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Anyone got one of these OEM tire carriers to part with?

casm

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Oklahoma
I've got a thread on this in the Want Ads, but figured I'd see if anyone has one of the OEM tire carriers I'm looking for locally, or knows of one in a boneyard. What I'm looking for is the type that doesn't bolt through the rear quarter panel - specifically, this one:

DSC00445.jpg


After going back to the junkyard to finish wrestling off the bolt-through type yesterday, they decided they wanted $163 for it, even after talking to two other employees and the manager. Screw that. This is also the yard that decided the OEM pushbar from an '89 was worth $70 - $15 more than a complete front bumper.

Anyway, if you've got one that's complete and in decent shape please shoot me a PM. Having the spare eat up all the cargo area's getting really old.
 
casm said:
I've got a thread on this in the Want Ads, but figured I'd see if anyone has one of the OEM tire carriers I'm looking for locally, or knows of one in a boneyard. What I'm looking for is the type that doesn't bolt through the rear quarter panel - specifically, this one:

DSC00445.jpg

Saw two in bone yards this weekend. First one was in one of the three Wilmington yards. The other one was in one of the Anaheim yards. Both were in good condition. Half price weekend for Wilmington is this upcoming weekend.
 
gcurtis said:
Saw two in bone yards this weekend. First one was in one of the three Wilmington yards. The other one was in one of the Anaheim yards. Both were in good condition. Half price weekend for Wilmington is this upcoming weekend.

Cool, thanks for the info. I'm usually hitting the Sun Valley yards (closer to me), but it sounds like a trip to either Long Beach or OC may be in order :D Do you happen to remember which yards in Wilmington? Been awhile since I've been down there, but from what I remember there's about 63432 of them in the area.
 
casm said:
Cool, thanks for the info. I'm usually hitting the Sun Valley yards (closer to me), but it sounds like a trip to either Long Beach or OC may be in order :D Do you happen to remember which yards in Wilmington? Been awhile since I've been down there, but from what I remember there's about 63432 of them in the area.

Johnny, can you chime in? I've forgotten exactly which one they were at because we hit so many. Wasn't one in the yard we pulled the D44 from?

They were Pick a Part in brand, I think. When Johnny reads this he can chime in as he was the leader on the trip.
 
We hit six yards on Saturday. It's all a blur...

But my best guess would be one of the two Wilmington PAP yards or one of the Ecology yards.

The Wilmington PAPs and Ecology are very close, so you could check all three.
 
Must have been Ecology because I didn't see one at the others...

...I really, really dislike those types of carriers and would prefer the hard mount one any day myself.
 
Well, I just noticed in the picture that the tire carrier is on a 97+ and attaches to the bumper.

The ones in the junkyards are the older style which mount to the body.
 
xjohnnyc said:
The Wilmington PAPs and Ecology are very close, so you could check all three.

Excellent, thanks. I'll swing down this weekend; caught the note re: not having the one pictured above, but the local yards have been getting kinda stale lately so a change of scenery couldn't hurt.

GSequoia said:
...I really, really dislike those types of carriers and would prefer the hard mount one any day myself.

Just out of curiosity, what're the reasons? I weighed up the quarter panel mount vs. bumper-only and couldn't really see one being much better than other - they both had their own set of trade-offs.

\\'anderer said:
...I really, really dislike those types of carriers and would prefer the hard mount one any day myself.

Hm, Ontario or Long Beach... It's all about the same distance from here... :)
 
casm said:
Just out of curiosity, what're the reasons? I weighed up the quarter panel mount vs. bumper-only and couldn't really see one being much better than other - they both had their own set of trade-offs.

WEll there are a few reasons I dislike it.

One being that the hinge is more exposed and hangs down lower than the OEM style that I ultimately went with; I could easily see that getting nailed by a rock and potentially peeled.

Another reason is that all of the weight is on that one section of the bumper / quarter panel (I admit that I do not know the extent of any bracing it has). The OEM style spreads the load across the upper quarter panel and that bumper corner.

