Swingout (over)built for a Marine

So our buddy Andy was coming home from a year of service overseas, and we wanted to give him a little welcome home. He was really excited about getting his Jeep back, so muduck18 and I decided to have a little "extreme makeover, Jeep edition" to surprise him when he got there. He found the rims and tires on Craigslist, so I went and purchased them and installed them for him. Then we went to work on the customizations. The main thing we did was the massively overbuilt tire swingout. We used 1/4" walled 2x2" square tube, 1 tapered and 1 ball bearing with 1" ID and 2 1/8" OD. The tube we used around that was 2 1/8" ID DOM tubing. We purchased the cam latch thru Grainger. Swings very nicely, and holds the hi-lift and tire with pleanty of ground clearance to spare. We would like to stick a shovel on there somehow too....Here it is, glad to answer any questions you may have. We also installed some Rock Lizzard quarter guards, and herculined the entire quarter panels and rockers/door bottoms.

grr..sorry they are out of order.

Looks pretty good. License plate relocation should be next.

fubar XJ said:

Looks pretty good. License plate relocation should be next.

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yup, we actually zip tied it to the hilift for the time being, and the stock light shines enough on it at night to make it readable. but we are working on that, and a secondary catch for it so either the latch can't come open, or the thing can't swing open if the latch does come loose. right now a bungee is taking care of that action :clap:

Yeah the license plate relocation should be next, I still need to do that on mine, but luckily the law hasn't hassled me over it yet. Also I would put some sort of support/brace accross the bottom (Between the boomerang shaped part). I know it doesn't seem like it would flex much, but trust me, with the weight of the tire, and jack, plus a bumpy road/trail, it will flex quite a bit, and just cause extra stress on your welds without another brace.

muddygp said:

yup, we actually zip tied it to the hilift for the time being, and the stock light shines enough on it at night to make it readable. but we are working on that, and a secondary catch for it so either the latch can't come open, or the thing can't swing open if the latch does come loose. right now a bungee is taking care of that action :clap:

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You can relocate the entire plate over to the flat part of the hatch on the left, next to the taillight. I did this, even fabbed a little light cowl and drilled a hole through the hatch to mount it over the new plate location.

Yeah we'll see where he wants it. And I had hoped to put another brace at the bottom of it. It's pretty cool, with the tire angled at the same angle as the hatch glass, it does not torque at all while driving. It seems as though because it angles over the center of gravity, the weight of the tire is directed almost straight downward instead of putting torque on the arm as it would if the tire were vertical. And just because i know someone will comment about this: IT IS PAINTED NOW! I finished it up at about 10pm the night before he came home, so I did not get to take any pictures of it after it was painted.

For the brace on the bottom you could do something as simple as cut a piece of DOM and just weld it into place right behind where the jack mounts or something. Just something to firm it up a bit. Otherwise I really dig the design. I also like the way the spare angles with the hatch. Good job on the bumper. I am sure he will love it.

That's super cool of you guys to do that for a friend in the service. Having a few friends in the armed forces, I know they really appreciate things that show them people were/are thinking of them. A salute to you guys and your friend! atriot:

Thanks to the Marine and to the two of you for expressing gratitude for what he gave to us all.

Semper Fi. Mike

x2elite said:

For the brace on the bottom you could do something as simple as cut a piece of DOM and just weld it into place right behind where the jack mounts or something. Just something to firm it up a bit. Otherwise I really dig the design. I also like the way the spare angles with the hatch. Good job on the bumper. I am sure he will love it.

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I see your point, and A support at the bottom of the A was part of the initial design, and may still be added the next time we get our hands on the Jeep...
Andy came home and his Fiancee picked him up in the Jeep so we ran out of time.
And also. The bearing actually holds all the weight of the tire and swing-out. So having a brace there is adding overkill to overkill.. (which we have been known to do)

And yeah he said he loves it!

Hey, we should all be lucky enough to have friends like you two. Got a picture of his face when he got home?
Also: solid work on the tire carrier.
That is all.

yossarian19 said:

Hey, we should all be lucky enough to have friends like you two. Got a picture of his face when he got home?
Also: solid work on the tire carrier.
That is all.

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Thanks for the compliment...No, no picture of his face as we were not present for the reveal. He said when she came to pick him up in it, he was no expecting it at all and was super excited to see it and all the mods we had done.