Cage/harness no helmet or hans!?!

[Mullen]

I agree somewhat, you'll never hear me say a cage is a bad idea or unsafe. Now when it comes to "better parts on caged trucks" I don't fully agree. Billet hubs don't mean they are any better than OE parts, it just means they're "custom". This all comes down to the owner of the vehicle prepping their shit or even knowing how their parts work. I've seen wheels come off and go flying into crowds off of race trucks, dump trucks, go karts, and stock trucks. It boils down to someone prepping or not prepping their shit. Yes off-road parts fail, but in all my years in the off-road industry (18 this year) Knock on wood, I've never had any parts fail on my vehicle. Maybe that's luck, or maybe its because I'm really in tune with my vehicles and on top of keeping it prepped in good shape. I feel as though it used to be people built their own trucks so they generally knew how they worked went together, but as of late more and more people have gotten into off-road who didn't grow up doing it (which is fine) nor did they build their cars, they bought them done, or paid to have them built (which is again fine). When that's the case I feel like its the drivers responsibility to understand how their car works instead of just getting in and driving them. If you know your car well, you'll know when something doesn't feel right. This comes from dealing with a whole new customer base (in my job) that come from the car world and think their off-road vehicle is supposed to be bullet proof, not make any noise, and be able to race "the baja".

I agree that prep is important and that high end parts on non-caged trucks is more prevalent today than it was 15 or 20 years ago, all while likely getting less prep. Today everyone has big bucks for forged wheels and fabbed rear ends on their $50k trucks, but decide not to cage for various reasons. Again, I waited many years to cage mine as I liked having it quiet in the cab. As soon as my daughter was ready to be in the truck off road, I decided it was cage time.

Your point about wheels coming off on race trucks is something that I had always stressed to my customer when I was building trucks - just because you're not racing, doesn't mean you can't roll just like the big boys. With that, I always recommended caging a truck right off, though very few listened.

After you cage your truck, you'll notice the handling dramatically improves. I couldn't believe the difference in my truck after I finished the cage. Safer + better handling - 420.69 hours of blood, sweat, and cussing - beer money during fab = net win.

 

[DP_Tundra]

I’ll throw in a couple cents here relating to Mullen’s post per parts failing and causing a rollover and the harness talk.
I was in a rollover September 2021 at a MORE race in Lucerne. I was riding passenger in my buddies truck. Leaf spring tundra with a full cage trying to keep with a linked beamed v8 ranger. I actually told him to slow down twice as I didn’t feel safe in his truck at the speeds we were hitting. Then bam, all of sudden there’s a couple big rollers coming at us fast. No time to brake and we went for a pretty nice ride.
Here’s the important part. We weren’t wearing helmets but even if we were, I’m constantly checking the tightness of my harnesses whenever I'm a truck/buggy/etc. I always have. So I was strapped in real tight and didn’t move around too much even in the garbage Corbeau bucket seats that were in it. I walked away with pretty minor (considering the harshness of the accident) lower back pain for about a week. My buddy on the either hand was not strapped down tight and he went for another ride in his seat. He suffered a spinal compression fracture and was laid up for 2 weeks in solid pain. Couldn’t walk at all for the first week. Thankfully neither of us hit our heads on the cage but we did get a little cut up from the glass.

Moral of the story: MAKE SURE YOUR HARNESSES ARE TIGHT



As for parts failing; there were a few failures on his front end but only because of the accident. But imagine if something like this happened while hitting some whoops and you don’t have a cage? Better start praying. Some clean shears. The bushings were still chillin in the frame mounts.

 

[UR_Mawm69]

I agree somewhat, you'll never hear me say a cage is a bad idea or unsafe. Now when it comes to "better parts on caged trucks" I don't fully agree. Billet hubs don't mean they are any better than OE parts, it just means they're "custom". This all comes down to the owner of the vehicle prepping their shit or even knowing how their parts work. I've seen wheels come off and go flying into crowds off of race trucks, dump trucks, go karts, and stock trucks. It boils down to someone prepping or not prepping their shit. Yes off-road parts fail, but in all my years in the off-road industry (18 this year) Knock on wood, I've never had any parts fail on my vehicle. Maybe that's luck, or maybe its because I'm really in tune with my vehicles and on top of keeping it prepped in good shape. I feel as though it used to be people built their own trucks so they generally knew how they worked went together, but as of late more and more people have gotten into off-road who didn't grow up doing it (which is fine) nor did they build their cars, they bought them done, or paid to have them built (which is again fine). When that's the case I feel like its the drivers responsibility to understand how their car works instead of just getting in and driving them. If you know your car well, you'll know when something doesn't feel right. This comes from dealing with a whole new customer base (in my job) that come from the car world and think their off-road vehicle is supposed to be bullet proof, not make any noise, and be able to race "the baja".

