How to safely carry a larger spare tire on a Jeep Wrangler TJ tailgate

Ronnie Grassel said:
5x4.5
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I mounted an 1/8” plate to the tailgate, cut the original mount down, centered it, raised it up to clear the bumper, and welded it to the plate. It fit so tight I had to cut the original rubber bumpers down. It carried a 35” tire with no damage to the tailgate. That’s pretty far to hang the tire out.
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There are many ways of extending the tailgate bump stops.

What I did is use standard size hockey pucks. They are 1" in thickness and perfect for my set up. Drilled a hole in the center along with longer fasteners. It is stackable, so in the future if I decide to change wheels with different back spacing. I can simply remove or add a puck.

On the hinge side, I did have to notched out a bit of the puck to accommodate the protruding hinge mount.

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Harbor Freight rubber mallets work really well. And it's one piece - not a stack of pieces. They run $3.99 each. You just need a bit longer screw and a washer. Drill out the center of the mallet head for the screw. And then a larger hole to fit the washer. So it holds on the screw. and the washer holds the rubber mallet head on. I've just about got all that collected. To do mine. Several others have done it on here. Works especially well when using a spacer or new spare tire extended holder. As you have a larger gap to make up. I tried extra snubbers but it was like 5+ thick to get it done. The rubber mallet heads seem alot more solid.
 
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This is the one I made, it is offset 5.5” from the tailgate to the wheel mounting surface. It clears the bumper with a 35” x 12.50 tire and it has a antenna and license plate mount.

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I cut my snubbers down to fit the tire.
 
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You might try buyanyrvpart.com I bought mine there. With shipping it was around 300.
 
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Educatemepls said:
Those of you on 35", did you upgrade the hinges? Or will the original ones hold up?
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No issues at all with my stock hinges and my 35" spare. But..... My tire also rests on the top of the bumper when closed, so the tailgate probably doesn't see as much load with my 35" as it did with the stock tire.
 
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Think this is a great solution. But everyone must examine their wheels Back spacing. Wheel back spacing varies greatly from model to model. 4.5 or 0 seams to be standard. Think of it as the hub is in the center of the barrel. If your wheels have a positive back spacing ( as my hub has, it’s toward the face or front of the tire, ) the back half of the tire is wider than the front, so my tire hits the bumper before being on the studs. A negative backspace wheel or a wheel with a spacer/adapter ( see previous reply above) has the hub more towards the back half of the wheel. So the wheel is fully on the studs before hitting the snubbers. I’m not a tire expert, but believe this may be causing the varied differences.
 
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