New Interior Tire Carrier

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Is the floor supporting the tire as well? If you let it sit on the floor in addition to your hard mounts, you could decrease the stresses on the wheel well attachment points dramatically.
 
Yes and no. It is "lightly" sitting on the carpet with my 315/75/16 BFG KM2, such that it can be slid in and still accommodate a "real" 35" tire...

I agree putting something under the tire is a good idea, and I have done so already.

We agree, placing plastic wheel chocks or a piece of MDF would transfer some of the load to the floor.

I've thought long and hard to make it adjustable, easy to do. However, I hate rattles and it would be difficult to make such a rattle free device. Once I get the final version complete, I'll put the GoPro in the rig and do my best "Mythbusters" impersonation to document and analyze any movement, with and without a floor "spacer" for support...
 
Make it how you want to
To much criticism of your welding which looks fine to me.
Make the thing for a traget group say 35 inch tire and if someone needs to support the tire they can put a small piece of plywood or what not under the tire for support.
I have welded lots of things on my truck with some of the welds looking worse than yours and those parts have been pounded on hard for years without issue.
Its all good.
Maybe if you did run a support up the grab handle
 
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Thanks. The last piece, where the worst welds are was the add-on at the end of the day, making the reach to the seat belt bolt. Had it been welded in proper order, I'd been able to get the torch in a better angle.

Yes, that is what I intended to do. Make it fit the largest "most" people upgrade to although I know quite a few who like to venture into the realm above 35's. For those with smaller tires, like the OP, Joe, a "spacer" is found to help support the tire, if one is so inclined.

Again, long, hard thoughts about running up to the grab bar. That would have taken 5 minutes, 2 pieces of plate, one bend and I knock-off the stripper pole. I wanted to come up with something that was/is unique and still giving the same function, without drilling holes or run up to the oh sh!t handle.

Frankly, its one of those things that one must mount and stress/load to see how strong it is. I/we pushed, pulled, thrashed the mount and could not detect any flexing/movement of the mounts. Then I took a moment to reflect, recalling that Toyota engineered these mounts to also carry the weight of the seat when in the "upright and stored" position by the 5 bolts holding the seat rail in place. Now, I do know that the seat weighs less than a full size 35, yet...

adding the seat belt bolt to these 5 bolts gives the entire unit much more security and strength, IMHO...
 
Couple of thoughts in no particular order.


Welds look fine. Yeah, few craters, but it's not going to be exposed to the elements or under heavy stress so unlikely to crack. If concerned about it, grind it out and reweld, no big deal.

If you want to test it, bolt it in without the tire then take a 5 lb sledge to it. If it doesn't bend/crack/move/etc, welds are good. If it does move, you found your failure point. :lol:



While I wouldn't hesitate to hang a tire off this, there is a slight concern that there could be a lot of leverage on the floor mounts. Not so much concerned about the tire coming loose as deforming the floor over time. Very very very unlikely, but it is a possibility as that is basically one big lever.

When I did my interior carrier, I ran a piece of solid tube up to the upper seat belt bolt on the D-pillar. This anchors the tire on multiple planes, and eliminates the chance of it acting as a lever against the bolts in the floor.

Also instead of attempting to hard mount the tire to carrier, I just wheel it into place then run a bolt (grade 8 of course!) through my HiLift to a captive nut inside the tube. Once cranked down it applies a significant amount of pressure on the tire and sandwiches it into place, it's not going to move.

Really glad I designed it this way as now I can fit 37's without having to redesign the carrier. :grinpimp:

As others have pointed out, since it's sitting on the floor that carries the weight of the tire. Very little stress on the carrier that way.

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nice work.
Yup, I think it should be resting on the floor, too much leverage otherwise.
Yup, I'd make the mount adjustable vertically, so
- it can be made to rest on the floor
- it can accommodate various sizes of tire
 
I have been thinking about this as well. I have since been storing my spare upright in the cargo area with ratchet straps and the 3rd row seat bracket similar to alot of other folks. It is actually kind of a pain to get right and I would like a more solid solution. I have always wanted to do a homemade carrier and had planned on using the 3rd row seat bracket as ebag did above. My solution looks like this: Drawn in paint since I don't have AC on my laptop. The black is the existing bracket and the tire, while the gray is the added tube and plate. No holes cut, no other support other than the 3rd row bracket.
tire carrier.webp
 
Not to rain on your parade, but that design won't work. The 3rd row seat bracket isn't shaped like that. It's basically vertical, which means you can't have the tubing cross it like that. (At least assuming the square on the bottom is the cargo floor.)

Looks way too complex as well, if you're gonna use the 3rd row bracket eliminate anything else going to the floor. If you want super stability, run a bar like I did up to the 3rd row seatbelt, or to the grab bar above it. If you do either of those, you can eliminate that huge hoop as well.
 
