Posted September 27, 2019 by Greg Torney The How To

Designing the Team Roll Cage (Part 2)

The new roll cage is officially in the works! King of the Hammers, Ultra 4, and SXS Sports (all series that we anticipate participation for the 2020 season) mandate aftermarket roll cages. The general expectation for material thickness ranges and is solely dependent on your series.

Series	Thickness Minimum (Under 2000 lbs)	Thickness Minimum (2001 – 2500 lbs)	Steel Type Minimum
Ultra4	0.120 Wall, 1.5″ OD (Main Tubes Only)	.120 Wall, 1.5″ OD (Main Tubes Only)	WCR 1020
SxS Sports	0.095 Wall, 1.5″ OD	0.095 Wall, 1.5″ OD	DOM, 4130
BITD	0.095 Wall, 1.5″ OD	0.120 Wall, 1.5″ OD	CREW, DOM, WHR, WCR, 4130

Each series follows similar guidelines for material grade but differ subtly on structural provisions such as door bars, bracing, and diagonals. At the moment, the cage is in the early phases of design and is focused primarily on overall layout and general material quantity (we’ll look more in depth at specific rule guidelines later on). Using a SolidWorks model, we can dissect the expected scope of work- plenty of notching, eight primary bends, and numerous 7′ stick sections of DOM steel tube.

Our focus for the first iteration is to prototype based on the Trophy Truck 6100 class platform. Primary design elements that we are working towards include:

Square Regions (Utilizing the ‘Perfect Ratio’ ~ 5:8)
Defined Rear Bed, ‘Truck-Like’
Integrated Front Bumper (Cage Points 7 and 8)
A-Pillar Addition at Main Hoops
Hinged Door Bars

One of the primary benefits of modeling our cage iterations is predictability. The current version (shown above) consumes approximately 97 feet of material! At 1.68 pounds per foot that adds up to approximately 165 pounds for the roll cage itself. This length in the 0.120 wall, 1.75″ OD configuration is roughly 210 pounds. As we get further along in the build process, we will identify potential zero-force members and perform stress tests within the SolidWorks model to eliminate non-contributors (aka dead weight) in the structure. Soon to come is a breakdown of the specific rules per race sanction (Ultra4, SxS Sports) and how we plan on addressing these in our design.