New (to me) 1980 CJ5 - Roll Cage question

Well now, the (new to me) 1980 CJ came virtually stock. Some items will need to be addressed. However, the previous owner had cut the safety cage (nice job, clean cut, BTW) on the two parallel extensions from the portion over the driver/passenger seats and removed the roll bar portion which ran just inside the windshield, claimed it interferred with his big feet getting in/out.

My wife and I are both smaller in stature...me at 5'6", my wife at 5'3". I don't think a full (original?) cage will inhibit either one of us.

We have the portion which was removed. My question, just how dangerous is having only the portion over the seats (still has the extensions into the back bed intact)? We have a friend who welds...is this something which needs to be addressed immediatly, or, can we wait a bit (say, until after the holidays)until it is more convenient to get it re-attached? I still have a few things to do (like adjusting the accelerator cable, tuning, changing fluids, snow tires, etc.) before I will be driving this vehicle more frequently.

 

If I am picturing what you are talking about right, that portion wouldn't be original, and if you mean the w/s loop and bars that go to the floor, and the bars that go back to the original roll bar portion is what he removed, you would probably be ok just rewelding it in place. If he cut the tubes in the middle anywhere, you need to try to find something to sleeve inside of it for strength, but if it was just cut off at the back bar over the seats I would just weld it back in and gusset it.

If you have a pic or two it would give me a better idea of what you need to do.

 

Basically agree. The factory bar is a hoop behind the front seats with a brace on each side to the rear wheel housing. The front bar was added later.

Terminology - the front and rear hoop enclosing the driver and front seat passengers is called a roll cage. Sometimes the cage is extended to a third hoop in the rear to protect any rear seat passengers. A single hoop with braces is typically called a roll bar.

A cage is a good thing to have, but is most valuable if you plan to do some challenging driving on tough trails. For putting around and easy trails, you can get by with a roll bar. Personally I don't think either will really protect you at highway speeds, at least not to the degree that full enclosure in a big passenger car would.

 

It really depends on what you plan to do "until the holidays". If that means normal driving and maybe some trail riding then no problem. Leave them out until you get time. If you plan to strap a hang glider to the roll bar and drive off a cliff you better get er' done now!

 

Again, many thanks. The "roll" bar is intact over the passenger and driver seats. Since I won't be doing any Rincon Running in the very near future, sounds like I am good to go (running to town, pulling out of snow banks, you know, the usual light weight driving stuff).

Question, not to belabor the subject, any one have any experience with how the soft top would fit over the "cage" or forward portion of the the roll cage? I think it would be cool to re-weld it on to form a full cage (since I have it anyway) but I hope it won't interfere with the soft top fit for winter uses.

 

if it's below the top of the windshield frame it should be ok. if it sticks above you may have trouble snapping the top into the windshield retainer.

 

Again, thanks for the replies.

Mike, you have given me some relief. I may try and dry fit the forward cage portion and test it with the soft top. Its nice that the p/o simply cut the tubes but did not grind off the welds originally attaching the forward portion to the "roll" bar, leaving about one inch of connecting tubes still on the driver/passenger roll bar portion. Re-attachment should be a piece of cake.

Happy holidays to all.

 

Most passenger car roofs are not very strong, they only have to pass 1.5x the weight of the vehicle in a quasi-static crush test. IMO, any cage would be stronger than most vehicle pillars, with the exception of a few vehicles. The standard was recently upgraded, IIRC to 2.5x. IMHO, I think a cage would be better than most stock sheet metal pillars.

 

Yes, I expect that's true as far as it goes. You can argue different aspects of this back and forth and never get anywhere, since the conclusions will change depending on the circumstances you use as examples.

Most passenger cars will stay upright in all but the most violent wrecks too; impact safety outweighs pillar strength. Some cars are certainly better than others in pillar strength (surprisingly, Wagoneer wrecks seem surprisingly survivable, for instance).

My point was more that the roll cage doesn't protect you any better from collision accidents, which I expect are the most common source of injuries on the highway. I doubt that the sorts of cages Jeeps have are totally effective in high-speed rollovers, though they are likely better than nothing. The sorts of cages we have are meant to protect the occupants in rollovers starting at speeds at or near zero - they aren't NASCAR rated. They also tend to minimize vehicle damage in such rolls too.

 

Yes, I would generally agree.