going to fab a rear tire carrier

I am a structural steel welder by trade and have access to all types and styles of steel. I have a couple ideas i'm tossing around in my head as of right now

#1 i need to have access to the lift gate
#2 it needs to be close to the gate it self (looks only)
thats about it
#3 in needs to be removable and from the hitch

my first thought was a swing out tire carrier, i figured i would run square out a bit from the hitch then up to about the middle of the bumper, then over to the right side where i would weld a pin on and slide another piece tube bushed for the pin over it and back to the center of the bumper now being about even with the top of the bumper, i would then run a piece back as close as i could to the lift gate then up a ways and weld a plate with some studs welded form behing to hold my wheel now to hold everything from swinging all over the place i would put stops welded so the tire wouldn't hit the lift gate. then i would add a hinged a piece to the other side to swing up and put a lock pin into hold it from swinging out.

the second thought is a swing down carrier

this is alot simpler but it will get in the way of using the liftgate i will still be able to open it but have something right in the middle of it

same thinf as far a stock i'm using i would come out of the hitch go up to the top of the bumper then in tight to the gate and up again to the middle of the gate, now to make it swing i would weld a heavy duty hinge at the bottom joind right off the hitch and have a pad behind the first upright for it to ly up against with 2 ears coming off of it wraping around the sides of the tube i would use these ears to put a lock pin in to secure it in place


i know its hard to picture what i'm thinking here and i apologize for the sketchy writings but please let me know your experiences and if you forsee any problems with my 2 ideas i'm leaning toward the first one so far because of the ease of access to the cargo area

oh yeah all joints will be gusseted and everything is going to be flux core welded with .045 wire i will likely use 3/16 wall tubing but not sure yet

tell me what you think

here are some quick drawing i did to kinda show what i mean

i would go with the first one. the only problem i see is that if you just sleave a pin it will ventually wear out and rattle like hell. i would use some sort of bearing on the pivot.

I would'nt use .045 wire.....flux core.......

But thats just me..

Detour said:

I would'nt use .045 wire.....flux core.......

But thats just me..

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Took the words out of my mouth, Mig welding without gas sucks.

sorry its dual shielded with gas with a 480 volt welder

mounting it in the reese hitch will result in a clunkity clunk clunk clu clu clunk. and that's on a smooth road. But, if you can live with that, design looks good.

Even still, .045 is stardard stuff for stuctural steel......but by the time you
establish a puddle on the smaller stock, you'll end up with a pile of bird
poo.........swap in a spool of .035, there should be some kick'in around a
structural shop......if not, pick up 10lbs for yourself. (about 20 bucks)

from someone that has done basically the same thing, please take my advice and scrap the whole tire carrier bolt-on idea, sure it sounds awesome, but when you start looking at the idea of bolting onto the hitch you'll see your ground-clearance and departure angle diminishing, then you'll attampt to locate an alternate mounting point, the next logical place being the factory rear bumper mount, good location, but a BAD choice structurally. in this instance i think the only sound choice is to form a very rigid mount by cutting away the exterior sheetmetal (the original bumper mounting surface) and getting some hevy plating against and below the ~frame rail, similar to the way everyone mounts their front bumpers. then build an entire solid rear bumper and tire carrier off of the re-inforced substructure.
thats what i'm planning when i have to fix the sagging hunk of junk swing arm holding my spare that is being mostly supported by a 1" nylon sinch strap looped to the roof rack, -its blue and its not cool looking at all, so like i said take it from me...

maybe if all you do is go to the mall and crall then it'll be ok.

after 6 or so trips like this one mine gave out...

I chose 1, but it sounds like it will rattle around alot! plus that is alot of weight hanging off to one side of the hitch.

how about adding a second reciever onto the end of the hitch? This way you can put another piece of box on the swing out, slide it into 2 recievers.....should make it stronger, more stable and maybe quieter.