I had an interior tire carrier about 10 years ago. Similar in style even. Tire lived about 4 months of it's life inside and all was well, it seemed happy. Went wheeling in a super muddy area and of course got a cut sidewall while in this disgusting, soupy, bad egg smelling, thick mud. Swapped out the tire and guess what? You guessed it, now I had a 35" stinky, muddy tire inside my truck for the next 8 hours. Interior tire carrier came out the next day. Only thing worse, was when it was on the roof, but that's a different thread....
 
Not to rain on your parade, but that design won't work. The 3rd row seat bracket isn't shaped like that. It's basically vertical, which means you can't have the tubing cross it like that. (At least assuming the square on the bottom is the cargo floor.)

Looks way too complex as well, if you're gonna use the 3rd row bracket eliminate anything else going to the floor. If you want super stability, run a bar like I did up to the 3rd row seatbelt, or to the grab bar above it. If you do either of those, you can eliminate that huge hoop as well.

As with most disagreements, I think you are seeing things a bit differently than I am, which is fine. You had me paranoid for a second that I was missing somehing. My design would work just fine, but you are correct in that is would be more complicated than yours. I was just trying to come up with something that would provide the same amount of support as the slee design, without attaching to the upper points. I could draw another picture. This is a cool thread. I like seeing what different people come up with for the same issue.
 
As with most disagreements, I think you are seeing things a bit differently than I am, which is fine. You had me paranoid for a second that I was missing somehing. My design would work just fine, but you are correct in that is would be more complicated than yours. I was just trying to come up with something that would provide the same amount of support as the slee design, without attaching to the upper points. I could draw another picture. This is a cool thread. I like seeing what different people come up with for the same issue.

Well it's very possible I'm not just seeing it from the proper angle. That can be an issue with a flat line drawing with no perspective. :lol:
 
bad ass man. i like it, i want one!!!
 
I would disagree, 3 lug nuts is pretty easy to me...:hhmm: :D

Agree that removing the nuts isn't a big deal, bought the plates from Luke, etc. For me the bigger deal is getting to the nuts, then the tire needs to move over to clear the plate to come out. Most of the time when I would need the spare, I'm wheeling, so the cargo area is loaded, to make this happen, it would need to be unloaded.

So the design changed. We went with one where the spare rolls in from the back and is held by a strap, release the strap and it rolls straight out the back. It also holds the Puma compressor.

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I like it, I just don't like giving up cargo room.

I had an interior tire carrier about 10 years ago. Similar in style even. Tire lived about 4 months of it's life inside and all was well, it seemed happy. Went wheeling in a super muddy area and of course got a cut sidewall while in this disgusting, soupy, bad egg smelling, thick mud. Swapped out the tire and guess what? You guessed it, now I had a 35" stinky, muddy tire inside my truck for the next 8 hours. Interior tire carrier came out the next day. Only thing worse, was when it was on the roof, but that's a different thread....

Agree that carrying the spare interior is not for everyone. Some of us have the room and rarely or never wheel in slop, so it is a good option. Everything is a compromise, inside has some advantages; less likely to be stolen, less sun rot, don't have to deal with it every time the hatch needs to be opened, not likely to get hungup on it when dropping off of ledges, etc.:hillbilly:
 
Agree that removing the nuts isn't a big deal, bought the plates from Luke, etc. For me the bigger deal is getting to the nuts, then the tire needs to move over to clear the plate to come out. Most of the time when I would need the spare, I'm wheeling, so the cargo area is loaded, to make this happen, it would need to be unloaded.

So the design changed. We went with one where the spare rolls in from the back and is held by a strap, release the strap and it rolls straight out the back. It also holds the Puma compressor.

That is really slick, very nice and well thought-out!
 
I've been thinking about how some don't like the interior carrier because they don't want to throw the dirty/muddy flat tire back into the LC, and that is a good point. But (and I will probably end up doing this as well)... why not just re-install the OEM tirecarrier under the truck? Seal /Zip tie up the chains and mechanism (or keep it well oiled), and I'd think you could throw a "flat" tire on a rim under there without a problem (or at least slap a rachet strap around that to compress it).

Also, to add to the ideas, I used the third row seat bracket as well, but also used an extra seat side bracket to make it more of a quick disconnect. HERE: https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/244377-another-interior-spare-tire-carrier.html

Tools R' Us, I like your idea as well, espically if all those bolts are factory locations. The same seat release idea I used, could be used with that as well. What you mentioned is the only thing I don't like about mine... If you are full of cargo... some has to come out to get the tire off the studs (yours solves that issue and gives more tie-downs).
 
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