Triangular tire carrier upgrade

RubiconMike

TJ Enthusiast
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Oct 25, 2018
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346
Location
Santa Cruz, CA
For years I've had a Jeeperman rear bumper/swing-away tire carrier. It's a similar design to what several other companies build with a heavy-duty bumper and a triangular swing-away tire carrier. The tire carrier is mounted to a big steel pin on one side of the bumper, and swings smoothly due to tapered roller bearings in the pivot. It is fastened by a car door-type latch on the opposite side. I never could get the latch adjusted right - if it was loose enough to be easy to operate, it rattled. If it was tight enough to not rattle, it was so hard to operate my wife couldn't open it.

I was pretty happy with it until one year I decided to do a Rubicon trip with the wife and two German Shepherds. To make room for the dogs in the back, I loaded all the gear on two racks mounted on the tire carrier. In addition I also carried two full 5 gallon Jerry cans and a 35" spare. With all that weight on it, as I bounced over the ground the carrier would rock back and forth, banging into the tailgate. The company that made the bumper said that shouldn't happen, but really, with that much weight and only being fastened at the bottom, what could you expect? I ended up running a ratchet strap from the top of the roll bar to the top rack above the tire and pulled it tight. All the way home my mind was working on coming up with a more permanent fix. Something easy to use, wouldn't rattle, and wouldn't let the carrier bang against the tailgate. This was done with just basic hand tools, a welder, and a hand grinder to smooth out the mediocre welds.

I had seen some Hansen bumpers and what I liked about them was that they had two hinge points, one high and one low. I called up Hansen and they were nice enough to sell me just the upper hinge from one of their bumpers. I then went to a local steel fabrication supply shop and purchased two six-foot lengths of 2" square tubing, the same thickness as the tire carrier. The shop also cut them both in half with a 45 degree cut. Their chop saw cut the angle better than any of my stuff could.

First I mounted the Hansen hinge at the top of the tub, using a piece of threaded rod to align the center point of to the center of the bottom hinge. Then I needed a place to attach the upper hinge so I took one piece of steel with the 45 degree cut and welded it to the top of the carrier triangle and cut it to the same length as the bottom arm and bolted it to the Hansen hinge. Then I cut another piece of square tubing to be a vertical brace, then welded it to the top piece of tubing I had added. On the opposite side I did the same. Having two pieces of tubing with exactly 45 degree cuts on one end worked out perfectly to square the triangle on that side. I extended it a few inches beyond the vertical support so I would have something to clamp on to hold it shut.

I took a short piece of leftover square tubing (about 6") and mounted at the top of the tub next to the tailgate latch, so the carrier would be parallel to the tailgate when closed. It was also a mounting point for the stainless steel De-Sta-ko clamp I found on the internet. I cut a small piece of scrap rubber for the carrier to rest against, then a nice coat of gloss black paint and adding 2" square plastic plugs to the open ends of the tubing completed the project.

Now the tailgate pivots on two hinges, on low and one high, and is securely clamped on the high side of the other end. You can pull on the tire as hard as you want and there is no flex or movement whatsoever. There is no rattling or any other noise either. I was super happy with the outcome - the cost was about $25 for the Hansen hinge, $25 for the stainless clamp, and $20 for the metal tubing.

What it originally looked like:
IMG_0268.JPG


IMG_0272.JPG


The Hansen hinge:
Bumper2.jpg


The Clamp:
IMG_0287.JPG


Bottom of clamp side:
IMG_0290.JPG


With Clamp open:

IMG_0295.JPG


Modified tire carrier:
IMG_0297.JPG
 
Found an old picture from the trip. This is the amount of stuff I had mounted on the spare tire carrier. No surprise it was rocking back and forth!

IMG_3116.jpg
 
How is that rear cargo rack mounted?
Actually, there are two. The top one is attached directly to the tire carrier frame, along with two gerry can holders. The back one has a bracket that mounts under the spare and has a rod poking out through the middle of the spare. The rack is mounted on the rod. These are some pictures I found to illustrate the setup, but are not pictures of my rig.

Top rack and gerry can holders
RH-2004-3T.jpg


Middle rack
surco_spare_tire_cargo_basket.jpg
 
Actually, there are two. The top one is attached directly to the tire carrier frame, along with two gerry can holders. The back one has a bracket that mounts under the spare and has a rod poking out through the middle of the spare. The rack is mounted on the rod. These are some pictures I found to illustrate the setup, but are not pictures of my rig.

Top rack and gerry can holders
View attachment 67097

Middle rackView attachment 67098

Ahhh, that makes sense. I always use a receiver mounted hitch carrier that rises up a bit to give the extra ground clearance. I'd feel skeptical adding all that weight / stress to the stock tire carrier, unless it was an aftermarket swing away tire carrier / bumper.
 
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Ahhh, that makes sense. I always use a receiver mounted hitch carrier that rises up a bit to give the extra ground clearance. I'd feel skeptical adding all that weight / stress to the stock tire carrier, unless it was an aftermarket swing away tire carrier / bumper.
Yeah, that sounds smart. I wouldn't add a lot of weight to a factory tire carrier. Even with an aftermarket tire carrier, I definitely had mine overloaded.
 
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