Frame tie in's Pro's and con's

Ok, am working on a cage for the jeep and want to do a frame tie in but have heard various things about it. i want it to be strong but i have heard that bracing at one point can cause the frame to crack before and after that point. has anyone done this successfully w/o problems down the road? i dont want to box the whole frame and i know that would take care of the flexing problem but like i said i dont want to do that. as of now it will be bolted through the floor through the hat channel (which i replaced the factory with 1x2 square tubing that is 1/8th wall) and through the rocker guards. now the rocker guards go back to the body mount and is sandwitched between the body and the bushing. does this seem strong enough for moderate trail use? if not what ideas do you guys have for strength? i am shying away from the direct frame tie in b/c of the cracking. Thanks in advance, Hunter.

 

While I've never bothered doing it, you can use tabs and poly bushings on your cage-to-frame tie-ins. That'll allow for a bit of flex without sacrificing the safety of going to the cage. Lemme know if you're not familiar with what I'm talking about and I'll dig up some photos that illustrate the point.

On my CJ-6 I used large floor plates on 4 of the 6 points. I tied only the middle down tubes to the frame (the ones that went right behind the driver/passenger). This still allowed the frame and body to flex quite a bit, but I knew that in the event of a rollover I was a little better off than with the cage only bolted to the floor. I had that rig for a few years and never had any cracking issues on the unboxed frame.

 

i would make the plates (that the roll bar is welded to) smaller by about 1/2-5/8" all round on the inside of the body. this way you prevent the sheet metal from tearing during a roll over.

 

i know what you are talking about Dummy, i had thought about that just didnt know if it would be to ridgid but not that i think of it, i guess not.