M151A2 ROPS Installation

[9thinfantry]

Hi all....
I'm about to install a dismantled ROPS kit in my M151A2 and was wondering if there is a publication showing exactly how to put it together and properly install it, or could anyone help me with pictures of theirs.
contact: NAM9TH@AOL.COM
Thanks[/b][/b]

[Mark]

There is an installation TM for it.I'll see if I can find it.--MWO-2320-218-34--
It's here on the mutt website--G838 Manuals

[rickf]

Do you REALLY want to cut those huge holes in the back of your mutt?!! You may want to modify the rear tubes to be like the Canadian version that mounted to a plate on top of the fenderwell. Much more body friendly! Not to mention getting those rear supports mounted down inside the body will be a nightmare on the original US version.

[m3a1]

Hi all....
I'm about to install a dismantled ROPS kit in my M151A2 and was wondering if there is a publication showing exactly how to put it together and properly install it, or could anyone help me with pictures of theirs.
contact: NAM9TH@AOL.COM
Thanks[/b][/b]

Group responds - STOP!! You're going the wrong way!!

Well, maybe he's just filling holes in an A2 that already had one...

[rickf]

I have nothing against the ROPS, I drove race cars my entire life and roll cages are the only reason I am still alive. I just don't want to see unnecessary holes cut. The Canadian version will work just as well if needed to do the job.

[Mark]

On my A2, I removed the ROPS,(welded a round patch in the holes in body) I was going to put the Canadian version on(no go as couldn't find one). Now I wish I'd kept it/on.

[acudanut]

Well, My 2 cents. They save lives, especially when driving fast and crazy. Those days are over for me. I prefer the clean look. No top, doors and the windshield lowered.
Slow and easy down the road I go (country song). No rush to go anywhere quickly.

[9thinfantry]

EXCELLENT-EXCELLENT IDEA......I WILL NOT CUT HOLES IN THE REAR BUT MOUNT IT ON THE TOP OF THE REAR, NOT THRU, GREAT IDEA....THANKS ALL

[raymond]

Obviously, you'll have to cut the rear legs off and make a socket and plate to pin it into.

[lpcoating]

Are you going to make a support between the rear cross member and underside of the rear fender top? It's only 18 ga back there.

Guy

[Flyingvan911]

If anyone can install the ROPS and make it look nice it would be Guy. Perhaps he and CMD could come up with modified parts to make ROPS installations look nicer and/or easier to install.

[rickf]

You have to consider that in a rollover the center and front bars are going to take the brunt of the force. The rear bars will take some but not a lot. If you make the rear plates wide enough to cover about 3/4 the width of the fender top in a square under the bar and then take the time to slightly round the corners and bevel the bottom edges and just very slightly bent up the corners, You will never punch the plates through the fenders. As ling as you eliminate any sharp edges on that plate you will not get a shear effect from downward force. It is going to bend the fenders but if you roll the vehicle the main body is going to be pretty well bent anyway. You are only looking to protect the inhabitants, not preserve the body. If you want to preserve the body the cage has to be tied into the frame and it has to be an exo-skeleton cage outside of the body. Considering there is no frame that is pretty much impossible. I would put some 3/4" heavy washers under the fenders to keep the nuts from deforming the fenders and cracking them.

[m3a1]

If anyone can install the ROPS and make it look nice it would be Guy. Perhaps he and CMD could come up with modified parts to make ROPS installations look nicer and/or easier to install.

Terrific idea in theory but in actual practice, from a business perspective his company would end up assuming a great deal of liability which is not to say that he wouldn't produce anything equal or superior to OEM but where lawyers are concerned, they demand boilerplate proof and that would mean a whole lot of expensive testing which pretty much makes the whole endeavor pointless from a business perspective.

[m3a1]

This is the kind of job where a nice knockout hole cutter is an invaluable tool.

I'm still wondering why he wants to do this. Not that he needs to explain it but perhaps the group can come up with a good alternative solution if we know exactly what result he is looking for.

[rickf]

A lot of people take their kids out with them on trail rides and they want to be safe. I have seen some really hairy maneuvers on the trails in 151's. Side hill driving right on the very edge of going over. One pebble under the high side tire...................... This was someone with no fourwheeling experience and all they ever heard was how the M-151 was the best thing to ever go off road and it would go anywhere. No ROPS.
Others want to keep the vehicle as it was in service with the cage. Some people, like me, actually find a cage useful. Ask George in Holland whether you should have one or not. He got tapped in the rear corner at highway speed on one of the major highways over there and over he went! No cage. He was very, VERY lucky since George is a very big guy and the radio antenna bracket held it long enough for him to fly out and slide down the highway on his butt.