Sorry it has been so long since I was on the page, had a rough few months...

With that out of the way, I have been looking at what I want to do next with my truck, and I have decided that the answer is an exo-cage. I am no experienced with these types of modifications, or welding at all for that matter, but have a friend who is a certified welder who builds steel buildings for a living. Though he has no idea how to plan out the design for a truck he is fully confident that with proper designs he could do it and ensure it was strong.

My main questions are along the lines of;

What metal to use.

What designs have worked and what ones dont.

Should I have a bed mounted roll bar still or would the cage be enough?

Also I wanted to ensure the design I build will incorporate the following;

Roof lights at the front of the cab
winch for the front bumper
lift points for a hi-lift jack
and possibly a swing out tail gate with a tire mount.

I'm not looking for some one to do all the work an design it for me, just help guide me through the process since I have never done anything like this before. I will include some pictures of my truck to help. '85 single cab long bed.

Thanks

 

You'll want to use DOM tubing, probably in a 1.75" diameter vs 1.5". Definitely ditch the roll bar, you're replacing it with a real structural roll cage. All the other stuff will come from your design. Best suggestion is to start looking at as many exo cages on the net as you can, then decide on a design from there as there are several ways to go. Then take a pic of your rig or off the net and start drawing lines over it. Once you get the design figured out, you could put it all into a cage program, CAD or Solid Works, etc (or not) for figuring out angles and all that, unless you're planning to eyeball everything which works too.

 

Thanks for the info. Where would I go for those programs you referred to for the angles? And is there any type of design I should stay away from?