A second thing I thought about is making some kind of method to tighten the fit of the box stock in the reciever. maybe just a few holes in the reciever, thread them, and put a bolt in.....tighten against box stock to wedge it tight in the reciever, take out any slop.

I have thought about building a similar carrier except not removeable, just welded right to the hitch frame. BUT I hit my reciever as it is, imagine a swing out there too!

I would not use the receiver as others have said. I welded mine to my bumper and used a poly bushing in the hinge, and it still rattles a little. It needs to be strong enough to support your tire when it swings out all the way. That is a lot of leverage on your bumper! If I didn't need the room inside, I wouldn't do another swing out, I'd just keep the tire in the back.


I used .035 wire too.

if you can pulse with .045 that would weld up fine and be strong as hell. if i were you i would make a new bumper and tie it into the reciver hitch, then you wouldnt have to wory much about the weight.

Megawatt said:

I would not use the receiver as others have said. I welded mine to my bumper and used a poly bushing in the hinge, and it still rattles a little. It needs to be strong enough to support your tire when it swings out all the way. That is a lot of leverage on your bumper! If I didn't need the room inside, I wouldn't do another swing out, I'd just keep the tire in the back.

I used .035 wire too.

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i agree with you guys as far as not going to the hitch i catch mine hitting the ground every now and again too, i like this design, however i wasn't planning to fab up a whole rear bumper assy. You all may have swayed me to just do it! as far as hinge i deas i took a look in our parts room today and we have pleanty of pins and brass or nylon bushings as well as roller bearings so my palet is pretty much open there. as far as the wire goes my welder is set up with 2 spools on it so i can switch from flux to hard wire (.035) just by grabbing my other whip. Now for the flux weld i prefer to weld anything thats going to hold alot of weight and take a beating with .045 i know its over kill but i have always over done things it makes me feel comfortable, i'd hate the idea of driving down the road wondering if its going to fall off. and i can weld .045 flux on that thin of metal no problem at all, the gussets will be hard wire .035 just to be able to run a good vertical down. A vertical up flux weld would create to much heat.


thanks for the input keep it coming looks like i'm going to be pulling the bumper off to see what i can mount to under there

Megawatt said:

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When ya going to start building those bumpers for us locals?

JMotorsprt said:

When ya going to start building those bumpers for us locals?

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Well, I don't really have time to finish my projects right now...so not anytime soon. Sorry

My spare tire carrier goes in the hitch, I off set mine to prevent rattles, and so I can still see out the back window. No rattles on or off road the last 20,000 miles. I swings up or down and is help up with clevis bilt and pin. I got hitch adapter form Holiday World (RV Shop) in the clearance area. I also redrilled the plate to be seem around the tire.

[size=-2]http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/[email protected]/album?.dir=/95ac&.src=ph&.tok=phF6dEEBjJriLUHE[/size]

here is a JU link to the hitch mounted one I built. Works good. I have been running it for 2 1/2 years now with a 35 on it.

http://jeepsunlimited.com/forums/showthread.php?t=619495

Megawatt said:

I would not use the receiver as others have said. I welded mine to my bumper and used a poly bushing in the hinge, and it still rattles a little. It needs to be strong enough to support your tire when it swings out all the way. That is a lot of leverage on your bumper! If I didn't need the room inside, I wouldn't do another swing out, I'd just keep the tire in the back.

I used .035 wire too.

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friggin beautiful... how hard was the fab on that, how many hours? looks like im gonna be building one just like it over christmas

mwm said:

Took the words out of my mouth, Mig welding without gas sucks.

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Well then it wouldn't be MIG welding.

a_hiatt said:

how hard was the fab on that, how many hours?

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If that bumper was all from scratch, I'll bet it didn't take any less than 8 to 10 hours to get it fabbed up.

Great design, man.

yeah it shouldn't be too bad but it looks better than a commercial one. i'll probably copy it if you don't mind. if you've got any measurements that would be great.... once again, great bumper.