Home made tire carrier build up thread...

[cruzerman350]

oh ok i see what goin on now. the top gusset would make a difference and the bottom one i dont think would be necesary if you have some massive bolts tightened down. but i could be very wrong. on mine i had two peices of angle, one welded to cross memeber and the other welded to umper. i bolted them together wiht 1/2 grade 8 bolts and it didnt twist at all.

 

[Adventure Teq]

Kind of hard to describe but,

Would it be possible to add some flat stock (3/8 perhaps) coming from atop the rear crossmember above the tail light that is welded to 1/4" angle iron that is welded to the backside of your new bumper part.

Get it?

 

[REZARF]

Yeah, I can see that.

I am going to weld in another bracket like the ones on there now, that attaches to the outside of the hinge area and bolts to the outside of the rear tail light. Kinda like an angle iron in a vertical position that the flat edges weld up the cap of the bumper part and then bolts to the outside area of the crossmember.

Does that make sense?

Clear as mud?

Rezarf <><

 

[REZARF]

Well, i got everything buttoned up before Moab, even got a layer of paint on it to boot.

I will be adding a hilift and air tank mount later, but for now I am really stoked on how it came out.

Here is a shot of the bracket we added to support the spindle a bit more. In fact, it really tightened everything up a lot! It also adds a bit more protection to the rear tail lights.

 

[REZARF]

I also lopped off the bottem edge of the crossmember brackets to increase the departure angle... I never scraped once at Moab...

 

[REZARF]

Then I stripped the metal using a 3M disk called "sandblaster" on a 4 inch grinder to get a smooth finish, then I coated a few coats of bare metal primer followed by several layers of rustoleum industrial finish...

How do you like my spray booth?

 

[REZARF]

forgot the spray booth and primer shot....

 

[REZARF]

and a few now that it is in paint! It worked great out at CM06, and I have to give another HUGE PROP to IanB, who made about 2.4 miles of TIG welds on this thing for me! Thanks again Ian!

Enough with the driveway poser shots...

 

[Ullr]

Thanks again Ian!

Enough with the driveway poser shots...

Less niceness, more

Hey can you pull that rear recovery point so I can throw another weld on it?

 

[REZARF]

Sure man, I can also bring some more Beer!

Rezarf <><

 

[REZARF]

One more close up action shot...

 

[Ullr]

Sure man, I can also bring some more Beer!

Rezarf <><

I'm wrenchin this weekend, I want to get the engine back in. I am going climbing though too, so call first.

 

[sine80]

Bump for an update!

Drew, first let me say this has been a most informative thread. great tech! I printed this and have read it several times in traffic. I have been gathering the parts and slowly getting mine together with a similar design. mcmaster stuff showed up today by mr. brown.

I went with 2" 1/4" square stock and I have the earlier light style (though they are led's.) point being, I can outboard the angle almost to the end of the crossmember; though Im unsure how im going to hook up my blinkers which are also small leds about the size of a silver dollar. the plan is to use the 2" stuff to make make the carrier similar to hawkdrivers design.

question for ya. how has everything held up over the past 3 months or so. hearing your tale about not bolting the tire down has me concerned if something were to break and fall apart on the hwy. I want to pull, push, bump and hang on this thing before taking it on the road. I have a feeling drivers out here in california might have a problem with evasive maneuvers trying to avoid a 37 mtr.


thanks again. good stuff.

mike

 

[SteveO]

Carrier looks great but I have one question for you. Why did you choose to mount it passenger side where it's more in the way when you shoulder check? Mine was the same way and I was thinking about building the new one on the drivers side for visibility since I don't have mirrors either. Just curious if I'm missing out on something? Thanks. ...Steve

 

[REZARF]

Bump for an update!


mike

Mike-

I have been meaning to do this for a while as I have several thousand road miles,and about 15 off road trails on the carrier now.

Honestly, things overall are very very good! I get all kinds of questions about it from 40 guys I see around town. It has help up great, but I would change a few things, and I think Hawkdriver nailed most of them when he designed his.

Things I wouldn't change:
IPOR hinge, bomb proof and very fair price.
No binding or flexing when extended or opened.
1/2" Grade 8 mounting bolts.
McMaster Latch... easy to use and a very positive locking motion lets you know you got it.
Rustoleum Paint...
Having peace of mind it was welded right and won't come apart.

First, I would have used .25" stuff throughout, but a mix up with a friend yeilded 3/16". I think the small flex issues I see are from the 3/16" wall stuff.