I dislike the latch being in the rather weak hatch as well. Particularly when dealing with an early model fiberglass hatch. While your late model is a steel hatch that shouldn't be confused with being bulletproof. The early model latch is in the center of the steel bumper (while not that thick I will give you) with some bracing inside the bumper itself (pieces of structully bent sheetmetal on eithe rside of the latch pod). This center latch also bears some of the weight of the tire in the OEM style carrier.

And the last reson - particularly dealing with tires over stock size (I'd trust my OEM one up to 33" tires) is the leverage placed on that hinge. With the OEM style that top mounted hinge keeps a lot of the "pull away" leverage at bay.

Installing the OEM style carrier is a bit of a pain but in my opinion well worth it for a solution involving stock hardware. I'm sure you could graft that style to the late body style with little problems as the body styles aren't that much different really.
 
GSequoia said:
One being that the hinge is more exposed and hangs down lower than the OEM style that I ultimately went with; I could easily see that getting nailed by a rock and potentially peeled.

Yeah, I can see that too - but I figure the tow bar is more likely to get hung up (which is what usually seems to happen; it does a great job of protecting the skidplate from damage) unless I'm in something that's at a really acute angle.

Another reason is that all of the weight is on that one section of the bumper / quarter panel (I admit that I do not know the extent of any bracing it has). The OEM style spreads the load across the upper quarter panel and that bumper corner.

Agreed with you on that. It basically only has two mounting points from what I remember: the edge of the bumper and the plate on the tailgate. The realconcern I have is that if it gets hung up on something at the bumper, it could be forced up and inward, also denting the tailgate (and possibly breaking the rear window) depending on severity.

I dislike the latch being in the rather weak hatch as well. Particularly when dealing with an early model fiberglass hatch. While your late model is a steel hatch that shouldn't be confused with being bulletproof.

No, understood. I got a pretty good idea of how beefy the steel tailgate is from the one I saw with the Jerry can holders bolted to it; while the guy may not have done the best job of installing them to begin with, the topmost bolting points had torn out, taking the sheetmetal with them. Kinda looked like someone had put a .40 through it from the inside.

The early model latch is in the center of the steel bumper (while not that thick I will give you) with some bracing inside the bumper itself (pieces of structully bent sheetmetal on eithe rside of the latch pod). This center latch also bears some of the weight of the tire in the OEM style carrier.

Understood. The main problem I've seen with this type of carrier, though (and I admit this was from quickie measurements carried out in the junkyard and compared against my XJ later, so aren't exactly empirically accurate) is that the later-style tail lights, being taller, don't allow enough space to get the bolts through to the inner fender well from the panel the lights mount against. This means that the upper brace for the tire carrier can't be properly secured - at least, not in any way I've figured out that might be workable.

And the last reson - particularly dealing with tires over stock size (I'd trust my OEM one up to 33" tires) is the leverage placed on that hinge. With the OEM style that top mounted hinge keeps a lot of the "pull away" leverage at bay.

Granted, but plans don't call for going over 31" for the foreseeable future so it should work out OK for a year or so. Roofmount's not an option due to clearance in the garage here at work coupled with lousy on-street parking. Mainly, I don't want the added weight or expense of an aftermarket bumper and carrier - though I do like the C4x4 stuff...

Installing the OEM style carrier is a bit of a pain but in my opinion well worth it for a solution involving stock hardware. I'm sure you could graft that style to the late body style with little problems as the body styles aren't that much different really.

Yep, and that photo was actually stolen from a thread on JF where the guy did exactly that. I agree it's not necessarily the best way, but given the bumper design of the XJ not being conducive to fitting the usual bolt-on carriers designed for 4" flat C-Channel bumpers, is probably the best that's available without going aftermarket, unless anyone else knows of something that might work instead.
 
I just picked one up today ( this style in the pic ) at the bone yard for $40 with all the hardware, braces and brackets. A little sandblasting and powder coating and it will look like new. this seemed the best option for our budget build. We would love one of those 2x4 steel bumpers like Detours or C4x4 but, I would rather put the money to stronger axles and a locker. I'll post pics when finished installing (and figure out how to post an image?)

Chris
 
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