Rear Swing-out Tire Carrier

[tyhuck]

Been tinkering with the idea of removing the spare from under my truck and putting it on a rear mounted carrier on the bumper like a lot of the Jeep guys do. The idea is to clean up the profile of my truck. Since installing the 3" BL, the spare tire and receiver hitch just hang way too low for my taste. So, I jumped on Sketchup and started drawing. I came up with a nice design that Im happy with, but Im unsure whether or not it will be strong enough. Here is what Im looking at now.

 

 

 

The frame mounts will be 1/2" plate and will be tied into the receiver hitch as well as the bumper body.

 

The pivot is a Mega Duty spindle kit from atozfabrication.com rated to carry a 37" tire. Im only planning on carrying a 34 so I should be more than OK here.

 

Everything else is listed below.

 

Brown - 2 1/2" x 1/4" square Tubing

Purple - 1/4" plate

Blue - 1/4" plate

Yellow - 2" x 1/8" square Tubing

Green - 1/8" plate

 

My only concern is whether or not the receiver will be stout enough, and if the bumper body (1/4" plate) will be strong enough to hold the spindle and tire carrier.

 

I know it doesnt show it, but the spindle will extend through the top of the bumper and will be welded to the top plate and the bottom plate of the bumper. I just missed that part on the drawing.

 

Anything else you guys see that I will need to beef up?

[Dave4x4]

Looks good. As far as strength and support if you add some gussets on the inside and even potentially box it in all the way around it should hold no problem. I can't say from experience but have seen a lot of guys make them for the toyota offroad scene that I was into heavily when I had my toy. Best advice I can give is check out said jeep forums and build-ups and toyota forums and build ups and even check out pirate4x4.com they all can help pry a little better. The design looks good though and good luck.

[tyhuck]

Yeah, Ive been searching for months now, and Ive noticed that most of them use square tubing as the basis for the bumper portion, which I definately could do, but it just wouldnt flow with the body lines or match the front bumper the way I wanted it to. I guess Im more of a "form should equal function" kind of guy rather than a strict "form follows function" type.

[KMGZ400]

hmm definatley will look pretty cool. i think it would look better with a roof rack of some kind to keep with the offroad look

[tyhuck]

hmm definatley will look pretty cool. i think it would look better with a roof rack of some kind to keep with the offroad look

 

 

Cant do that. The garage opening is only 3" taller than my truck now, and I will be adding another 1.5" of height with the 305s that will go on eventually. Otherwise, Ide already have a rack and some lighting on the camper.

 

 

im not really going for the "hardcore offroader" look, more of an "overland expedition / all-terrain" look.

 

 

BTW, my sig pic is not current. Need to fix that I guess.

[redjewel2ss]

it looks nice! can you make 2?

 

my only suggestions are:

make sure the receiver goes through the bumper and ties directly to the factory mounting locations.

use 2 gussets on each frame mount and to strengthen it, i would also do this on those side pieces so they don't cave in and cause body damage if there's an impact on the corner of the bumper.

and make sure the spare tire carrier pivot point isn't obstructing the tailgate from opening

i would also fab some kinda locking device to hold the spare tire carrier in place that also shares some of the weight so their's less stress on the spindle

[tyhuck]

it looks nice! can you make 2?

 

my only suggestions are:

make sure the receiver goes through the bumper and ties directly to the factory mounting locations.

use 2 gussets on each frame mount and to strengthen it, i would also do this on those side pieces so they don't cave in and cause body damage if there's an impact on the corner of the bumper.

and make sure the spare tire carrier pivot point isn't obstructing the tailgate from opening

i would also fab some kinda locking device to hold the spare tire carrier in place that also shares some of the weight so their's less stress on the spindle

 

 

I guess I could, but Ide need to ge a hold of a 900 for a few days to get it fit correctly.

 

I got all of the other concerns figured out, I just either didnt draw them because they would obstruct the view in the screenshot, or I couldnt (or didnt want to) have to figure out how to draw them (like the latch).

 

Im definately gonna post up the build process on here when I get a chance to start.