SakoTGrimes Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 After rolling the wagon I bought a 4Wheeler rag to show my brother our roll wasn't really that bad, and saw a new-ish Chevy 2500 with a full roll cage on the outside of the body. That would be great because then your body and roof wouldn't get so beat up if ya rolled and you could tie stuff to it. Has anyone, anywhere seen a Subaru with an outer roll cage? Where do you think it would attach? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoahDL88 Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 Never seen one, but i can imagine that the added weight would make your car even slower, and would catch on every branch and rock on the trail. Would i do it, no. would it look neat if you never actually offroaded, sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sweet82 Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 An exoskeleton would look cool but by the time you make it structurally sound you have added quite a bit of metal/weight to your Subie. Having tie down points and a industrial roof rack would be handy. Being able to "pivot" around rocks and trees would be handy. Realistically, If you build a full exoskeleton and you actually roll? Yes it will save the vehicle from most body damage but not all. The real problem begins once you have rolled. The exoskeleton will be tweeked just slightly and may be torqueing your unibody. The problem you have is realigning the exoskeleton! If you cut just one bar there is a good chance that the whole thing will twist slightly and never align back to the original shape. The reality of it is if you roll you may have to make another exoskeleton and junk the first one? If your worried about rolling, I'd do an internal roll bar and call it good? My .02! Glenn 82 SubaruHummer 84 GL Mad Max 01 Forester Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushbasher Posted March 13, 2006 Share Posted March 13, 2006 Let me give you an example of the use of an exo cage: Say you are rockcrawling on some serious boulders, and your car bounces a little sideways off the nice line you picked. The only way out is to wait for a winch, or take the line where the rock is going tear your doorskins off on its way to smash the rear quarter window and taillight. Wouldnt it be nice to have a big piece of tubing to take the hit instead, while you power out of the hole? Yes a winch will do the job but thats boring, slow, and lame. If you daily drive your car and do the odd trail every few weekends, an exo is not really the right thing. If you are a hardcore rockcrawler, it is pretty much essential. Sheetmetal catches rocks a lot more than tubing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erik litchy Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 the main problem as i see it is there isnt going to be much increased safety from a side roll. there wont be any diagonal supports so the whole structure has very little triangularisation.(is that a word) if combined with internal maybe, but seems like redundancy at that point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subarian Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 The biggest problem I can see is that there's no frame to tie it into on the Subaru. Depending on how you anchor it to the body, you might actually do more damage with the exoskeleton than without. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushbasher Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 A side roll or "flop" during rock crawling usually doesnt involve any cabin intrusion anyways. Like I said, the tubing is there to scrape and pivot on things instead of the sheetmetal. Often a truck with an exo will have bracing going through the body panels, or a seperate internal rollbar to take care of serious rolls. I've seen them in action, and they work. Making an exo for a subaru is just a matter of distributing the load where the tubing welds to the car. Weld 1/8" plates to the rockers etc then weld the tube to that. this increases the surface area that impact is acting on. Unibodies are very strong dimensionally, in fact stronger than most frames. If you increase the surface area you are transferring the force to the whole unibody instead of a thin piece of sheetmetal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 Has anyone, anywhere seen a Subaru with an outer roll cage? Not exactly an exo-cage but a fun photo none the less. I'm pretty sure I found the pic on S&N Fab's website a few years ago. Guess the Snort guys enjoy subarus too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tailgatewagon Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 im thinking of putting one on my Hatchbrat. well i have to brat the hatch first but its in the works. just wondering opions and observations. on them... also what kind of material to use. im thinking 2in od tubing oh yes it will have an ej22.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbchux Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=54641 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baccaruda Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 funny, the guy in the passenger's seat looks like he's flinching. I know I would Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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