EVERY FUCKING RZR DOUCHEMAGOOSH OWNER DISLIKES THIS POST.................


(excluding the cool race RZR people on here, im suggesting more of the "imma go buy a rzr and be a badass in the dirt rocks an stuff and drink beer like the rednecks do!", type d-bags)

 

[Camper shell fun]

I’ll throw in a couple cents here relating to Mullen’s post per parts failing and causing a rollover and the harness talk.
I was in a rollover September 2021 at a MORE race in Lucerne. I was riding passenger in my buddies truck. Leaf spring tundra with a full cage trying to keep with a linked beamed v8 ranger. I actually told him to slow down twice as I didn’t feel safe in his truck at the speeds we were hitting. Then bam, all of sudden there’s a couple big rollers coming at us fast. No time to brake and we went for a pretty nice ride.
Here’s the important part. We weren’t wearing helmets but even if we were, I’m constantly checking the tightness of my harnesses whenever I'm a truck/buggy/etc. I always have. So I was strapped in real tight and didn’t move around too much even in the garbage Corbeau bucket seats that were in it. I walked away with pretty minor (considering the harshness of the accident) lower back pain for about a week. My buddy on the either hand was not strapped down tight and he went for another ride in his seat. He suffered a spinal compression fracture and was laid up for 2 weeks in solid pain. Couldn’t walk at all for the first week. Thankfully neither of us hit our heads on the cage but we did get a little cut up from the glass.

Moral of the story: MAKE SURE YOUR HARNESSES ARE TIGHT

View attachment 9274

As for parts failing; there were a few failures on his front end but only because of the accident. But imagine if something like this happened while hitting some whoops and you don’t have a cage? Better start praying. Some clean shears. The bushings were still chillin in the frame mounts.

View attachment 9275

Damn man that's pretty gnarly, that being said I'd be willing to bet a lot of money that Lower control arm failure caused the crash, not was caused by the crash. lower control arm pivots should NEVER EVER EVER separate from the lower control arm. Think about it this way, the weakest link is what brakes, and in the case of LCA pivots the pivot material should have split open (I've seen that happen), the pivot bolts should have ripped the frame mounts off the truck, the uniball cup should have even ripped from the arm all before the pivots tear off the arm....

 

[Dirt Yota]

Damn man that's pretty gnarly, that being said I'd be willing to bet a lot of money that Lower control arm failure caused the crash, not was caused by the crash. lower control arm pivots should NEVER EVER EVER separate from the lower control arm. Think about it this way, the weakest link is what brakes, and in the case of LCA pivots the pivot material should have split open (I've seen that happen), the pivot bolts should have ripped the frame mounts off the truck, the uniball cup should have even ripped from the arm all before the pivots tear off the arm....

I’ve seen some Toyota kits, from a company called Engage not sure if still in business or not, that LCA pivots ripped apart. Sketchy as F!

 

[DP_Tundra]

Engage had a lot of broken kits over the years for sure! But in my accident, the arms ripped off during the rollover, that wasn’t what caused the truck to roll.

 

[Mullen]

Didn't Engage build Jerry's center mount Snowplow Tacoma? That one with 2" of ground clearance?

 

[the bodj]

I’ve seen some Toyota kits, from a company called Engage not sure if still in business or not, that LCA pivots ripped apart. Sketchy as F!

I forgot about that! They were using seamed tubing for their bushing tubes and had the seams facing away from the control arm, so the welded seam was not captured by the control arm.

 

[UR_Mawm69]

EnGAYge offroad...... hah yeah, about them.

well, the stories at least. hah

 

[Dirt Yota]

I forgot about that! They were using seamed tubing for their bushing tubes and had the seams facing away from the control arm, so the welded seam was not captured by the control arm.

Yeah that’s what it was!

 

[DP_Tundra]

Didn't Engage build Jerry's center mount Snowplow Tacoma? That one with 2" of ground clearance?

Sure did!