Help choosing a tire mount position for tire carrier/bumper

I am planning on adding a rear bumper and tire carrier to my 2000 but can not decide how the rear tire should be mounted. I've debated but still can't decide whether the tire should be mounted up high or down low, centered horizontally or off-set to a side, angled parallel with the rear window or perpendicular. Any opinions or experience would be great.

Mounted High: better departure angle
low: better visibility (in mirror)

left/right depends on which side of the mirror you want to have blocked.

parallel/angled is also subjective but I'd imagine it being parallel to the hatch adds a bit extra clearance. I hope you don't want to mount the tire perpendicular to the hatch lol

Mine is mounted low on the driver's side and I can see everything but directly behind me at stop lights.

I like this a lot. He brings up a good point, that if you put the spare behind the driver you will have better visibility when you turn around to back up.

http://www.naxja.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1025294&page=3

CherokeeManatee said:

I hope you don't want to mount the tire perpendicular to the hatch lol

Click to expand...

Haha yeah I meant perpendicular to the ground.

http://www.bakersfieldtrailblazers.org/XJ_BUMPER/jeep_xj_rear_bumper.htm

Here's how I did mine. Built it about 5 years ago, and it still is perfect. I wouldn't change anything. I mostly leave it in the up position, since it does not see the road very much any more.

Jeremy

How big of a tyre are you planning on running? If you're not planning on anything larger than 31", an OEM carrier may be fine. Depending on the type of carrier you go with you'll need to do a couple of different hacks to make it fit the '97-up bodystyle, but the work's not too horrible in either case. The advantage to the OEM model is that they keep rear visibility pretty decent, but that does mean that the tyre's hanging down lower so if you're in the rocks a lot it could be an issue.

Aftermarket, I'm a fan of JCR Offroad's Stage 3 Rear Bumper - I've seen a handful of these, and they're beefy. Rear window blockage seems to be significantly less than with others, but, again, the tyre does sit somewhat lower than the competition's. If the planets get in the right alignment this year, I'll hopefully be running one by Summer.

jrowell said:

http://www.bakersfieldtrailblazers.org/XJ_BUMPER/jeep_xj_rear_bumper.htm

Here's how I did mine. Built it about 5 years ago, and it still is perfect. I wouldn't change anything. I mostly leave it in the up position, since it does not see the road very much any more.

Jeremy

Click to expand...

Pretty interesting setup you have there. Nice job.

ctomas_30 said:

I am planning on adding a rear bumper and tire carrier to my 2000 but can not decide how the rear tire should be mounted. I've debated but still can't decide whether the tire should be mounted up high or down low, centered horizontally or off-set to a side, angled parallel with the rear window or perpendicular. Any opinions or experience would be great.

Click to expand...

I've got some experience with this, which might help you decide.

I have one of the few AEV tire carriers. The tire sits vertical, centered, and not too high and not too low. However, I have hit it a couple times dropping off ledges and have learned that you want that spare tire aired way down so it can absorb the shock if it gets hit. I forgot once and it tweaked the carrier.

So raising it up was one solution. I also didn't like how it was vertical. It always looked like it was sagging back, even though it wasn't. Instead I thought it would look good angled to match the angle of the back of the jeep. So here is what I did.

Here is how the tire sat before:





I raised the mount about 6" and angled it in to match the rear of the jeep.











If I had to do this again, there are some things I would do differently. Mainly I think I would prefer the tire not angled quite so much. A buddy of mine has his tilted in just slightly, and I think this looks good. Mine is okay, much better than vertical but maybe I'm just being picky.

My other thoughts are:

Seeing out the back window really is a non-issue unless you have really small tires. Why? Because 33's or larger and you ain't going to see no matter where it is unless you have it way too low and then departure angle is a major issue. (Unless you create a solution like jrowell did) Get used to using your side mirrors.

So... I say up high is good. The top of my 35 is about even with the roof.

As for the centered vs off to the side positioning, I prefer centered but this is mainly just personal preference.

Thanks for the input so far.

I've been thinking and am leaning towards mounting the tire centered, up high, and angled slightly based on your guys' input and pics.

EricsXJ said:

Pretty interesting setup you have there. Nice job.

Click to expand...

x2 I haven't seen anything like that before.

casm said:

Aftermarket, I'm a fan of JCR Offroad's Stage 3 Rear Bumper

Click to expand...

I've been a fan of that bumper too. I emailed them to see if they would be able to modify one of their Stage 3s and bring the position of the tire up and angle it since they say on their website that they do custom work. I got the reply today that "these changes are unavailable."

So with that, does anyone know of any existing tire carriers/bumpers that offer what I am looking for? I've seen the C-Rock one but I am not a fan.

I believe the Rigidco bumpers are like that or can be built like that. Great, beautiful bumpers, I have the front winch one from them.

I too triied to get them to modify one for me last year having read they were custom made. The reply I got from them was the same just a little more rude.

I am still keeping my eyes open for a tire carrier bumper for my XJ. I am not in too much of a hurry to get one though. My XJ is in Miami, FL and I in the Caribbean more than 2 years minus the 2 months (June and July) last year I returned to Miami. Had I gotten a bumper I liked, I would have mounted it to the XJ at that time.