Hi, everyone. New to the Class 11 scene. Just getting started with research & planning.

Would this work as a Class 11 cage (with some modifications of course). Here's the info.

Prowlers/HiJumper Roll cage from the late80s or early 90s. Mild steel, two seat cage design. Setup for mid-travel suspension (uses VW bus shocks in the front and triple shocks in the rear). Rollcage bolts to the pan, bolts together at the firewalls, clamps to the rear torsion housing, and clamps to the front beam. Door bars have been cut in one place to permit install into another body.

Forgot to mention this came out of a bug so the main cage is setup to fit inside the body. The front shock hoops would need to be removed. Just wondering if the rest of it would be ideal for a Class 11 project.

First thing is what is it made out of. If it is made out of Mild steel, then you are wasting your time.

Thanks for the reply Mace. As mentioned, it's mild steel which is allowed by SCORE rules. Can you help me understand why mild steel would be wasting time? Even if this particular cage is not right, just would like to understand the issue with mild steel. I've been looking for a Class 11 car and I didn't think many were built with chromoly. Thx.

It all depends where and what series you want to race. If you can make that work in an 11, you can race MORE, MDR and Mexico (non SCORE) all day long. Our first car (P.G 1) started as an old 4 point baja cage that we slapped into the car and just started adding bars and raced it for a year and a half with no problems until the MINT in 08. But that was Dave's fault, not the cage. Good luck.

I had nothing to do with it. Anyway 99 percent of the class 11 cars racing Score are mild steel, and will continue to be as none are turned away making mild steel far from a waste of time. as far as that cage I personally would not stick that into a Vw body for a class 11 as a lot of extra tubing and extra work would have to be added to suport the torsion housing. By the looks of it it is a chenowith cage kit that has been added to but not really the way you would want it

DaveCo11 wrote:
Haaaaa. My Dave that is as I'm sure you are aware. He's my underwriter. If something on an 11 can and will break, Dave will find it. Guaranteed! Roxanne is my engine/tranny underwriter same thing. Them two have cost me lots and lots of money.

They are both for hire by the way!

DaveCo11 wrote:


I have fallen into a bad habit.. DOM can be anything including mild steel. However, it is an additional process to mild steel that does make it stronger.

Old grandfathered in rigs Can use ERW mild steel (although from what I understand SNORE is gonna delete the grandfathered thing next year).
New rigs, you are gonna have to use Chromo or Dom.

And IMHO, it is a waste of time to build a car that is intentionaly against the safety rules even tho \"nobody checks class 11's\".

Some of us Tech Inspectors DO check things!!!!

There are most certainly some who do NOT.

I could name certain organizations (BI..,SNO..)which competitors tell me pass their race cars through Tech if the racer shows up. It shows in many cars which come to be Teched by me with Tech stickers from those organizations and features which should NEVER be passed by any organization. Such as a certain Bronco that came to me this past weekend with Tech stickers from both and a cage which wouldn't have passed Tech in 1973.

However...
Just because Bill Savage


chooses for some unexplained reason to ban CREW mild steel while other apparently more intelligent race organizations such as NASCAR choose to ban chrome moly, does not mean that all organizations are going along with that. Each material has it's advantages and its best applications. My personal preference for offroad race car cages is DOM...1020 or 1026 alloy steel. I've repaired an awful lot of 4130 over the past 30-some years. Only 1 car I've dealt with had issues with fatigue failure of its CREW cage, and that was due to design flaws.

Dennis Sletten and I have discussed this issue at length a few times. We always come around to the same agreement. CREW works fine for Class 11 cages. DOM is better, but more expensive. Dennis sells cage kits of DOM or 4130. As long as it is properly welded by whoever installs it, I have NO issues with his cages.

When was the last time any of us ever saw a 4130 cage which had been \"properly heat treated\" though...In ANY form of motorsport? I think the last time I saw one was a particular High Jumper Class 1 in the mid 70s. It got re-heat-treated each race prep after repair of the cracks.

The point made above about the potential for a 4130 cage to crack in areas not visible is a strong reason NOT to use 4130 in a Class 11. It's SUPPOSED to be a low-cost class. Where does 4130 fit into \"low-cost\".

To me, 4130 for chassis and cages is all about \"Bling\" factor. Not about sound engineering.

We could talk about the Class 11 which was haulin' butt at about 35mph (their words) near Slash X a few years ago when it was rear-ended by a V8-powered 2-seat Class 1 going, according to its driver, 135mph! Tore the front corner off the Class 1 and endoed it. Did a great deal more damage to the big buggy. As for the Class 11, all that kept it from finishing the race according to the driver and co-driver was the destruction of the alternator, stand and fan shroud. The bent rear wheel could have been changed. Plus they were pretty shaken up. The CREW Class 11 kit cage was fine. I would have had NO problem with letting them finish. It was in substantially better shape than the Class 1 car's cage. The Class 11 car's body shell was wasted by the incident. But cut off the old one and install a fresh body and it would be ready to race again.

I'm not hearing any noise from Art Savedra about banning CREW cages from the organizations ARTS represents. Other organizations may choose to follow SCORE's lead without thinking it through. So your choice of material to use in your cage is down to where you want to race. CREW will allow you many choices of organizations to race with. DOM will allow you to race anywhere. The same design, wall thickness, tubing diameter, gusseting and weld rules apply anywhere.

[Rant/]

By the way...What happened to the A-arm Bug? Class 11 seems a step down...