 40 then there is alot more stregth (and weight) in the actual tube.

With the same weight of tube and good design, a cage out of rollcage tube will be stronger and safer due to the extra bars and extra truangulation. However it takes more knowledge to design the cage and if you get it wrong it will be quite weak!

There are so many if's but's and maybe's in cage design that without a better idea of what is important (beyond safety) and what are the restrictions that it is pretty hard to be specific about what you should do.

A good hilux to look at would be Klem,s double cab. I have seen him roll it pretty hard and didn't do a lot of damage. Most other Hiluxs competing have internal cages which are far far superior as far as strength and safety.

Have you done it yet??? pictures???