Well... after this last accident...
Mar. 2nd, 2005 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wolfwings...I've started looking into what a proper roll-cage actually costs.
And I ran across Red Line Motor Sports which specialized in unassembled rollcages, semi-customized to order.
Right now, whatever car I get next is going to have a roll cage installed, I'm taking this as a given simply because I don't feel like being wedged into the seat again, I'd rather have proper restraints and bounce around like a pinball than have my roof touch the floor next time. That, and it would allow me to mount proper harnesses inside the car.
Now to figure out what configuration to buy... the downside of more bars on the doors is that it makes the doors less and less usable, to the point where I'll eventually have to get in and out of the car Dukes of Hazard style if I went for 4 door bars on both sides, or just have to step over high bars if I went for the 2-bar 'Z' configuration. Mind you, in the DoH-layout, I could be side-impacted by a H2 and bounce away, other than the custom-molded door that would result when it wrapped around the steel tubing.
Solutions to the DoH problem mostly involve cutting in a T-Top style hatching system, and various ways to integrate that with the main door panels somehow, preferably to retain the 'drive into a cave and rotate something aside to climb out' concept the car had originally. Though, with the DoH-style layout, making the front windows slide into the rear body panels would work, akin to how a locomotive's train-doors function. Something similair could in fact work for the entire T-Top section including the front window, assuming I left enough room in the headliner for something like that. :-) It would just look odd, having that recessed area 'breaking' the lines of the roof where the slide-in sections were mounted.
If I go for one of their roll-cages, the most likely layout I'll get is the 4544X set, which is about $270 before shipping and handling. After that, I'll have to figure out the roll-cage construction for the back area of the civic I'll get, and seating. Seating will most likely be akin to a military hummer, but with a bench seat only along one side of the rear that can seat either two or three abreast, with leg-room and dedicated equipment storage across from that. Extra components (tools, spare tires and the like) would be mounted opposite that to balance the unloaded weight side-to-side, with loaded weight being sorted out seperately on a case-by-case basis. The bench seat would also serve to counter-balance my weight as the driver in the vehicle to begin with, actually.
The back 'door' I've decided is going to be rather unique, though. Nothing that fancy, actually. Just a roll-up panel door, like you'd find on a garage door, that has the track in the headliner. Something like a roll-up door but instead of the 'huge cylinder' that everything rolls into, it'll all just slide along a track.
And I ran across Red Line Motor Sports which specialized in unassembled rollcages, semi-customized to order.
Right now, whatever car I get next is going to have a roll cage installed, I'm taking this as a given simply because I don't feel like being wedged into the seat again, I'd rather have proper restraints and bounce around like a pinball than have my roof touch the floor next time. That, and it would allow me to mount proper harnesses inside the car.
Now to figure out what configuration to buy... the downside of more bars on the doors is that it makes the doors less and less usable, to the point where I'll eventually have to get in and out of the car Dukes of Hazard style if I went for 4 door bars on both sides, or just have to step over high bars if I went for the 2-bar 'Z' configuration. Mind you, in the DoH-layout, I could be side-impacted by a H2 and bounce away, other than the custom-molded door that would result when it wrapped around the steel tubing.
Solutions to the DoH problem mostly involve cutting in a T-Top style hatching system, and various ways to integrate that with the main door panels somehow, preferably to retain the 'drive into a cave and rotate something aside to climb out' concept the car had originally. Though, with the DoH-style layout, making the front windows slide into the rear body panels would work, akin to how a locomotive's train-doors function. Something similair could in fact work for the entire T-Top section including the front window, assuming I left enough room in the headliner for something like that. :-) It would just look odd, having that recessed area 'breaking' the lines of the roof where the slide-in sections were mounted.
If I go for one of their roll-cages, the most likely layout I'll get is the 4544X set, which is about $270 before shipping and handling. After that, I'll have to figure out the roll-cage construction for the back area of the civic I'll get, and seating. Seating will most likely be akin to a military hummer, but with a bench seat only along one side of the rear that can seat either two or three abreast, with leg-room and dedicated equipment storage across from that. Extra components (tools, spare tires and the like) would be mounted opposite that to balance the unloaded weight side-to-side, with loaded weight being sorted out seperately on a case-by-case basis. The bench seat would also serve to counter-balance my weight as the driver in the vehicle to begin with, actually.
The back 'door' I've decided is going to be rather unique, though. Nothing that fancy, actually. Just a roll-up panel door, like you'd find on a garage door, that has the track in the headliner. Something like a roll-up door but instead of the 'huge cylinder' that everything rolls into, it'll all just slide along a track.
Re: Rollcages.
Date: 2005-03-03 04:14 pm (UTC)And no real research yet, but from what few figures I've been able to look up on tubular steel and aluminum of the stated thicknesses and tubular sizes as those rollcages, my car should be able to drop 10-15 feet onto concrete roof-first indefinately without any real harm to the rollcage. =^.^=
And just for the record for everyone, after everything is said and done... I should be making about 55mpg or better, perhaps as high as 60-65mpg with the vehicle. Right now a Civic of comperable year can easilly get 40mpg, and some models can already get 50mpg without any real changes at all. Between losing 30% of the weight off the car, and using a more modern engine, I think getting a 50% MPG increase is feasable. :-)