Hate the looks of them but maybe a full exo cage is the answer.

Some people don't really wheel their Jeep to the point of causing this kind of damage.

The other problem with an exo cage is the JK is wide enough without one. I guess that's why I take the LJ wheelin more than the JK depending on the location I am going.

 

Thank you for being so constructive and helpful. It's folks like you that make the internet what it is. Please return to this thread and attempt to contribute once you've gained the appropriate wheeling experience.

When I'm doing what I did this weekend:








It might be handy to have something like the A-pillar armor that's on my friend's TJ:


Because a small miscalculation on the driver's part will end up with a rig resting on it's side and two wheels instead of all four (or sometimes three) wheels. The type of wheeling that I do with my friends sometimes causes body damage. Adding 1/8" or 3/16" plate to spread load out across vulnerable parts BEFORE a flop happens makes the difference between a few scratches and a rock or stump in the wrong place on the side of a crack causing real body damage - the kind that sm_rubi and I are talking about.

Yup...width would be a definite issue. If I get any wider, I'm going to need to run a chainsaw non-stop to use the same trails as the CJ's, YJ's, and TJ's. I'm down with armor, but I'm not going to put an actual exo-cage on my DD. I think that strategically placed armor, rocker guards, bumpers, and skid plates will do what I need.

 

That is why I ended up getting an LJ.
A JK as nice as they are sometimes end up being like a square peg that you need to fit through a round hole.

 

Just a thought here, but would a light bar that runs off the A-pillar bolts and up around the windshield give you enough protection? Seems like the Rugged Ridge or MBRP style lightbars might give you some additional protection.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think that it would give me the level of protection that I'm looking for. It would be better than nothing, but i'm looking for something that won't increase the number of things that I'm going to catch on. Most of the guys that run the trails in this area that put light bars on ended up removing them before long. There are a lot of tight spots in the trees, and a light bar tends to catch on stuff.

 

The problem would be how to fasten the protective piece to the Jeep in such away that would not do more damage than good when it is hit.
A heavy duty Light Bar would probably do the trick.

KMA Fabrication makes one that has a really beefy mounting plate that is bolt on and they also do custom work.

h t t p://www.kmafabrication.com/gallerymore.asp?id=457934&page=2&galleryid=6930

 

Looking at your pictures I think you are correct. Plus, if you did start to put real lateral weight on one of those bars, there is probably a good chance you would just bend the bar in the other direction (and possibly f up your A pillar bolts in the process.)

 

That KMA stuff sure is sweet.

Just so that I'm making myself clear here - I know that armour will not allow the A-pillar to take the sort of hit that a bumper can take. What I'm looking for is something that will spread out the load from unluckily placed rock during a "soft flop" or a hard smack from a beefy tree limb. There is enough strength in the A-pillar, the problem is that it's not constructed to deal well with an instance where the force is concentrated in a small area. That's where the armor would help.

 

If you could get the metal formed perfect, you could probably get away with attaching it with 3m tape, then it would give you protection up to the point where the tape failed and you probably would be out of trouble at that point.

If the Metal piece was a continuation of the hinge cover piece, with the upper part kept flush with tape or RTV... That would probably do the trick.

Sounds like a job for Rutdigger.

You next stop should be the junkyard looking for 2 hinge pieces...

 

I have seen this happen to jeeps the last 2 trips and would love to find something to protect from trees