Roll cage options for my 110

[AndrewClarke]

Hi Andrew, take a look at whitbread: http://www.whitbread-offroad.co.uk/r...l_external.php
I've seen their work, and they have a good reputation.

just to add I've no association with this company or any of it's employees.

regards
Gren

Yeah, I've looked at them too. They sell a weld-on kit which seems pretty cool. But, when I price it up, with freight, and paying a welder to fit it, I think I'm better getting a local company to do it end to end for me.

Thanks,
- Andrew.

[AndrewClarke]

Hi Andrew,

Sadly the Safari Snorkel does not fit easily with any cage, there are adaptors but they are not good looking. I ended up using a Southdown snorkel with good results, but had to cut a huge hole in my truck....

I hear you on the corrosion now, we have the same battle here but you have it much worse.

Finally totally agree with supporting local industry, if you want some specific pictures just ask. The ppcages runs really tight to the truck which I like.

Steve

Protection & Performance do sell a Safari Snorkel adapter. They also sell their own snorkel & precleaner for £155. If I go with them I'll probably just do that, and sell my Safari snorkel.

[Landroverholic]

Hi Andrew

PPcages manufactured a custom snorkel for me also to fit in with my cage.

If you need some photos let me know.

Good luck with it all especially if you go stainless. I'd love to see the results - but not the bill!!

Callum

[AndrewClarke]

Well, in the end I decided to go with a local fabricator ... and with Whitbread. I found a sort-of-local guy who seems like a very skilled fabricator, is a Land Rover owner, and who has built lots of roll cages. After talking with him, he independently suggested I look into Whitbread. I know a guy who's shipping over two Defenders on Friday from the UK, so this morning I finalized my order with Whitbread and the cage is going inside one of the Defenders.

The fabricator felt that it would likely save me a bit of money over getting it custom made by him. I think in the end it will save me somewhere in the neighbourhood of -$100 to +$450.

I ordered the basic cage from Whitbread, with a few upgrades:

- Extra roof cross
- Light bar
- Smaller tubes above the two longitudinal top roll cage tubes, which will serve as low-profile sides for a simple roof rack.

I'm going to get the cage welded up, then likely galvanized and powder coated. I'll try to remember to post photos of the process.

- Andrew.

[StphNieuw]

If you don't mind me asking what was the approximate total?

[AndrewClarke]

If you don't mind me asking what was the approximate total?

It's all there to see on their web site at http://www.whitbread-offroad.co.uk/r...tion_wagon.php , so it's not a secret:

Basic cage: £828
Extra roof cross: £60
Light bar: £55
Extra side attachment tubes: £40 (this one isn't on the web site)
Shipment within UK: £55
Total: £1028

I guess he knocked off £10.

I did just notice that I might have just ordered one roof cross. I thought there was one standard, and I was ordering a second one. I might need to do some extra roof bracing once I get the cage here. The fabricator estimates somewhere in the region of $1000 to install, so that brings the installed grand total to ~$2850 (plus tax) once I factor in the shipping to get it to Canada. For reference, I think a Safety Devices cage would be about $2500, before I start installing it. The Safety Devices cage does come painted though.

[AndrewClarke]

I figured I'd put in an update since the cage is mostly welded in place on my vehicle now. It will be coming off tomorrow, at which point I'll get it galvanized, and then I'll probably Line-X it. I'm also getting my bull bar galvanized and Line-X'd, and getting a new-to-me bulkhead galvanized as well. I generally don't keep the bull bar on the vehicle, but it's good to have in case I do a long trip across moose country or something like that.

Here's how the cage looked when we laid it all out:

IMG_2670.jpg

When the fabricator got it on the truck, the part of the rack in front of the centre hoop wasn't bent to be in line with the part at the back. See the white rod on top for an explanation. It also meant that the middle bar at the front couldn't fit in place.

photo.jpg

After some consideration, he decided the best solution was to take the top bars off the front, and re-bend them. He managed to do this, and fix the middle bar as well. I don't know yet whether he was able to re-use the middle bar or had to make a new one.

As you can see in the next photo, the rod now rests on the cage all the way to the bend. It also follows the shape of the vehicle properly. Much better overall.

photo 3.jpg

I might end up putting another bar across in between the front and the middle one, right where the bend is. This would serve as a brace for the floor of the roof rack at the front. I have an X-shaped cross brace going in the box above the load space. It's just not in yet in the photo.

photo 2.jpg

Finally, here's a photo of how it looks so far. This is before the fabricator re-bent the pipes, but it looks about the same overall.

photo 1.jpg

Overall, I've been happy with Whitbread. There have been some challenges, but so far it's been a positive experience. Here are some of my thoughts so far:

1. They forgot to include the instructions in the package, but they emailed it to me right away when we discovered this.
2. Other than the easy-to-email instructions, nothing was missing, which was a relief.
3. OK, actually they were supposed to weld some small risers on the top to act as sides for a simple roof-rack, and they forgot. However, they promptly refunded me my £60, and it's better to get that done locally anyway as it's easier to do the back-and-forth with the local fabricator and get exactly what I want.
4. The fabricator is a little iffy on how the cage is attached to the frame. On the other hand, it seems to work in practice, and he might end up beefing things up a bit there if he has any bright ideas.
5. It seems like the messed up the bends on those three pipes. I think that's odd as they should have been done in a jig, but hey, mistakes happen. I emailed them about this morning but haven't heard anything back since it's the weekend. On the plus side, the fabricator was able to resolve this locally without a lot of extra effort, so it could be worse.

I'd buy from Whitbread again. Getting something like this from the UK can end up being a real nightmare if you've paid for something and can't get it to work. In the end, the fact that it got put together with only a minimum of problems seems like a good outcome.

[Oilworker]

That looks pretty good already. Nice work and definitely a nice cage Malcom designed there.

Regarding the snorkel issue you mentioned early in the thread.
I used the Mantec, cut and modified the lower part to fit around the leg of the Safety Devices cage and then used Sikaflex to seal it off.
I then fitted the Safari Snorkel head.



http://www.expeditionportal.com/foru...portals/page34

I later cut the tube again to lower the head below the brush guards.

So long,

Robert

[AndrewClarke]

Thanks Robert for the tips. I see Mantec says to contact them if I have a roll cage, so I did. I like the idea of using the side vent I've already cut into my wing, rather than making yet another cut on the top to fit a Southdown or custom raised air intake.

In discussion with the fabricator last night, I opted to have him custom make new mounts for the rear of the cage. The Whitbread mounts are cantilevered off the rear crossmember with spaced bolts. The bolt holes through my crossmember at least aren't sleeved, and the whole thing looks less strong than IMHO it should be. Also, it seems like they were designed for a completely flat area right where the crossmember piece fits with the small piece inside the back rear of the vehicle. My truck isn't flat there, so we'd have to cut and re-shape that part of my vehicle. Finally, it looks like they put the mounting plates on backwards, so the pre-drilled holes are in the wrong spot. Because of all that, it seemed best to just throw all that away and build a mount that goes straight from the inside of where the cage meets the body panel, all the way down to the rear crossmember. It will meet on the top of the crossmember instead of 3-4cm in front of it, and we'll sleeve where the bolts go through the crossmember.

[AndrewClarke]

Completed cage, ready to go onto the vehicle. This won't happen for a couple months though.

photo.jpg