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exo-cage for stormchasing - falling branch protection

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 12:48 pm
by RogDog
Hi , I've been getting into chasing storms lately and recently was quite amazed at how much tree debris can occur in high wind storms. I'm considering an external roll cage, (exo cage), essentially to protect myself and my passengers in the event of large tree limbs falling on the car roof! anyone heard or seen anyone do this on an older subie wagon? anyone know the law in regards to such a project? to make everything more difficult i'm thinking of a removable design, and one that doesnt effect crumple zones too much. here's a doco I just made on the storm that's making me think of doing this..


Shepparton 156km/h storm, 2010

MODIFICATION guidelines .gov.au link

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 12:54 pm
by RogDog

Posted: Sat May 22, 2010 7:58 pm
by spike
so...................
your still goin got do it??

Yep

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 1:32 pm
by RogDog
still in the works, definitely wanna do it still, have installed a tradies roofrack for minimal protection so far.

Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2010 10:28 pm
by spike
me fail english =)


i saw a thing on this on TV the other day from america, mainly aimed at stopping hailstanes but was pretty good still.

instread of going the old ugly exocage, or the expensive option of an amazing chrome one.

the one i saw had nets on top to catch them, but i was thinking of making some meshed guards, with steel outers and bolting them over the windows almost like the landrover in the original italian job. i reacon it would look good and still provide a fgair amount of saftey.

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2010 11:13 pm
by RogDog
sounds cool, the best one I've seen, apart from the 'TIV' ,'Dominator' and "Tornado Attack Vehicle" used Lexan sheets to protect windows from hail. My main concern is large branches. still having ideas, basically something to strengthen the roof supports

Posted: Tue Nov 16, 2010 5:07 pm
by spike
how about a lot of triangulation?
with the lexan windows
triangulate a bar from the bullbar, to the roofrack and down to some side skirts
maybe install some sort of internal roll cage?

stormshield prototype, v1.0

Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 8:39 pm
by RogDog
cool spike cheers, I'll consider all options! The main thing is to do it in a way that won't attract too much police attention! here's what i've come up with for now, This is a prototype!Image

Posted: Tue Apr 05, 2011 11:34 pm
by RogDog
Image

Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2011 5:40 pm
by El_Freddo
Looking good RogDog! Will you be adding a flip down cage protection for the windscreen and the rear one too? Pretty good idea, I just don't know how hard you'll find it to get out of the vehicle when the cage is down - or how you stop it from bouncing around when it is down...

Early days I guess!

Cheers

Bennie

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 11:58 pm
by Subaruman5
Did you ever install the cage?