I will just wear my helmet for all drives now..

Seriously, I will get some padding for the bar though.

I can't comment much on the mounting plates, only seen the pictures here. Hopefully they have some strength to them. Cusco seems to be a reputable company, so I would like to think they have engineered a safe product.

George

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by kitwetzler
Here are the problems with the Cusco bar/cage:

the backing and mounting plates are woefully inadequate.

 

I think the cusco bars are scary, every one of those fancy bends is a serious weak point.

I agree w/ what kit wesler said.

what diamater and thickness is the tubing? Does the bar meet -any- certifications?

I realize a lot of you want to keep your interior but buying a bar that makes questionable bends and mounts with small backing plates to sheet metal locations is going to NOT be safer than stock and will likely result in more injuries when all that metal bends around you.


As UL likes to state, caveat emptor.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by vapors2k

 

Some of you criticize the bends as a point of failure, and some mention the tiny mounting plates, but for me, when I was going through the rollbar debate, the thing that pushed me away from the Cusco stuff was the assembly. I do not like the two small welded pieces that the adjoining bar bolts into. The amount of load that could be transferred into those joints seems to me to be way more than the joint could handle, thus the bars would become separate and one of them would be very able to flop around in the interior.

Sorry to rain on someone's parade, but those rollbars do not appeal to me at all.

 

O.K., to summarize:

1. The bars have undersized mounting plates.

2. The bolt-together assembly is questionable for safety.

3. The tubing diameter and wall thickness are unknown.

4. In order to fit into the interior without chopping things up, the bar is heavily "bent" at some extreme angles, causing potential failure points.

5. In anything other than a full roll-over, the bar is likely to *reduce* safety due to potential head impact.

But it looks cool!

I knew I'd get some highly opinionated but never the less informative responses out of you guys!

 

If a bent is considered a weak point, then shouldn't the two bents of the main loop found in all rollbars be weak points as well? I guess they are necessary evil?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by kitwetzler

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by spider
If a bent is considered a weak point, then shouldn't the two bents of the main loop found in all rollbars be weak points as well?

 

I'd really like to get some info from Cusco on these points. While I believe everyone's crticism's of these bars / cages to be valid ones, I still find it interesting that these bars / cages are being used in alot of Japanese race S2000's (at leaast it appears the ones that maintain a stock-ish interioir).

It may not meet SCCA regulations, but I think to call it unsafe is probably quite unfair. Just my humble $0.02 tho. Would love for someone to vindicate these

-J