bbailey
Banned
This simply isn't correct. I've seen more than a few cages protect occupants in crashes at far greater speeds, in street cars.
Assuming you have the background you say, then you know it's all in the design. Many cage builders throw more and more tubing at a problem to create a structurally sound cage. And you end up with something that clearly isn't streetable. I'd also say you started with a builder that didn't truly understand what they were doing or the engineering behind it. It's not that hard to build a cage in a JKU that retains all the creature comforts of a stock JKU with the added safety of a full cage. That said, it's also not cheap.
This is very true and something everyone (especially those taller than average) should think about. It's also why many sports cars with cages get relegated to garage queen status. Bumping your head on a cage, even lightly, can very easily be fatal. It's very difficult, in the tight confines of most sports cars, to build a cage that you can't whack your head on pretty easily due to even a light impact. It's why I never recommended cages in street cars (roll bars, yes, full cages, no) when I was building racecars. Jeeps are a bit different as the packaging is different but the risks are the same. Bump your head on an unpadded bar and you are likely looking at a severe concussion or worse. Even with padding, it can be very dangerous.
At the risk of being banned ala JKF days of old, I would suggest you search out other options online. Most on this forum go the sport cage route. We might have a few with full custom cages, but I feel safe in saying there aren't 5 build threads on this forum that detail a fully custom cage build. There are on some of the other JK dedicated forums and quite a few of these are still very streetable. Are there trade-offs? Absolutely and you seem to understand those pretty well. It's a question of what trade off are you willing to accept. And you need to know what those are and understand them going in so you can design around those requirements before you start burning in components of your cage.
If you don't have proper racing shells, you shouldn't be running harnesses so a harness bar becomes somewhat moot (this is a whole other argument that we definitely don't want to get started on). If you are running shells, then a harness bar isn't that big a compromise because you can't recline your seat anyway. In the back, it's a question of what and how much gear you carry. I'm always using my back seat and have a cage design sitting in Solidworks right now that allows me to use the back as I need to. Of course I don't carry anything that requires folding the rear seats, so a cross bar there doesn't bother me. Only thing I carry on the floor of the back is a welder, a small tool kit, and a large cooler. Everything else fits in the basket to be strapped down. This still leaves room to tie upper rear shock mounts into the cage structure at some point in the future without impacting my ability to carry the camping/wheeling gear that I typically carry. That works great for me, might not for others.
