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Another DIY Tire Carrier Build

cburns70

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Dallas,Tx
My wife decided I couldn't buy anymore Jeep parts for a while. So i decided to make my own tire carrier. I drew inspiration from the Detours Tailbone system. Major difference being I'm not adding recovery points to mine, and using I double shear hinge.

Luckily I've got a donor jeep that I used to cut the rear cross member out to use as my working template.

Here's pics of where I'm at now with the build.

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I would run tube down the frame rails. But that's me, after having my JCR tire carrier bumper crack the sheet metal around the stock mounting holes. Even with the JCR tied to the frame rails with the little plates they give you, it still cracked the sheetmetal. Your design is better than nothing, as you catch the inside mounting holes at each mounting plate, but it won't take much more effort to extend the mounts down the frame rail and pick up the hitch bolt points. You just make your bumper mounts the nutstrips for any skid or hitch you hang under it. A few people out here in socal have had to deal with cracked sheetmetal from tire carrier bumpers that only used the stock mount location. Good call on the double shear for the swing out axle, too many of the "trailer" axles snap.
 
Thanks for the feedback MarkW. I had intended to catch the first two bolts where my hitch mounts, with a flat plate. But you're right, it would be better to run something inside the frame rails. I'll use either the heavy wall 2" square tubing, or maybe a heavy angle iron.

Thanks again for the feedback
 
Thanks for the feedback MarkW. I had intended to catch the first two bolts where my hitch mounts, with a flat plate. But you're right, it would be better to run something inside the frame rails. I'll use either the heavy wall 2" square tubing, or maybe a heavy angle iron.

Thanks again for the feedback

I'll second markw. My first bumper used flat plate along the underside of the frame rails. Thought I was good. Then one day I hitched up a heavy trailer, and watched the bumper flex downward. Took the bumper off and had cracks everywhere. That's my big beef with the JCR plates, is that the are flat. Ok for recovery points, but not for towing or tire carriers because there will be significant downward torque/forces.

When I bought my rigidco, I'm certain the mounting subframe was enough, but I didn't want to see anymore cracks. I cut the end of the rails open and slid 2x4 tube down it, with the nurserts welded inside.

I think it's very important to not only have frame tie-ins, but they need to be at minimum angle iron so that it will resist downward deflection, unlike my first bumper and unlike the jcr plates. Tube inside the rails. What I did is best I think, which is tube inside the rails and tie in plates (angle) underneath the rails, basically sandwiching the rails.
 
Update. So i decided to do some modifications to my original design . I extended the pivot points further out and added a point in the center to latch two smaller swings instead of one.

I also added to .25 flat to go inside the frame rails with nuts welded to them. I've got four nuts on each side which the hitch will mount to.

Next step is to build the tire holder and Jerry Can mounts. The Tire and Jerry Can Mounts will be mounted on top of the swings and centered closer to the rear Hatch to minimize sticking out any further in the back.
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