roll bar questions

[mootang]

I'm planning on getting a 6 pt. roll bar that will make me legal to 10.0's but living in england and being paid in us dollars means i will be paying double for the labor. Both bolt in and weld in 6pt. roll bars are legal for 10.0's so what are the disadvantages of having a bolt in roll bar? also would it be worth it to get through the floor subframes or should i just get regular full length subframes?

thanks,
scott

 

[mootang]

anyone?

 

[mootang]

nobody has an opinion on weld in Vs. bolt in?

 

[donjohn]

I'm in the process of getting one welded up...

They actually told me that welding to the floorpan was a bad idea and that sandwiching the floorpan was better and bolting it on. One of the techs also suggusted "stich" welding the bottom plate on. I thought that wasn't a bad suggustion and will probably do that.

I've been having problems getting an honest quote actually... but hopefully something will happen soon.

I don't really see why, if you sandwiched the floorplates using grade 8 nuts and bolts, it would be any type of problem. However, I would, and am going to, weld the rear braces on there.


If you think about what's actually involved in welding the whole plate onto a thicker* weld point, you should be able to see many advantages including more contact area. Instead of four bolts holding the rear braces together, there's about a 24" welded seam around the plate (assuming 6" plates) so it's a much greater area. I believe all yeild stress/ breaking points would be higher with good solid welds as well. Not so much with the welds on the floorpan though, considering you're welding on such thin metal.

I'm planning on getting some MM full length subframes and tieing in the rollbar to the subs... don't have to worry about the rollbar ripping through the floorboard that way!


hope that helped some...
-Chris

 

[mootang]

thanks, for the reply. that was very helpful. so your suggesting to basically use a bolt in cage that comes with the two plates and then welding both plates for added strength. I'm thinking about the MM cage for price reasons plus it requires minimum welding, which is expensive out here. but I still haven't decided, I might just go all out and get a custom one or get a wolfcraft one.

thanks again,
scott

 

[donjohn]

Well, kinda.

I'm not sure if there are any major differences in the welding vs. bolting cages other than four holes in each of the mounting plates.

Both types of cages (usually) have a 6x6" mounting plate at each point that attaches to the car's frame.

I got the impression that it really doesn't matter with the floor panels wether you bolt or weld them in, but welding is usually better and cleaner. The rear braces however should probably be welded (although it is possible to bolt those on too).

 

[mootang]

ok, thanks. thats pretty much what i needed to know.