[leadmic]

So I take it you ride with a lot of RZRs.

 

[WWARt]

Probably should grab a bag of rubber bands too!

 

[WWARt]

So I take it you ride with a lot of RZRs.

Awesome idea. I converted it to RZR recovery kit!

 

[WWARt]

So, fixed the mistake I made mounting the fire extinguisher. When I had done my layout I had put a reference line on the downtube. When I was drilling my mounts I used my reference line instead of the mount centerline.

Better... the location is to keep it from getting hit by branches, etc.

Since I'm out of Argon till next week I went ahead and installed the lightbar. The decision to mount it on the roof instead of on the front tube was to keep the glare off the hood. Moving it back puts the hood in shadow.

So now its just down to fully welding the rear tubes and tabs. Then grinding down any offensive welds.

Last step will be making sure any Sharpie marks are sanded off. Depending on the prep process used by the powdercoat company Sharpie marks can telegraph thru the finish.

Dont ask me how I know this...

Nate

 

[WWARt]

Since this post has really changed from its original theme, I asked the Admin to move this to either Cages, Seats and Belts or YXZ Builds since its now more of a build post.

Nate

 

[WWARt]

Almost finished... Down to welding tabs and grinding ugly welds.

Changed my mind on the lightbar mount tabs. Decided to use large tabs, just because. Since these were mounted on the radius I added a slight bend to the tabs before welding. I left the center 3/4" flat and bent the ends down to fit the tube.

Took sometime to figure out where to put the helmet hangars. Flash of inspiration (aka, SWMBO told me to). Mounted them to the front cross tube.

Mirrors are another pair of large tabs.

The rest are just camera mounts, and the rear lightbar (back up light). I also modified the large tab i used for whip mounts.

So, down to 2 pieces of tube for the Tusk overhead bag and Rugged Radios intercom. Probably add 4 tabs for the side velcro tabs on the bag and call it ready for powdercoat.

Nate

 

[TJV250R]

This is looking really nice! I like the helmet hanger. I was just thinking about doing something like this in mine. I also chuckled when I saw the rubber bands.

 

[Rocken Robin]

Don’t u hate that.

 

[WWARt]

Don’t u hate that.

LOL 😆

 

[WWARt]

Had a few minutes today so I added the two tubes and tabs for the Tusk overhead bag and Rugged Radios intercom.

I also added two tabs for domelights.

With this done all I have left are finishing a couple of fillets on the rear tubes and the anti-intrusion bars.

With a little luck it'll be off to powdercoat by this weekend.

While all this is going on I went ahead and rewired all the accessories. Part of this was replacing the seperate relay block and fuse block with a single unit.
By switching to micro relays in a Bussmann 5 relay, 10 fuse block i was able to tuck it behind the driver where the seat belt used to sit.

Well thats enough for tonight. Time for Two Women, or maybe a Fat Squirrel. LOL.

Nate

 

[WWARt]

So, since I know your all on tenterhooks about this cage...

Final welds are done. I did grind the welds on the bungs back to flat to check for porosity and voids (none found). Then laid a heavy W weave back on top of the existing welds.

Where I had drilled into the cage to run wires I added reinforcement. It will make adding split o-ring grommets more difficult, but oh well.

Where the downtubes on the rear of the cage tie in I added tacos that I fabbed up from 12 ga mild steel. Since these are really more ornamental than functional I ground the welds smooth.

The tacos also reinforce the area where I drilled to pass the wiring harness into the cage.

The last thing I did before calling it a night was connect a vacuum to the hole for the wiring harness and make sure that I had good suction at all the points I drilled for wires. Hate to find out after its powdercoated that I missed an internal pass thru.

So, all goes well, Wednesday I'll drop it off for powdercoat.

 

[madmat]

Looking good

 

[Mad_dogg805]

So CageWRX Super Shorty cage showed up last Sunday. I thought it was going to be an LSK radius cage, but, hey I'm just the mechanic here...... I ordered an additional overhead center tube so that I had a place to hang a Tusk overhead bag.

Got it cleaned and ready for tacking last night.
View attachment 117250
Took an hour today and tacked it together. Now to get it welded up. But before I can do that I need to get SWMBO's ride put back together.
View attachment 117251
She's chomping at the bit since just about every weekend has been in the 50's and sunny. Figure by the time its ready to go we'll have deep snow and 20 below. LOL

Question, you ordered LSK and they sent you a CageWRX instead?

I'm asking because I've been looking at the LSK kit, but havnt made up my mind! LOL

 

[WWARt]

Question, you ordered LSK and they sent you a CageWRX instead?

I'm asking because I've been looking at the LSK kit, but havnt made up my mind! LOL

No. After talking it over we had decided to go with the LSK. But when it came time to order it Michelle opted for the CageWRX due to cost. Some dealers want a surprising amount for shipping. Some wanted the same for a kit as an assembled cage. In the end it tipped the scale. She paid under $100 for shipping.

Since she knew from my standpoint it was a horse a piece, the last minute change was no big deal.

Then throw in that we live and work 135 miles apart for half the week. And the change just never came up. So when the boxes showed up, I was thinkin "Huh, guess LSK is out, CageWRX is in".

Nate

 

[Mad_dogg805]

Ok makes sense!

I went through your complete post, and read everything you did.

I can relate to your problem of not having time to build it yourself. I have a baby on the way, and between getting the house ready and work... not much time for anything!

