ZUKIWORLD Reviews: PetroWorks Suzuki Sidekick / Geo Tracker 2 door Sport Cage

PETROWORKS SUZUKI SIDEKICK / GEO TRACKER 2 DOOR SPORT CAGE

Bolt In Protection For Your Sidekick and Tracker

Editor: Eric Bewley Story/Photo: Jason Hutchison

San Clemente, CA – Time and time again we found ourselves looking for a roll cage for our trusty little Sidekick.  Whether a tipsy situation on a trail, or your inching along a drop off with the potential set you on your lid, we often muttered to ourselves.. ”MAN….. I Really need to put a cage in this thing.” The fact is Sidekicks and Trackers are really stepping it up these days with continued aftermarket support to improve their already capable off road prowess. Petroworks has just added to their line of Suzuki roll cages with their latest release, The Sport Cage for 2 door Sidekicks and Trackers. 

The folks at Petroworks have succeeded in creating a product that works well for the majority of enthusiasts. Their new cage covers both front and rear passengers and still works with stock soft tops, fiberglass tops, and seatbelts. 2Door and 4 Door hard top models not supported at the time, but that doesn’t mean that this kit could not be adapted to fit quite easily. Does it get better? Oh yes, they have done all the welding work for you. This cage is entirely bolt in. Yep, that’s right no longer do you need a tubing bender, welder and the plethora of tools to build a cage for your Sidekick or Tracker. Save that money on tools buy a cage from Petroworks and take the extra money and buy some more go fast parts! (And yes you can weld it in for those of you who are welder savvy) So enough with garble.. Let’s get to the install.

Vehicle Prep:

1. Remove the sun visors.. You are going to have to find a creative way to remount these; we mounted ours into the trash can…
2. Remove the grab handles on the inside of the A-pillar. (area right behind your head where the top of the seat belt mounts) Ours ended up in the trash with the visors…
3. Remove your top makes installation much easier. (the one on the car….)
4. We initially removed the seats and carpet to simplify our install. (we don’t run a rear seat or seatbelts but the cage has been designed to work with the factory items. Our pictures show the front seats installed as it was the second time we installed the cage and took pictures of the install.

INSTALLATION:

1.  First we unpacked and assembled the roll cage in our driveway 

1. The cage comes without powder coating, which is really what we wanted. Sure power coating is nice, but if you want to weld in the cage you have to grind and clean all the joints and we would rather paint it to match the rest of our armor. (we could argue about this indefinitely, so lets move on)

1. We do recommend painting your roll cage, as rust is not a very sexy color…and will surely appear on a raw steel cage.

1. So first off, let’s take a minute to look at some pictures of the quality workmanship that comes with your new sport cage.

1. Take a look at how Petroworks has welded in heavy walled inserts at all the joints.
2. Looky here. The mounting plates have been preformed, predrilled and pre-welded to the bottom of all the main tubes….Cool! 
3. The dash bend has been reinforced and doubles as a handy grab handle,  

1. With your cage assembled out of the vehicle you will notice that Petroworks has drilled all the holes in the cage. It helps to assemble it out of the car to make sure you have the pieces positioned right to line up all the holes. 

1. Next we recommend getting a helper, it’s not mandatory but much easier to align and position the tubes with an extra set of hands. Enter Mrs. Hutchison. She was thrilled we parked in her favorite tanning spot, and with some fast talking, we convinced her that if she helped she could get back to catching rays even quicker. 

1. With our helper we set the main hoop in the car and slide the front side bars into each side of the main tube and then the front spreader bar between the front side bars. 

1. With the front half of the cage positioned to where you like it within proximity to your dash, we marked, drilled, and bolted in the main hoop. (yes she should be wearing safety glasses, but she isn’t really drilling holes.) 

1. Next we drilled the holes in through the front floor boards and bolted down the front side tubes. This part is a bit of a bugger. We positioned our cage so that two of the hole fell right into a factory reinforcement channel on the underside of the floor. Needless to say we had a few choice words and we were really thankful for that extra set of hands to run the wrench in the vehicle as we positioned the washers plates and nuts on the underside of the vehicle.

1. Moving on we installed the rear tubes and spreader onto the main hoop. 

1. Drill the holes to mount the rear tubes to the floor, install underside plates and bolts. (check for obstructions in this area on both sides prior to drilling) 

1. Install all the cross bolts and tighten all the bolts in all areas. 

1. Here are some pictures of the cage installed in Sidekick with a fiberglass hardtop 

Impressions:

We have been thoroughly pleased with this new cage. Sure the cage doesn’t go all the way to the frame, but it’s a hell of a lot better than no roll cage and there is strong plating on the base of each tube. The main hoop being 2” x 0.120” wall and the remaining tubes at 1.5”x 0.125” complement each other well and look great. We were expecting to find the front down tubes around the dash aggravating and knee bangers, so far they have been out of the way for the most part. The window crank is a bit difficult to reach but still manageable by all means. We have been in other vehicle with bolt in roll cages and found them to vibrate at highway speeds or just be in the way. Not so with this cage. No vibration and seldom do we find the cage to be a hindrance to accessing any part of the vehicle. We do think some triangulation bars on the main hoop and possible a hoop across the dash would be good additions. Petroworks will gladly add any additional bracing or bars per your request. We wanted to illustrate the basic cage so you will know what it entails and so you can plan any modifications you may be interested in. The fit of all components was superb. Slide all the pieces together, set them in the truck, drill and bolt, it’s really that simple. There is no longer any excuse to not have a cage in your 2 door convertible Sidekick or Tracker. 

Give Petroworks a call at; 1 (800) 952-8915 to place your order today.

Here is a link too: http://www.petroworks.com/interior.php  (scroll to the bottom of the page)