LANDTANK rear bolt on tire carrier (1 Viewer)

[landtank]

I've been working on this for just over 2 years now. I finally got a beta unit for final evaluation and to work out any kinks in the design, which were a few but small ones.

What I wanted in the design was:

Bolt on
support for a hi lift jack
multi position open points
hold a 35" tire
lighted license plate
cb antenna mount

all the while keeping everything tight to the body and not weighing a metric ton.

These next pictures show the overall position and layout of the carrier

 

[landtank]

latch and license plate

For the latch I wanted a vertical pull toggle clamp with a rubber bumper to keep rattles at bay. The pull is a stainless steel pull mounted using stainless steel hardware.

When closed the position pop pin is used as a secondary device for holding the carrier closed

While not shown there will be an led light used for the license plate

 

[landtank]

The hi-lift jack is the black model and this one is 60" tall. The top of the jack is about even with the top of the air deflector when installed.

The Jack rotates into the shoe and rests on the back of the support for the tire. Once in place the jack will rest in position allowing the use of both hands to secure it.

I placed a nut in the support so I can use a security lug bolt to hold the jack in place. This allows me to use the trucks lug wrench to remove and replace that bolt.

As a less secure option is to use a push pin in the supplied aux hole. This way when I'm out for a weekend I can simply open the carrier and pull the pin to release the jack.

That aux hole could also accommodate a padlock as an addition theft deterrent.

hi-lift jack

 

[landtank]

spindle

I had a custom spindle made for the carrier. It has a tooth on the back side that stops against the index plate should the pop pin fail to engage. Last thing I need is for the carrier to rotate around and damage the side of the truck.

The spindle is also installed with a sleeve.

Welding directly to the spindle itself can be detrimental to it's strength afterwards. Bu using a sleeve the spindle is initially tack at the bottom in a single place to hold it's position.

Then the entire sleeve is welded in place and allowed to cool. During the cooling process the sleeve shrinks and clamps firmly on the spindle. Once completely cooled two more additional tacks are placed at the bottom.

This process ensures the strongest results post welding and should there ever be a need to replace the spindle one would just grind off the tack welds, replace the spindle and then retack the new spindle.

 

[landtank]

tire mount:

I wanted the tire mount to be simple and effective. Angling the tire to follow that of the hatch allowed this to happen. Because the tire is sitting on top of a pedestal the contact area is not the the tire but actually the rim. The most common rims used are the factory rims and the 17 rims from 4Runners or FJ Cruisers. All these rims will work with this design and so incorporating some kind of adjuster really isn't needed.

One feature I added was 2 dowel pins on the backing plate. The more popular rims are now shank style rims which means that the hole in the rim for the lug nuts are greatly oversized to accommodate the shank of the nut.

These two dowel pins allows you to rest and rotate the tire in position so that the lug bolts are centered in the enlarged holes freeing both hands to install the lug nuts. And with the tilt of the tire it will sit on the carrier hands free.

 

[hammerheadfistpunch]

I need it. I really don't like tire swings for day to day stuff, they just get in the way too often for how I use my truck...but on a trail, it would be great to bolt bon the rear tire to get it out from under the truck and increase my departure substantially.

 

[Marco Lau]

i love how the tire is angled to fit the contour of the hatch...great job!!!

 

[NateMob]

interested to see this with the plastic bumper ends on for better scope of things.

 

[Lumpskie]

I like what I'm seeing so far. Your fresh green paint looks good too. One of these days, I should swing by and check it out in person.

 

[PDoyle]

Hey Rick do you need an 80 series from NY to test the new bumper design for you?

 

[NC LX]

Take My Money! Nice work. Also looking forward to seeing how it looks with the plastic installed.

 

[landtank]

I'll see what I can do about putting a corner return on this weekend. But I need to box the carrier up and get it back to the fabricator also. Because of the tail gate the spindle is as close to it when down as I would go. So basically where everyone else has their spindles.

 

[GA Trevor]

Thank you for another option in the market

 

[flintknapper]

Smart design, looks plenty strong while NOT using more material than needed (read...lightweight).

Would love to have a spring loaded pin for locking the various open positions.

Looking good!

 

[TBDAZ]

So where do I get in line? Looks great just what I need.

 

[nukegoat]

I like it

 

[Josey1972]

This is awesome! Any ideas on what the price point will be?

 

[gnarlytoes]

Looks great. Much like I plan to build someday. Why use just two bolts to attach to center of bumper instead of all four?

 

[landtank]

Smart design, looks plenty strong while NOT using more material than needed (read...lightweight).

Would love to have a spring loaded pin for locking the various open positions.

Looking good!

I'll weigh it but my guess is that it's around 45 lbs. And there is a spring loaded pin. If you look at the spindle pictures you can see it under the jack base. It's a "T" handle for better grip.

 

[flintknapper]

I'll weigh it but my guess is that it's around 45 lbs. And there is a spring loaded pin. If you look at the spindle pictures you can see it under the jack base. It's a "T" handle for better grip.

I imagine that weight is just about right. I saw the T handle pin, just didn't see that it was spring loaded for automatic locking. Should have known you thought of that already.

EXCELLENT!