Roll bar

[Mobius1]

Well I fianlly found a roll bar for my 88 MJ short bed and now I just have to arrange buying it and installing it. Any concerns or potential problems I may run into with installing the rollbar? or if you just have some helpful tips please share. Hope the pics help to give you an idea of what it looks like and what it'll look like in the bed of the MJ.

[JeepcoMJ]

I'm concerned that it only has one rear-going bar (by looking at the pics) and no mount for a bolt-on second one...

[Mobius1]

lol alright I don't mena to laugh at you but I should have mentioned this...he just put it loosely together so I know what it looked like before I decide to purchase it thats all. Guy had it on his S-10..i think 80s/early 90s is what he said his truck was.

[Tracker]

Here's a roll bar from that era S-10 installed in a '87swb MJ.

I think the S-10 is a little narrower as we had to tweak the bar outward and still make some steel wedges for the inner wheel well bolts.

It could stand to be about 1.5 - 2'' taller too. Overall though, not a bad fit.

[702_MJ]

What about using a rollbar/light bar from a 1st gen dakota? Would that work, just fab up some brackets and tie it in to the frame so its a little more sturdy and can help if you roll. Because I'm looking for a roll bar for my long bed but they are hard to come by.

[A-man930]

I've always wondered if you could get a truck box to work with one of these roll bars... It would probably have to be a custom one, has anyone seen this? More pics!

[Pete M]

What about using a rollbar/light bar from a 1st gen dakota? Would that work, just fab up some brackets and tie it in to the frame so its a little more sturdy and can help if you roll. Because I'm looking for a roll bar for my long bed but they are hard to come by.

 

Unfortunately, tying it to the frame is fairly pointless. The showbars are not designed to take any sort of abuse and will generally just collapse in the event of a rollover. :(

Having said that, MJs that came with a bar from the factory had an extra piece that bolted to the bed mount that helped tie the bar into the frame.

 

 

[702_MJ]

where did you get that diagram from?

[Pete M]

Out of the factory shop manual I think (back when my scanner worked).

[702_MJ]

oh

[McClare]

Yeah the factory rollbars came with brackets right around the frame. Tough as nails. I had to cut the truck in half literally to get it from the junkyard. 4 bolts down through the box and then 6 through the frame on each of the front posts