F150 Roll cage

jones wrote:

DILLIGASDAVE wrote:If your shooting for just the NHRA absolute bare minimum "rule book" roll cage specs why not save some money & go with mild steel vs 'moly. And don't forget that the NHRA rule book minimum cage specs DON'T apply to the passenger side door bars or rocker bars (if used). So if your cage is going to use them you can make them out of whatever OD & wall thickness tubing you want.

Really, I never knew that.

Yep, for years the way I read the rule book I always assumed I was right on this but wasn't 100% sure. Then the subject came up again a while back so I emailed NHRA tech and according to NHRA's Pat Cvengros (Technical Services Representative) the passenger side door bar & rocker bar are in fact not a required part of the roll cage to be "rule book" legal (probably the reason the rule book diagram always shows the driver side of the cage). So these 2 passenger side bars can be made of any size/wall tubing you want.........and/or even left out if you want (but it makes sense to me to always use them even if smaller/thinner tubing is used).

Bill said from some of his figuring, going with CM would save me 75-80lbs over MS. If I compare the cost to weight savings It would be hard to find another 75lbs in that price range. (other than removing sheetmetal) Is my logic correct?

Hey Jones I mite get flamed on this but its the way I think. Do you ever plan on running in the 7.499999 in the 1/4 if not go MS just do a NHRA cage and get to work and get the truck done. If you are looking at going faster the 7.49999 then go CM you can tied up in this real fast make it fun not a job . Jason

Northwest outlaw wrote:.......Do you ever plan on running in the 7.499999 in the 1/4 if not go MS just do a NHRA cage......

You mean 8.499999 right?

jones wrote:...going with CM would save me 75-80lbs over MS....

That might be hard to say. I know that in their older catalog Chassis Engineering said that with their SFI legal full chassis there was about a 100lb difference between ms & cm. But even that number might be a little misleading because even though "SFI" legal is going to have more bars, they are allowed to use a thinner wall in many areas.

So the weight difference between ms & cm on a simpler NHRA/IHRA cage using the minimum number of required bars might be a decent amount less than 75-80 pounds. Just depends on how tight the cage is fit (a tighter fitting cage will use up a little more tubing length), & how much "extra" secondary tubing (such as diagonal bars/"X" bars) is added.

man what was i thinking your right 8.4999 working on the car and a truck i had a brain fart