Worst part of it all, im a welder! Spend all my time welding and working on other peoples stuff, my stuff never gets done! 🤣🤣

 

[WWARt]

Ok makes sense!

I went through your complete post, and read everything you did.

I can relate to your problem of not having time to build it yourself. I have a baby on the way, and between getting the house ready and work... not much time for anything!

Worst part of it all, im a welder! Spend all my time welding and working on other peoples stuff, my stuff never gets done! 🤣🤣

I feel your pain. I must have 5 personal match rifles sitting at 50% with parts bins sitting around full of everything that needed to finish them off (that I end up raiding for customer rifles). Customers? I think I had 3 pickups today of precision match rifles, all tweaked, tuned, blueprinted, fully customized and cerakoted. Another 5 to go this week.

As for the cage... Well, a little tactful negotiation and massaging of the work schedule. And.... I spent about 45 days working on getting everything done. That said, there were plenty of days that I spent more time turning the Argon on and off than I did welding. I think a lot of the welds actually turned out looking worse because it was a little here, a little there. I would estimate that I spent probably 12-16+ hours welding (I went thru 2+ 80 cu/ft Ar bottles). Another 8 - 12 hours fabricating, making and modifying different parts. Probably another 8-12 hours of cleaning, prepping, re-doing, and general screwing around. So, for a first time, a total of 40 hours labor. But that includes things like making and tacking 4 taco's in place, then the next morning grinding them back out and remaking them. Welding on whip mounts, then grinding them back off and cutting the tabs and welding them back on. If I did another one I would be willing to bet it would be closer to 15 hours total.

I do like that I was able to completely customize how and where things were getting mounted. That said, as I was sweeping up the shop a couple days after dropping the cage off for powder coat. I looked down and thought "Huh.... could have sworn I welded the jack mount onto the rear tubes.... did I fab up two of them by accident...." yeah, no. I completely forgot to weld the jack mount onto the cage.

After all this I have decided that my old mantra of "measure twice, cut once" should probably be "measure with a micrometer, check with a yardstick, cut with an axe.".

Nate

 

[WWARt]

Well. Its back....

$400 for powdercoat. Color match was perfect. IIRC, its Prismatic Powders (Cerakote) Plue. I used the old front bumper as a color guide.

Took an hour and used the shop vac to pull threads thru the cage and get my pull wires in place so I can pull the wiring. Can't get wiring installed till my grommets show up tomorrow. So, I guess its down to getting weather strip on the cage to keep the roof from rattling. Install the Dzus fastner springs. And get the old roof and cage off.

Trying to decide if i should surprise SWMBO with a 30" diameter Yamaha logo on the roof in a silver gray color.

A little luck and it'll be on the road this weekend.

Nate

 

[WWARt]

Well, that didn't go as planned...

Apparently the cage did warp a bit while welding. But, with the help of straps, hammer, jack stands, jack and a bit of grease...

Now its just down to connecting the wiring from the cage to the body and it is done. Little luck it'll be done by end of day tomorrow.

Nate

 

[WWARt]

Thought I would take a minute to finish this off.

A lot of people ask or talk about not being able to find or reuse existing accessories. So I thought I would detail how I did adapt and reuse all of my existing accessories.

1/2 Windshield:
I started by mocking up my existing Kolpin windshield in cardboard. Cardboard made it easy to trim to fit the new cage.

As it turned out I just needed to trim the corners a bit and a little off the bottom center. For this I just used a hacksaw. I also needed to drill a new set of holes due to having to move the clamps.

So fitting the windshield proved to be no problem at all and probably only took 30 minutes.

Whip Mounts:
Using the supplied whip mounts wasn't going to work. The supplied tabs would have mounted the whips too high. Instead I used two large tabs. I trimmed them strictly for looks.

Total cost to replace the whip mounts was about $6.00 took about 15 minutes.

Fire Extinguisher mount:
I wanted to reuse my mount, but didnt like the idea of strapping it on with a pair of hose clamps. Instead I used a couple inches of 3/4" bar welded into the tube and tapped 5/16-18 for the mount bolts.

Total cost was about $2.00 took about 30 minutes.

Spare Tire Mount:
I have a Dragonfire spare mount. It's designed to clamp onto a 1-1/2" tube but the CageWRX cage is 1-3/4". Trying to find a bushing to adapt the tire carrier didn't yield much if any results. But a quick trip to the local Tractor Supply I found a nylon pipe fitting that I modified to act as a bushing.

Total cost was $4.00 and took about an hour.

Tusk Overhead Bag:
The CageWRX cage only has a single overhead tube making mounting the Tusk bag impossible. When I ordered the cage I also ordered a second overhead tube. I also added a couple feet of 1-1/2 tube and a couple seat belt tabs I had on hand. I used 1-1/2" tube because I already had tube mounts for the Rugged Radios intercom and replacing them would have been expensive.

Total cost was about $65.00 and took about 1:30.

Bottom line, I was able to reuse all of my existing accessories. Total cost was under $80.00. Based on my experience I feel that with a little ingenuity, a little creativity its possible to adapt, modify or fit most of the more common accessories to fit an aftermarket cage.

Just my .02 worth.

Nate

 

[lottomunch]

That is beautiful. Wish I had your skills.

I was planning to purchase a Brick City Fab cage because they had a tall version that I knew I'd fit under. By chance how tall are you guys with the Cagewrx cages and how much room do you have between your helmet and the bottom of the roof bar?