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My own version of hitch mounted spare tire carrier.

Z

zachandandy

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
Patterson, Ca
Built this today, kinda copied the knucklebone, only free thanks to my large pile of scrap steel. Ready for the Dusy Erishm in 2 weeks. not bad for eyeballing the angle to match the glass.
FFAA7AB3-5B12-4633-9BE1-11527EA82B28-30427-00001B8DD886E8BA.jpg

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shake that thing as hard as you can. If it touches, you have issues to be sure.
awful long moment arm on that design.
 
The mudflaps are for keeping the police happy on the way to the trails, hideous but functional. Built out of 1/4" wall 2" square tube, doesn't touch anything no matter how hard you shake it. The knuckle bone by detours offroad has effectively the same design and seems to work? But thanks for the constructive criticism and advice on what you think won't work about it, is this pirate?
 
zachandandy said:
The mudflaps are for keeping the police happy on the way to the trails, hideous but functional. Built out of 1/4" wall 2" square tube, doesn't touch anything no matter how hard you shake it. The knuckle bone by detours offroad has effectively the same design and seems to work? But thanks for the constructive criticism and advice on what you think won't work about it, is this pirate?
Click to expand...

Hey if it wasn't for constructive criticism what would you have? That's right more worthless comments. That is a nice angle just shake it hard side to side front to back, also the tubing going into the hitch is the most critical or is that criticism, any way needs to be minimum .025 wall. Have a good trail and be prepared with straps or ready to remove it if it fails. Nothing like a good hard trail to test out your projects good luck! Oh and this isn't Pirate although you do run into some Swashbucklers on occasion!
 
If it works good, and you have more scrap, want to build me one?
 
How is the male part that goes into the receiver hitch, attached to the vertical post the tire attaches too? If thats a weld... may god have mercy on anyone who shares a road with you.... because that'll crack sooner rather than later...

How tight is the fit on the receiver hitch? if you re-used an existing hitch peice, its probably too loose... loose = vibration.

How much movement do you get at 75mph?

Did you do any internal sleeving, gussets, or other tricks to strengthen this?
 
I'm not big on the original design.

I do get it. Bicycle racks are built like that, and hold up to 4 bikes to and from the bike trail while bouncing along paved roads.

There is usually a bit of up/dn/side to side travel built into hitch design, and I suspect with a long arm and a 60-70lb weight on the end (tire+rim), on bumpy trails, that is going to rattle abit. Will it rattle more than an A arm design? I don't know. Will the welds hold? I don't know that one either.

What I do know, is that if you need to use the back functionally, like getting groceries, or even getting a water out of the cooler, you need to deal with dropping and picking up that Garsh Darn 60-70 lb tire. Maybe it's an "Old thing" but I don't like grunting a tire into place until I need to actually mount it to the vehicle ;)
I see that as the main draw back of this design.

Good effort, I like to see people try different stuff. Otherwise, how would we know what ideas are good ones, and which ones suck ass :D
 
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I just noticed the 8 lug pattern on the wheel and the military Hummer tire on there. That is a heavy combination so I'd probably go with solid square steel for the hitch rather than tubing. If you go solid and gusset the upright you'll be fine but you could notch the solid slide in on the edges. Cut out the upright to fit over it and get good heat penetration on the weld with a rosette weld on the end!. Oh and fill the tire with helium so it's lighter!
 
You can tow 5000lbs with a 700lb tongue weight on a standard 1/4" walled hitch, but you need titanium to hold up a 150lb tire? The hinge bolt is 5/8" grade 8, 3/8" grade 8 bolt below it as a lock pin. Gussets have been added, and to remove the slop in the hitch, a vertical and horizontal grade 8 bolt were added. I always carry extra straps, and the tire could be moved to the roof easily. My jeep is basically off road only, and the back is used for tools and spares only, lifting the tire is the least of my worries at that point. The rear hatch is already cracked, and will be coming off soon. At that point the spare will go ontop of the shock hoops, and Johnny walker can have this little experiment.
 
sorry, didn't get enough sarcasm in my post... I actually built one almost like yours except mine angles to the passenger side so I can see out my back window. Used 1/4 wall also. Never installed it, because I decided to build a whole new rear bumper. Even 1/4 2x2 is way overkill for a spare tire unless you left it in the down position and hit the whoops. Even then, probably not gonna fall off.
 
zachandandy said:
My jeep is basically off road only, and the back is used for tools and spares only, lifting the tire is the least of my worries at that point.
Click to expand...

To each his own, and though I can fully understanding your defending the copy you made of someone else's work (Time, effort, research...), I'd still like to know how it acts in the real world of Off-Road with bumpy roads, needing to get in and out of the hatch area, etc.

After you've used it on a couple of trips, post up and let us know if it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, or an abortion that should have been left on the someone else's drafting table.

Other than that, as I mentioned before; Good Effort.
 
looks pretty good, i would do that before buying a "hitch gate" brand carrier, they are more expensive than buying an entire bumper with a swing out. Post up how it works out....
 
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