Second, I would make it so I could still use a pintle hook.

I would (and will) make a "spacer" of sorts that will allow the top swing arm to rest on the lower bumper. Perhaps three "spacers" one mounted below the swing arm latch on the bumper. With the other two mounted to the bottom of the swing arm. I will use some kind of nylon or teflon pads to keep the friction down.

I need to add a few more gussets.

I want to add one more tube that would extend parallel to the swing arm from the tire carrier and make a 90 bend down to the latch. Then I could mount whatever the heck I want on there. I would like to get a snowboard rack on there for the winter and a CO2 tank for wheeling. Maybe a hi lift as well.

Also, the door idea with Hawks is great! I also would have made the gap between the swing arm and bumper small like Hawk's his is around 1/4" or so and I think it looks better than the larger gap I have.

Powder coating would be great, but I can't justify the costs at the moment.

Other than that, I am super happy with it.

Make a build up thread for sure, maybe we will perfect this thing before too long I look forward to seeing what you create.

Rezarf <><

 

[REZARF]

SetveO

Man, I debated this one a lot, it finally came down to combating my Cruiser lean. My cruiser leans a bit drivers side, so I thought any of the major weight I could get over to the other side might help...

... it does block my view, but only as much as a 40 can get blocked. Between being topless and the corner windows, I can see when a car is there pretty quick.

Just preference and trying to avoid the lean.

Rezarf <><

 

[sine80]

Thanks for the info Drew. I dont really think im going to do a build thread. In the end I think it will more than likely ened up being so similar its not really worth it. On a side note, I picked up a used band saw about a month ago for $100. I have used this thing so much for this project, it has already paid itself off a few times over.

I hear you on the spacers, I was thinking about doing something like that. I was thinking three, on about 6-8" from the spindle, one in the middle, and one on the latch end. I think that would take some of the stress off the spindle. I can weld ok, but I think I might have my buddy come down and help me with the spindle part. I know everything there has to be pretty strong to support the wight of the tire.

I havent really decided on the basket peice. Mainly I want to just get the tire out of the tub. I too snowboard and a rack would be cool, but with the basket, rack etc, I'll have to be open it anyway. I dont have the ambi doors and once the rack is on, you will have to open regardless with the top on.

im going to run six total angle supports with 5/8 grade 8 bolts. I was concerned at first becuase I wasnt seeing how with my lights I wulc make a support on the end of the bottom brace tied into frame like you did on both ends. But, I think with my lights, the max overhang over the last angle support will be 3" max. If I do need to add something at the end, I will have to either cut the tub, or who knows.

dont be too critical with the gap, I think it came out killer. I'm just super stoked both you and hawk made your threads. both came out great. put some ideas in my head. I will maybe post a few pics when finished.

mike

 

[REZARF]

Mike-

I checked out your buildup on Pirate... WOW, nice job man! And here I thought you might be a noobie I really like your cage, where did you get it? Did you fab it?

3" of overhang would be fine, I would get that spindle as close as you can to the nearest brace and go from there. You can always run a small, but thick, gussest out to the end over your lights as well.

Give a few pics at least when you get it all buttoned up.

Rezarf <><

 

[sine80]

Thanks Drew. And what are you talking about, I am a nooB! Most of what I did can be credited to Dustin (dustin here, choreboy2 on pirate). Ive only had my cruiser for about a year and a half and its the first one ive owned.

I was thinking about that gusset too. I think thats what I'll end up doing. And I'll post pics too when finished. I hope to finish it up in the next week or so. Im still waiting on the spindle from IPOR.

edit: I got the cage from orangefj45, which from my understanding was org made by faultline fab. I dont have that much skill

Mike

 

[sine80]

Well, following up from above. I finally finished, (well, at least enough to get down to dans for the weekend to install his ps.) Anyway, again thanks rezarf and hawkdriver. I liked several components from both threads and came up with this. I am very stoked on the stregnth of this thing. with the tire on, I can sit on the swing arm all the way out to the latch end--and Im not a small guy. I was not planning on doing a "basket" for a cooler, but now I think im going to do it. if you look closely, you can see it has a slight bend up to the driver side. This was do to a weld that got too hot, not from the spindle being centered right. anyway, like you guys I used 3/8 angle for the braces, and did 6 of them, dont know why. I used 12 5/8 bolts, that was expensive. still dont have the spring pin on. and I have the "oh sh&%" cable on there for now.

mike