Tire Carrier Minimum Material Thickness

So I have a shell on my Mj, and I want to get the spare out of the bed, The truck is already tall enough and I don't want the spare on the roof. I already have a rear bumper that I fabbed up a little while back, I will be making a few subtle changes and cleaning it up. I have been wanting to make a tire carrier for some time now, I have 3 6-foot long pieces of 1.5x3 1/8th inch rectangular tubing. Will the 1/8 inch be strong enough for a 33x12.5 on a steel 15x8, a h-lift and maybe two jerry cans? the cans will only be mounted when needed, not a full time thing.

Thanks in advance,
Daniel

1/8 seems a little thin. I built mine out of 3/16. Stuff is heavy but sturdy. Depending on the design (especially yours) it will want to wobble front to back over bumps and whoops. (welds and hinge pin will be tested there) So the ticker the metal the better, but 1/4 makes things real heavy. With 10 gal of fuel/water, jack, and 33" tire. A double shear hinge pin is best.

Just my 2 cent

The hinge will be double sheer, I am using .25 wall DOM with bronze bushings and a 1 inch bolt, I also have a Destaco latch already.

.125" is plenty if designed right. Should have zero issue out of it, especially with only a 33" tire. Im using 2x2x.125" tubing for my swingout with a Jerry can and highlift with a 35" tire. Its also double shear hinge that I made. Uses a 1-1/4" pin and Delrin Bushing I made on the lathe.

This pic shows how I tied into my cage with another mount, but I ran it for a year with just the onedouble shear mount too.







This is without the cage tie-in, with only one pivot point. Worked just fine.









~ Stump

Stump, I actually planned out mine in my head and it will be similar to yours, except it will swing out to the passenger side and I will have another brace on the tire mount. I was going to do the tire on the driver side so I can actually see something when I back up.

I have a 1.75 .250 wall main bar and 1.75 .120 for the rest on the one I made for the gf's rig. I wish I did it all out of .120 wall

My old home brew was 1/8 I think. We used a spindle back then, worked well. What I did differently was mount it on the drivers side, with the tire on that side. The big difference was the carrier was really only large enough for the tire, meaning the latch system was just to the driver side of midline. Really cut down on the torque/load on the spindle.

When I upgrade my rigid to a tire carrier, I plan to add a second bushing/bolt hinge in line with the carrier hinge, and hopefully mount it off some upper quarter guards that have a rub rail or something similar.