again this is another performance aspect. Anyone can take a truck put 30 inches of lift on it and slap some 44's on it. but youll end up on your roof so fast you wouldnt know what hit you. keeping a truck low is about stability and its a huge performance gain to be low.

 

i dont really agree with andrew on a few things.. but this one he's right on the nail.. for you pretty boys... that wanna look "cool" on the trail, and have barley any function to your rig.. im sorry but thats just pure stuipidty..its all about function... dont have any of that and your toast.. those exo's serve a major purpose.. it could mean the difference of smashing ur pretty boy head in... or just tippin the rig back over and keep truckin down the trail..

 

It's a trail and it keeps going back. It's called exploring. I don't want to over run Redranger's thread with my pictures, but it keeps on going back. It's one of the more difficult spots on the trail. Anybody can get a body lift and drive on rough dirt roads, but rock crawling takes some money and skill.

 

like i said earlier, its a 4 wheeling thing.. if your not into it you wont get it, im not exactly sure why its fun, or why i do it but i just do..

i would love to have a rig capable of taking that line/obsticle

 

my dodge could take that line! lol jk

 

Check out some of my buddy's friends cages at www.bbpfab.com theres alot of pretty cool stuff with ranger cages and exploder cages.

 

I posted some of pottsy's work in the first post.

 

And thus why I want a decent set of sliders. I swear I'll learn to weld so I can make my own if I have to. That and it'll be a beneficial skill to know. If my mom ever gets a new vehicle her 92 exploder is becoming my off-road rig. For now though, the ranger's gotta stay my semi-performance, semi-pretty rig since it's my DD.

 

one of my friends thinks an exo cage is useless, he says "that beat up truck is more capable than your truck" and "you cant have a trail rig thats a DD" both of which are true, but i want a decent looking trail rig, why dont people understand that?

 

i could really care less what my pile looks like. I think I have decided to do an internal cab cage that connects through holes cut in the back of the cab to a tube rear. once it gets so bad that it looks like a big prune, Ill cut all the sheetmetal off and truggy it.

 

i'll see where it goes.. i like seeing decent looking trucks on the trail, i know that the beat up ones are just as if not more capable... but i dont like the look

 

is that a pull starter on that beat up red one??


JOSH

 

now that you mention it.. it DOES! haha

 

shilohridge.com has some pictures of exo cages and non exo caged trucks if you want to see what off roading+rednecks+beer+moonshine =______ hahah

 

i have a quick sketch i did in class today ill get that up in a bit.. but i have a pretty big question, how do you weld the inside/bottom/body side?? do you have to do the whole thing then set it onto the truck or how does that work?

 

im going to get pics of my truck and go to town on photoshop or paint

very rough i know i know.. if you can tell the difference its the pencil thats the cage, and pen is the body

 

for internal cages. ppl usually drop the cage down to get a 360 weld..
just cover it in JB weld and duct tape.. it will hold haha

 

Matt that exo is going to need a LOT more work...

 

looks fine to me,the truck just needs protection not a little kids jungle gym around the truck.

 

not really completely exo just the rear is but meh.

 

He doesn't have much along the sides of the truck. I'd worry if he ended up on his roof that it'd cave in without some sort of support along the side from top to bottom.

 

here are my paint/photoshop drawings.. i still dont know how im going to do the doors, could i drill and tap the uprights infront of and behind the cab and bolt a few pieces of tubing in there? im also considering caging in the back doors like redranger4.0 drew up in his first post.

 

caging the back door all depends if you want to be able to open them or not.

 

i didnt think he meant design wise, i think he meant as in its going to be a ton more work to do an exocage rather than a SAS...

i have this feeling that the bender and notcher are going to become very good friends...






and my wallets going to hate me, but it'll love me the first time i lay up against a rock

 

yea thats whats keeping me from throwing it into the mix just yet.
again, i have 8 months before i can get into the shop and do this so thats plenty of time to think about it haha, PLUS once i go ahead and do a SAS, i'll probably want the body lift to come off so i'll have to redo all the mounts anyways.

i wish i had the time and money to do both at the same time