Tire carrier build

I decided I'm tired of having my spare tire in my bed.  I scrounged some metal from friends, picked up some more from the remnants bin at Metal Supermarkets, swapped some parts for some time on a buddies plasma table, and got started yesterday.

The plan is a vertically swinging hitch-mounted tire carrier, with brackets to hold my hilift, shovel, and axe.  There will be tension lines with turnbuckles from the top of the carrier to the ends of the bumper, to take most of the slop out of the system.  It'll hinge on a half inch bolt (I grabbed one with just enough shoulder that I'll be able to get away with no bushings, and I'll trim the excess threads eventually) and uses a 1/2inch pin to hold it upright.  It'll swing all the way to the ground.

Progress is slow because I'm a shitty fabricator, so I'm measuring everything four or five times and I still end up going back and redoing bits here and there.  Here's where I'm at so far - this is all fitting fine at this point, so I'm gonna tack this up and get started on the upright next. 

Sweet! I need to figure out something for my rigs as well. I put a full sized tire on the spare rim for my Tundra yesterday and it doesn't fit underneath in the stock location. Argh. So, looks like I'm back to looking how to mount it on the underside of my bed rack. A swing out tire carrier is an option but honestly, I think it would look horrible on a pickup truck.

Once I settle on a tire size for the 4Runner, I'll need to fab something up myself as well. Take good notes... 

I like that Kevin. Now the wheels in my head are turning to make one for my rig.

Thanks, guys.

High and angled to match the slope of the hard top?  I can still see out the rear.  Sorta.

clfrnacwby wrote:Sweet!  I need to figure out something for my rigs as well.  I put a full sized tire on the spare rim for my Tundra yesterday and it doesn't fit underneath in the stock location.  Argh.  So, looks like I'm back to looking how to mount it on the underside of my bed rack.  A swing out tire carrier is an option but honestly, I think it would look horrible on a pickup truck.

Once I settle on a tire size for the 4Runner, I'll need to fab something up myself as well.  Take good notes... 

Have you seen the Tiregate?  With your bed rack and armor, that'd look sick.

For having allegedly shitty fab skills I think that thing looks pretty sweet. Nice work Kevin.

I found some time to get back to this today.  Then I ran out of wire, so not done yet.





I think my welds are getting better.  I was just going to tack this up and take it to somebody with a proper 220v setup (and some proper skills), but I took a swing at welding it myself and after a couple aborted attempts that I had to grind off and redo I think I got some beads I'm happy with.  They aren't super pretty, but they're gonna hold.

Those beads are almost perfect - no shame in those!

They look a lot better than mine would right now!

I like it man!! Now I need to get mine figured out. It ended up not fitting with the carrier on it so I need to recalculate!

Thardy wrote:I like it man!!  Now I need to get mine figured out.  It ended up not fitting with the carrier on it so I need to recalculate!

What didn't fit?

The bumper itself fit but when I tried to put the tie carrier on hits the tailgate.

Looks great man. You got a good pattern there, it will definitely hold. Some of that spatter is unavoidable with flux core. You did very good!

Ta da.

It's pretty much done, tho I still need to decide if I'm putting the license plate on the tire or lower on the upright.  And I need to figure out the hilift and shovel mounts.

Looks good!

Is it fairly easy to remove in case you need to throw a recovery shackle in that receiver?

Yeah, I can take it off if I have too.  Spin the turnbuckles loose and pop the pin and pull it out.  But I've got recovery points on the bumper I can put shackles in, I shouldn't ever have to take it off for that.

Nice job bud not to bad.

This is for sale.  It's not going to do me any good now that I'll be pulling a trailer half the time anyway.  I'd rather pass it on to one of you guys than deal with the jerks on KSL.

I've got a little over $50 in materials into the thing, I'd like to get $75 for it.  You won't be getting any piece of fabrication art here - the welds aren't pretty and the tolerances are loose.  But it'll come with fresh paint and get your tire out of the bed, and if you want I'll help you set up shovel or highlift mounts on it.

If anybody rocks at 12v work, I'll trade it for wiring up some lights.

How heavy is it with the tire on there?

Ate you going to be pulling the trailer 100%? It might be nice to have it as an option when your not pulling the trailer.

My bathroom scale is busted, so I can't say for sure.  The thing itself probably only weighs 15-20 pounds or so.

My wheel and tire combo are probably 70 pounds, plus or minus?  Yours will be lighter.

Thardy wrote:Ate you going to be pulling the trailer 100%?  It might be nice to have it as an option when your not pulling the trailer.

I'm going to start working on my swingout bumper.  Because I don't have enough projects.

I may be interested in the carrier.

Come see it Saturday.

Won't be up Saturday, sorry boys.