Yota Cage Idea...Feedback

Guys,

After much debate I think I am going to pursue building an exo for the ol Yota...

Here is a ruff idea of my design. What do you guys think? Rear cage (bed) is already completed. Just wanting everyone's feedback as to what they thought.

Should look and work nice. I'd definitely bring something down the a and b pillars to the rock rails though.

That looks good I would add more on the sides around the doors and back of cab trees are hard on the sides and doors believe me I know lol
I would like to add more to mine just behind the door and across the top of the cab kind of like a rub rail over the door.

You'll want to protect the door jamb/ex cab area.

That is the most important part of being able to keep the doors intact.

I would put the front tubes behind the fenders also, it's easier to get straight tubes that are stronger and will work better than "barn gating" outside the front fenders.

IMO.

Make damn sure your hood will open before welding. :****:

What happens when you need to put a windshield in it? If you are going to leave standard glass windshield in it, I would try to design it without those two center tubes, because if you are going to wheel in a way to benefit from an exo cage, it won't be long and you'll need to replace the windshield. And def run some tube down the b pillar. That back cab corner will get hung on and rub against everything. Once you have raisin'd up wrinkled ass cab corners, truck will both look like ****, then as mentioned, factory doors will be harder to maintain in terms of sealing out water and shutting properly.

Now if you read what I've said above and think, nah I won't be wheeling that hard, you probably don't need an exo cage to begin with, or at least can suffice with a lesser structured cage as more of a "just in case" cage, instead of one you depend on to take a beating.

As for your front piece of tubing that goes straight across the front hood line, you could just tie it into the stinger hoop kinda like mine. Much easier access to your grill, headlights, and all that **** if you need to replace something.

Re:

If you build the cage right you won't bust the windshield.

I rolled my old exo cage v8 swapped truggy literally every time I took it out and never broke the windshield.

Guys its hard to respond to each of you but I appreciate all the help, support, ideas... its needed since this will be my first exo.

TacomaJD that is a pimp ride man....super nice.

I finished the left/right fender supports tonight... I am having a heck of time figuring out how to go over the cab from the support (measuring wise) and DOM isnt cheap to just bend and bend till I get it right.. so I want to make sure I got it like I want it so I am not going back changing it.

My first priority it getting the a-pillars connected in...then I can tie left to right... Wish I had a couple of you guys around that have bent numerous amounts of tube to walk me through some of this crap..

I 2nd the make sure the hood clears and there is a way to change the windshield later! Trail hump or park in the wrong place and it'll get busted!

Damn slick yota man. I'm sure it's gonna turn out nice.

For tubing help measure and measure again then measure again. Draw it out on floor and remeasure what you want. If you have measured correctly then your drawing will be correct which in turn makes a perfect pattern to bend to. You obviously know something about fitting cause that fender bar fits great but here is some pointers that may help.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/bendin_tube/index.html

If you want the windshield bars get you some tube clamps and make it removable.

al1tonyota said:

I 2nd the make sure the hood clears and there is a way to change the windshield later! Trail hump or park in the wrong place and it'll get busted!

Click to expand...

wont work said:

For tubing help measure and measure again then measure again. Draw it out on floor and remeasure what you want. If you have measured correctly then your drawing will be correct which in turn makes a perfect pattern to bend to. You obviously know something about fitting cause that fender bar fits great but here is some pointers that may help.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/tech/bendin_tube/index.html

If you want the windshield bars get you some tube clamps and make it removable.

Click to expand...

Yeah...I somewhat cheat with the bendtech program and 3D CAD...but it doesn't make getting the hard measurements any better....thanks for the information. If I was a rich man I would have a 3D scanner so I could scan the truck and make a model hahaha now that would be super sweet!

pholmann said:

Damn slick yota man. I'm sure it's gonna turn out nice.

Click to expand...

Thanks man...I really just finished the truck after about 7-months of scraping pennies..got it together rolled it out and said **** I got to put an exo on it hahaha...

I am now on an even tighter timeline...winter is about over and the ol lady is due after summer...I got to get this jewel back in the woods this spring haha

Where do you usually ride?

Man I am from middle Tennessee...we have a sweet spot down here (thousands of acres) public land that I grew up riding (we call it the gulf) in my backdoor. Its becoming more popular with people out of town.

We ride all over the mtn sides here...

There is tons of parks with at most 45mins from the house too...AOP, Hale Mtn, Mayhem, etc...

This is a picture of just a PORTION of the gulf were we ride... There is that and more to the left and right....

That's awesome. What's the name of the place.

I'm in East Tennessee

We call it the gulf ... Or cove.

It's a local place (could be a state park) grew up down in there haha...

My favorite place in the world. I love east tennesse if I was to ever move that's where it would be..

Maybe sometime I will get a few good guys from the forum up and do a ride.

I'm gonna try to plan a trip to adventure in May. I have one planned in March for grey rock and one in April at windrock. Which windrock is no big deal other than we are gonna stay the weekend this time. I'm about 30 miles from windrock.