Agreed. There is definitely a benefit to a cage in terms of safety in high speed crashes. The only downside for a street driven vehicle that I know about is lower speed safety in a crash. Less crumple zones and a more rigid vehicle with cage is no doubt safer if you roll at 80+ mph, but in a rollover around 40 mph, you can sustain more injuries from the stiffer body/chassis. With that said, only the OP can determine if their use would justify a cage, and the resulting trade offs that accompany it.

Thanks for this post, and I did call Otwell after you mentioned it.

Interesting conversation... basically we talking about cost as a financial limitation will often times be a stopping point, some options and logistics between internal vs external cage, tube bumpers front and rear… I need to put together some requirements and design goals before really getting into this.

He did a good job with helping me manage expectations with a project like this… basically if I wanted something to help protect from a roof collapse in a low speed roll, the requirements would obviously be a lot different than something that would need to pass inspection or certification for a certain type of race.

Considering I’ve toyed with the idea of an external cage before, and the fact that it does cost less from a fabrication standpoint, I would consider doing something like this just to add a little extra protection. The next real question is whether or not it is in my budget.

He also didn’t have any particularly negative to say about doing this on a street vehicle… but I do agree and understand some of the concerns about crumple zone and rigidity.

Definitely want to echo what has been mentioned about never running a real cage (versus a simple roll bar in back) while not wearing a helmet.

If you roll a caged vehicle without a helmet that can very quickly turn into a fatal accident when you may have walked away without a scratch in a completely stock vehicle. Steel tube obviously has zero give and hitting your head on that during a roll over (or getting t-boned etc...) is not something you ever want.

Also, many (most?) injuries in roll-overs are not actually caused by roof deformation, but rather your head being in contact with the roof when the roof hits pavement. Think similar to diving into a shallow pool.

A cage is part of a safety system, and if you do it you should finish the system. That means helmet, full harness, race seat etc...

Yes, I see that now. The keyword being “system”… you can’t really have one without the others. Without a seat and harness to keep you in place, solid metal bars all over the inside of the cab isn’t helping.

The idea of an exo-cage has really been growing on me… at least for a low speed roll or in an event where I was just to lay it on its side crawling. I could possibly maintain a regular interior, and provide some added protection from a roof collapse. Even minimize body damage, just have someone winch me back upright and off you go.

At least for how I envision myself using the truck, seems like a good middle ground because a properly done internal cage / system doesn’t really match my use case for this thing.

Any concerns or comments with a properly built exo from someone like Ottwell?

I don’t know how crazy I would go, but Otwell did make the comment, Considering the application / users desired use case, if it’s not something they would consider to be save, they would most likely decline even building the thing.

Some photos off google images for visual examples...

Agreed. Hitting your head on a bar during a rollover may be a guaranteed fatal event. On the 4th gen, an even MORE fatal idea would be an internal cage that can be displaced by the airbag system. Imagine that instead of an airbag cushioning your head, one of the bars gets damaged in the rollover and then pierces your head when the airbag accelerates it directly at you. Imagine the scene in Final Destination where the airbag causes the girls head to fly at the broken end of a pipe.

It is my opinion that NO internal cage of ANY TYPE should be used where there are airbags nearby. Internal cages with airbags is possibly the worst idea I have ever read on the internet.