Was pushing hard to make it to Gone Moab. This is how far I got.

Driveway shots:

About half done...

awesome.

i wished i lived out by you guys so i could learn how to do the stuff you guys do to your trucks. you guys in colorado have all the cool nissans.

Damn Ryan... it looks great!!! Cant even tell where we really cut it in half!!

Hot damn dudes! That is kllleeeeeaaaaannnn.....

Any of ya mofo's have jobs????
(er mebbe I need a new one! )

Looks great. I can't wait to see it in person!

Well gosh darn if that ain't perrrtyyyyy!

Sweet Jesus, I wanna do that to mine!

That is hot!

A few different stages of Granpa X's new cage.

Nice!!!

That is some sweet fabbing \

Sighhhhh....yet another thing that wouldn't pass in PA

I have a fix for that....... move to CO!!! :p

That'll also be a fix for the endless damn flat terrain that's dominating the Midwest.

Any pics or links to when you sectioned the Pathfinder? Keep up the good work, glad to see Nissan's finally being heavily modded the past few years.

Good stuff, might have to give pa a new name...Old chop pa or something like that.

Hard to tell in the pics for sure but the WB looks shorter by a few inches? Almost like its less than <100".

Finally figured how I might run coils on the X with a 3 link, reverse triangulated V behind the axle, forward arms with the stock gas tank raised. After prime wheelin season is over and I save up enough think I’m considering lengthening the WB a couple of inches to help with the big/stepper rocky climbs we have a lot of in the canyons and whatnot out here.

Prime wheeling season ends when you're broken!

The WB is right at 100 inches now. Not so good for moab however good for all the Jeep trails in Colorado.

I do however have the Hard Body with a 110 WB and for Moab.

Any thoughts about re-inforcing the mating points on the Halo above the driver side seat?

I'm talking about in this Pic:



The bars don't meet together on the Halo. Not that I know a whole lot about making a roll cage, but unless I'm mistaken, the way that you have your bars mated up to the Halo above the driver's seat creates a shear or twist point between the bar going to the A-pillar, and the one going to the rear of the truck on the halo.

Because the bars aren't matched up together on the Halo, the distribution of stresses on the Halo are uneven, and could twist off in the case of an impact or a roll over.

I'm not sure if I'm explaining myself right, anyone else see what I'm getting at?

I know exactly what you're talking about, only because I watched an hour long show about how to make a roll cage to competition spec. What you're saying should happen is the halo should be attached to the B pillar with the rear upper bar lining up with the halo so that the halo and upper bar would be one long piece going back if the B pillar weren't there. Definitely hard to explain.

Exactly, I think anyways!



Hopefully that image works, I can't access my photobucket account from work for whatever reason, so I used my old Imagestation account.

The white arrows show what I was trying to explain when I was saying that it creates stress points on the Halo. In the case of a roll over or a crash, the bars will want to push in the direction of the white arrows.

The green line with the arrows basically explains the direction that the Halo will want to move because of the force that will be applied when those 2 bars try to compress against the Halo. Basically, it will want to try and twist, and will eventually give way.

Because the A-bar (highlighted on my edited pic) and the B-bar don't meet up on the Halo, it creates that twist point that I was talking about.

In a perfect world, or to pass specs on most race inspections, the A-bar and the B-bar should meet together on the C-bar (the "Halo"), where the yellow circle is.

Note: Please excuse my horribly poor job at paintshop'ing in what I was trying to explain.

By the way, the 4-link looks sick!

How is it any different than a truck that doesn't even have the bar on the rear side? So I guess on a pickup it bends towards the rear, and this holds it in place comparatively? Only on XOC did this come up.. who would ever have guessed?

Gotta be careful when reinforcing tubing. Where is all the force going to be directed and is a bend in a tube better tank all the force being applied in a 3 square inch area.

Oh I totally agree, it wouldn't be any different then a truck with no bar on the rear side.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's cool that you've taken the truck to this extent (which is WAY further then I have on any of my vehicles so far), I just noticed that the bars weren't matching up on the Halo, and wondered if you had thought about reinforcing the cage at that specific point, that's all.

And to be perfectly honest, having the rear bar where you have it IS better then nothing, that's for sure.

I just noticed that the bars didn't match up on the Halo, that's all. In all the stuff that I have read and seen about building a roll cage, they always stress that where 2 bars meet on opposite sides of a 3rd perpendicular bar, like you have, they should be as close to meeting face-on as possible to eliminate the twisting effect.

It was just something that I noticed, that's all.

And I don't think that this is an XOC thing, as I don't really spend a lot of time on XOC, aside from reading about other people's adventures and cool projects...

Honestly the biggest problem with an internal cage is smacking your head on the tubes. Cages in competition require around 3 inches of space between the head and any tube. The way my cage is made sacrifices itself in some areas in order to give the driver the maximum head space.

With an exocage this is alleviated totally. However, every time a tube on a cage gets hit by something that section should be replaced. Not sure that is happening with those.

The junction that we are talking about is stronger than the bends on the tubes that go down through the dash. Here is really what I was trying to avoid.

Just took a look at Grandpa's Pathy, and it's sweet!

The cage is fine. In fact, it'll more than hold up to anything that will be thrown at it.

I had folks criticize my cage as well. And it's held up to a rollover just fine.

Someone told me once, those that can, do. Those that can't coach. I hear some coaching going on. When you can build one, then tell us how it's done. Otherwise, Nice Job Ryan!

For Fucks sakes Ricky...

I'm gonna go off on a rant here... This is the very reason why I took my XOC stickers off my truck, because you can't say a damn thing on this site without someone else retorting and saying that you're a moron and to STFU.

XOC is a site where there is TONS of information about Xterras, and is a great place to search for information about stuff. Just don't EVER comment about something with the expectation that it will be left at that...

FOR THE RECORD, I was not criticizing him for his cage; I just asked if he had thought about the mating points for the 2 bars coming to the Halo. That is all. I even went so far as to say that I have never built a roll-cage, and that I am no expert, just that I NOTICED and wondered if he had thought about it, that’s all.

My opinion, to which I am entitled, on his truck is that it kicks ass, and that he should continue the work. I didn’t say anything along the lines of “Hey buddy, you’re an idiot and you don’t know jack about making a roll cage”…

No where did I "COACH", or criticize or say anything negative about the cage. I was just pointing out something that I noticed about the way the bars meet up.

Period. Good night XOC. This place really sucks sometimes, you know that?

Sweet Dreams....LOL! Come on back in the morning!

Sorry bro! I probably brought this on. My bad!