I understand the need for people to refer to parts for a raptor as Raptortax, but when you break everything down, it doesn’t matter what emblem is on the truck. The cost of doing business is the same regardless of brand.
When I hear quotes of $10,000 for a cage, keep in mind there are numerous variables that go into that, and typically that quote is filled with goodies because people who drivers Raptors, typically expect a different level of end product vs. a guy who caged a Ranger or Tacoma.
Look at it step by step.
Material. We will only build ours out of 4130. I completely understand that DOM will do the trick, but lets not forget, when Raptor owners contact us for quotes on cages, they typically only want the best of everything. So you have roughly 100-150 ft of tubing at $8.00 per foot totaling about $1000 not including delivery charge. You will need at least $300 in plate work to accompany that making that a grand total of about $1300 for just raw material.
Step 2. Disassemble. You will need to have the Windshield professionaly removed at $150.00. After that you have to disassemble the entire interior of the truck. Headliner comes out, airbags removed, wiring harness out, carpet out, center console out, dashboard out, doors off and then cataloged and stored in a safe area. Typically this is about a 1 to 2 day process at a shop rate between $55-$75 hour depending on the shop. So lets use $55 on the low end and cut total labor time to 12 hours totaling $810 when you include windshield removal.
Step 3. Cage fabrication. Typically this is about a two-three week process totaling roughly 120-150 hours at the shop rates of $55.00-$75.00/hours. I’ll be totally transparent with why our shop rate is in that ballpark. We have rent to pay, liability insurance, utilities, cost of consumables and labor for employees. I’ll also let it be known that we believe in the long term goal of keeping our team together so we don’t have one employee who is paid less than $18.00/hour. So, your total cost for the raw cage to be built, plated to the cab, and attached to the frame is in the ballpark of $5500.00.
Step 4 Interior. Depending on your needs, most people will do either 3 or 4 custom seats at anywhere between $400-$800 depending on the choice of seat. Tack on sliders for another $300-$400 and then you have headliner, and carpet. Typically everyone does a suede headliner, complete sound deadening material on the roof, back wall and floor. We aren’t interior guys so this gets sourced out to professionals at a cost of about $2,000-$3,000 for a very nice hot rod quality interior. On top of that, many people want yeti coolers or mini fridges, custom storage and so on. This brings your total for interior to about $3,500 when you factor all those variable together using the low end of the spectrum.
Step 5. Assembly, This is another 1-2 day process at the shop rate of $55-75/hour depending on the shop. Windshield has to go back in, Dash needs to be trimmed to fit cage pieces, wiring harness etc. This will be roughly $660.00 more dollars at an average of 12hours total.
Total price using these figures is roughly $11,770
I hope now you start to have an understanding of where those type of quotes come from. If you want to bring us a stripped cab, purchase the material your self, take care of your own interior including all items associated with that, and then reassemble everything yourself, the quote from our end will be way below the 10K mark.
I can only speak for my company SVC. We are not out to screw anybody or institute a Raptortax just because Raptor owners have more discretionary income than the average Ranger driver. If a kid pulled up to us in a 94 F150 and wanted a caged interior with all the same bells and whistles, his cost will be the same. the cost of doing business is the cost of doing business regardless of emblem.
Jarrett
