interior rool bar for overlanding. Yay or nay?

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wingnutLP

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London :( But I am moving to Freetown in Sierra Le
I am driving to Sierra Leone to work for a year in August and have bought a 110. The advice from the garage that is prepping it is that I ought to get a £700 roll cage/bar fitted inside between the two rolls of seats.

I am not going to be deliberately driving over anything crazy.

Any thoughts?

Do landys squish occupants when they roll?
 
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ouch :(

I am certainly not going to be doing anything like that!!

so what should an interior hoop cost fitted?

I am happy to give fitting it myself a bash as long as it isn't too hard, I guess getting it into position without removing doors and seats is tricky?

Something like this is what I have been recommended
img3760.jpg
 
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What you have to look at is do all the locals drive about will roll over hoops ? are you taking part in a rally/raid ? What happens if you fall over a bit harder than the hoop can cope with , (as its not a cross braced) ?
Might it be safer to go in a shorland armoured landrover ?
It is all a matter of balance , how nervous you are . £700 and the weight penalty dont seem to sell it much to me JMHO
 
tacr2man said:
What you have to look at is do all the locals drive about will roll over hoops ? are you taking part in a rally/raid ? What happens if you fall over a bit harder than the hoop can cope with , (as its not a cross braced) ?
Click to expand...

The locals don't have much but sticks to rub together!

The local NGO staff all drive modern land cruisers. I guess what I am really asking is are defenders cabs much less strong than other cars or is rolling one about as dangerous as rolling any other 4X4?
 
wingnutLP said:
The locals don't have much but sticks to rub together!

The local NGO staff all drive modern land cruisers. I guess what I am really asking is are defenders cabs much less strong than other cars or is rolling one about as dangerous as rolling any other 4X4?
Click to expand...

Did you watch the VID?? that's what happens if you roll a defender. The front windscreen struts are only held in place by 2 very short m8 bolts at each bottom corner. everything else is Aluminium or has no structural strength at all. In a roll the windscreen mounting bolts tend the just shear, or the windscreen frame folds flat onto the dash and the rest of the roof comes down with it.

Other 4x4's have steel bodyshells and A & B posts that are structural and an integral part of the bodyshell. Defenders don't have this and so they fold up in a rollover.
 
A different perspective , when prettywell any vehicle rolls over the roof collapses , as they are not designed to carry the weight of the vehicle on the roof, (I have cut enough people out of vehicles to be able to give this opinion) . Thats why they put roll cages in rally cars (with structural windscreen pillars , and bonded in glass) , not because the roofs are weaker than any other make but because the chance of a roll over is very much higher due to way they are driven.
When I used terms locals , I was not narrowing it to one village in rwanda, but those can afford vehicles (4wd in particular) , NGO choice of vehicle and equipment level , is not generally driven by pragmatism , but I wont get started on that rant . :)
 
wingnut, your going to get a 50:50 split on this one. Its something that has been discussed by many overlanders over time. Its going to come down to personal pref at the end of the day. As pikey has rightly pointed out, it does not take much to fold a defender cab.

you mention NGO LC but you fail to remember your defender is going to be heavily loaded with kit and is therefore not a good comparison to standard spec LC.

roll overs are actually easier to achieve than some people realise. we are not talking about dakar style dune smashing. imagine a heavily loaded vehicle driven by you after 5 days of piste driving 200km offroad everyday. tired, hot want to get to the destination of the day. the sun is high and you a) hit a small ridge at 30mph or b) go off a small drop into an oued at 30mph. either of which you didnt see from lack of shadows (high sun, easily done). should you not keep it on its wheels and it goes over (either direction, dont matter) then you could potentially be stuffed depending on the situation/location. trapped in the cab with an unconcious passenger at your side a day from anybody passing you? not something i would want with my girlfriend travelling with me.

If you had a cage fitted and little damage done, you could right the vehicle and be on your way again to the nearest garage to check it out. it could mean the difference between carrying on or turning around and flying home.

seeing as your getting a garage to prep your rover for you, if you intend to keep it then it must be worth the little extra cost.

other advantages. external cages mean you can mount a rack/tent and not stress the roof gutters. limits body panel damage if rolled. mount kit externally (sand ladders, spade)

disadvantages: extra weight, some of which will be high up. cost. internal cage will eat into your load space.

thats about all i can think of right now. make sure the tubing is well speced before parting with your £££. where did the garage say they would get the roll cage from?

G
 
Just found this if it helps:

"This Defender above from South Africa slid on spilled diesel, went off the road and turned over several times. The 2 occupants escaped with some cuts and a few broken bones. But look at the upper structure of the body. All the roof crumpled down and had to be cut by the SAR team. This car even had the heavy roofrack mounted (a corner is still visible in the lower right edge) which spread the impact evenly."

ZuidAfrica1.jpg
 
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