The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → How much (what length) of tubing for a cage?
How many feet of tubing go into a typical Lemons cage?
This will be 1.75" X .120 DOM
My God, what have I done...
It depends on the car. We bought (4) 20' sticks and we have about a stick left over in various lengths of drops. The drops (pieces left over) are always good for beating dents out of the fender, reinforcing the existing cage or beating any kids that don't listen.
80' is about right for a compact...I'd buy 100'. For 1.75" all you need is .095.
We CADed ours out for our 5th-gen civic and with some not-strictly-required supports (cross-braces on the rear), it came to 65ft. Expect to use up a bit more because of notching, mistakes, extra couple inches on each piece for fudge room, etc.
For 1.75" all you need is .090.
For cars weighing under 3000 pounds as raced is 1.50" x .120" or 1.75" x .095". Cars weighing over 3000 pounds as raced must use a minimum tubing size of 1.75" x .120".
The 633 was 3200-3400 new.
I'm sure we took a few hundred pounds out, but with the cage back in it'll probably be over 3k. Hence: 1.75x.120.
Industrial metal supply is quoting me ~$6/foot for 1.75 x .120 DOM.
I know I could do HREW, but no one but Lemons will accept it (and it seems they might migrate to DOM).
Industrial metal supply is quoting me ~$6/foot for 1.75 x .120 DOM.
6*65? yoikes...
~$400 for steel is about right for a cage.
I was able to get a great deal from these guys, they're enormous so I'd bet they have a facility in your neck of the woods:
They apparently usually only sell to distributors but have recently (at least as of January when I bought our steel) changed that policy if you're buying several sticks. I got 80' of 1.5x.120 DOM for something like $260 total. We are in a smaller car (MR-2) and only used 60 of that 80 feet but will be adding more of it in now that double door bars are required. I'd go for 100 feet for your car.
EMJ sells these in 20' sticks which is kind of a pain to transport but it certainly results in less end-cut loss. Cheers and good luck.
We bought 100 ft of 1.5x.120 DOM tubing for our E30 and used about 80ft for our cage with some added gusseting, cross braces, and a dash bar. He wasted less than 5 feet with poorly measured or mis-bent tubes. For a taller/wider car like a Fox body or an E28, I would order 120ft.
I believe we paid $3.50/ft for the tubing.
I believe we paid $3.50/ft for the tubing.
My wallet and I like the sound of that... very much.
TeamDFL wrote:I believe we paid $3.50/ft for the tubing.
My wallet and I like the sound of that... very much.
Even in Soviet Canuckistan we managed $4CAD/ft for 1.5x0.120 DOM, so if you're getting asked more than that, you're getting ripped off. The worst we saw was $8/ft.
BTW, all of those costs are DOM, right?
Seems like 1.75" x .120 is beefier than most others use.
1.75 x .095 or 1.50x.120 is more common across the board.
Nick/anyone else in charge...umm...are you sure we need the heavy stuff?
And...ummm...how do you verify the wall thickness?
I get the impression veteran teams are getting a pretty sweet deal with grandfather clauses on older cages. Life's not fair, so I'm not gonna a make a big deal about it...just an observation.
BTW, all of those costs are DOM, right?
Our $4/ft quote is for 1.5x0.120 DOM. However, the $4/ft is through my brother who works for a big construction company, and through another teammate who works in a shop. The best public quote we got was $6/ft. All prices Canadian, and keep in mind everything is more expensive in Canada.
And...ummm...how do you verify the wall thickness?
At MSR-Houston, our cage was not checked for wall thickness. However, under NASA rules, cages are required to have small inspection holes drilled out so that tech inspectors can check the wall thickness. I suspect that if your cage gave the appearance of being substandard, they'd require you to drill a hole and prove that you're using tube that is up-to-spec.
You're likely to spend a lot more time and effort building the cage than nearly anything else for a Lemons ride. I sure wouldn't want to jeopardize that by using non-spec materials just to save a hundred bucks. It wouldn't pay off economically at all if you were to get to the track and then get bounced for the non-spec cage.
And that's not even discussing the safety aspect.
We buy our tubing at Marmon/Keystone
It runs about $3.50 a foot for .120 wall 1.75 Dia.
Here is the link to the California site, It looks like they have a Sacramento office.
https://www.marmonkeystone.com/ecomm/se … &id=47
Call them if your interested they usually do a cash order with something like a $300.00 order.
Just remember to order in lengths of whatever is standard. they are usually 18' long
The first time I ordered exactly 80' and got dinged for a cut order. They guy told me after to order standard lengths and there is no extra charges.
Oh Yea and it's DOM!
BTW, all of those costs are DOM, right?
Seems like 1.75" x .120 is beefier than most others use.
1.75 x .095 or 1.50x.120 is more common across the board.
Nick/anyone else in charge...umm...are you sure we need the heavy stuff?
And...ummm...how do you verify the wall thickness?
I get the impression veteran teams are getting a pretty sweet deal with grandfather clauses on older cages. Life's not fair, so I'm not gonna a make a big deal about it...just an observation.
1.75x.120 is only required for cars weighing over 3000 pounds. 1.75 x .095 and 1.50x.120 are both fine for sub-3000 pound cars.
Wall thickness is verified by an inspection hole--we don't do this to every car, but you should be prepared for the chance that we'll pick yours out of the crowd.
The basic tubing requirements haven't changed, so teams with properly-built older cages can often add any needed components (second door bars, main hoop diagonals) to their existing cage. The difference between the old and new rules isn't as significant as you'd think--the only veteran teams that are having a rough go are those that had mediocre cages to begin with. If you bought an Autopower or other professionally-made setup in '06 or '07, it still should be fundamentally sound. If you had your paroled brother Joey weld it in his basement, well....
Yeah, figure 80 feet minimum for a compact and 100-120 feet for a mid size car. Don't forget the .120 plate for the mounts.
Nick, I *think* the JEG'S cages are still legal with 2 drivers' door bars installed (if ordered correctly they are made of 1.750 x .134 ERW), is that true?
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