Roll bar & access. rack- buy or fab?

[62saab]

Hi All,

I now have a '07 MAX II,and am weighing the benefits of fabbing those items versus searching for the OEM pieces(availability of them unknown at this point).
The oem R/bar appears to only surface mount to the tub top -if so,it's primarily for appearance. I don't need a full cage like the excellent example built by sirjared,so I'm considering a more abbreviated design that attaches at both the tub flange and the vertical sides of the tub via triangular plates,making for four point attachment.

So,please make suggestions either way-I'm ready to build!!

Sam

[Noel Woods]

I think you don't need a roll cage or very heavy duty roll bar. I have never rolled a Max2 even with big 25" tires and more powerful engines. The center of gravity is very low in a Max2. A roll bar does give you some protection as well as a place to grab on to for pushing and pulling, plus a nice place to mount lights or anything else to.

[Toys4Me]

I've seen plenty of machines roll and come very close myself. Besides the roll over protection they are also very nice when going through the woods to help keep branches from smacking you. All my machines have some kind of roll bar ranging from factory to custom.

[ARGOJIM]

The Max II roll bar mounts to both the upper body and then pinned onto the frame jack shaft towers to aid in downward force and horizontal movements.
A four point bar would need disconnect points to be able to tilt the body for service, a combination of both the factory bar and some extension bars, making it 4 or 6 point, seems to be the ticket incase of rear chain/bearing or engine/trans/belt issues while in the field.

I have been with 2 machines that went over trail riding, first one in the 80's-90's over a couple times, went end over end no issues, backwards end over end and the last was a sideways barrel roll, the single factory bar held up fine each time. 2nd machine was at Humphrey in 99?, up off the logging trail camouflage man hit a little hump at mid speed and the machine endoed in front of me, the bar did it's job.

[62saab]

roll bar

OK,fellas,thanks for your individual comments. So then the oem MAX roll bar is in fact functional and not just cosmetic-great. I wasn't aware of it's attachment points,not having seen one 'in person' (yet).
I think one of those would do nicely for my use; I don't know how difficult one may be to find/purchase.

[Mike]

Check out these two photos showing where it mounts:

[sirjared]

I added a full cage for several reasons. First for roll over protection, but more importantly for somewhere to hold on too while getting in and out. It also works really well at knocking branches out of the way on tight trails. Passengers also "feel" better if they have something to hold onto. It also gives you a structure to attach things to, like a winch, racks, fuel cans, roof, etc. The down side is if you need to get in and work on it. It becomes a 2 man job to get the top separated. I have done it by my self but is is not fun. Just my opinion. However having added the roll cage I am very happy with it and would not drive one without it.