Suburban Exo-Cage

The Suburban Grill Guard

Once the Rear Bumper was completed we decided to finish it out with an Exo Cage for ultimate protection. We started from the front by building up the front bumper with some grill protection. As you can tell from the picture, we used the trusty cardboard for this project as well. This time in the form of a stand while we figured out our first piece of tube. Once this part was done we started trying to figure out the actual grill part. We went back and forth as to whether to use flat plate steal of tube. So Matt from Tread Industries cut and bent some tube and modeled it for me. I liked it alot and thought it looked alot better than the flat plate, so thats what we went with. Pics at the end will show finished product! Now onto the Exo Cage!

The Suburban Exo-Cage

We started on the Exo Cage after finishing up the front grill guard. Ill start explaining it from front to back. Tube was laid out and outlined the body lines fairly well. We used 120 wall DOM, 1 3/4 tube. We kept the tube about an inch and a half to two inches away from the body to prevent rubbing during extreme body flex. As you can tell from the picture the tube ties into the front grill gaurd and goes down and ties into the Rock Sliders.
We have one piece that mounts from the front of the slider and goes up and runs the roof line. From that piece we have another piece of tube that mounts from the rear of the Rock Sliders and goes up to tie into that roofline tube. Youll notice this tube goes straight up and down. We tried to get it to angle foward with the flow of the window. But by putting a bend there, it stuck out too far and looking at it from the front made the suburban look like it had "ears".LOL!
For the quarter panel we were able to bend it around and tie it into the lower quarter panel protection. This turned out very slick im my humble opinion. By doing this we were able to avoid tying into the rear bumper. This also helps it to flex properly. Later we will add quarter plates that will cover the quarter panels better.
For the roof, we had a total of four cross braces. That should be more than enough, but just to make sure we added an "x". This should really keep it strong on top. We will be adding a roof rack at a later date to this structure. Offroad Lights will be added to the furthest foward cross support as well.

I had to get it outside! After being in the shop for nearly a month, I took outside for a short stroll. Heres a pic of what it looks like so far. It not complete yet, but will be shortly and Ill keep this page updated!