New rear tire carrier Westcott designs

[mep1811]

This looks sweet! I've been looking for a hitch carrier with table and cooler tray for cleaning and storing fish after spearfishing. I like the idea of keeping everything out of the cruiser. Do you have any lower side pics to show how low it sits from the hitch? My receiver is already pretty low, and from your shots it looks like the Wescott sits even lower. Thanks!

The carrier sits just at the hitch level. You lose some departure angle.

 

[daeojkim]

I am considering purchasing this as I go for road trips and overlanding for my LX570. May be moderate offroading.

I think it is a good design and very utilitarian. Flexibility to take on and off with ease.

Although I am sure vertical and horizontal movements will be well handled by the hitch,
I am concerned about torsional rigidity at the hitch receiver and inserter. When you go offroad, there will be not only up and down movements, but also rotational movements due to uneven terrain. I would love to see video of the carrier from the back as the vehicle is going through uneven terrain and wobbling side to side.

Most off road hitch mount carriers that I have seen, have the tire carrier load in line with and above the hitch, thus less likely to generate significant torsional force as the vehicle wobbles.

Any opinion on this?

 

[mep1811]

I am considering purchasing this as I go for road trips and overlanding for my LX570. May be moderate offroading.

I think it is a good design and very utilitarian. Flexibility to take on and off with ease.

Although I am sure vertical and horizontal movements will be well handled by the hitch,
I am concerned about torsional rigidity at the hitch receiver and inserter. When you go offroad, there will be not only up and down movements, but also rotational movements due to uneven terrain. I would love to see video of the carrier from the back as the vehicle is going through uneven terrain and wobbling side to side.

Most off road hitch mount carriers that I have seen, have the tire carrier load in line with and above the hitch, thus less likely to generate significant torsional force as the vehicle wobbles.

Any opinion on this?

Reach out to Wescott and see if has such a video.

 

[iwashmycar]

I am considering purchasing this as I go for road trips and overlanding for my LX570. May be moderate offroading.

I think it is a good design and very utilitarian. Flexibility to take on and off with ease.

Although I am sure vertical and horizontal movements will be well handled by the hitch,
I am concerned about torsional rigidity at the hitch receiver and inserter. When you go offroad, there will be not only up and down movements, but also rotational movements due to uneven terrain. I would love to see video of the carrier from the back as the vehicle is going through uneven terrain and wobbling side to side.

Most off road hitch mount carriers that I have seen, have the tire carrier load in line with and above the hitch, thus less likely to generate significant torsional force as the vehicle wobbles.

Any opinion on this?

Purely Opnion here, but I think the OE hitch would take those stresses without batting an eye....the carrier on the other hand, who knows. But even if the carrier cant (depending with what and how you load it), it doesnt matter. it can be trashed and the truck will still be fine. Id worry more about dragging the thing over every pebble on the trail, but again. It will be at the expense of the carrier and likely not the truck IMO

 

[TheGrrrrr]

I had the Wilco one on my Range Rover and beat the absolute hell out of it on trails due to the reduced departure angle. It looked terrible underneath, but it suffered no functional damage, nor did the truck.

 

[daeojkim]

I had the Wilco one on my Range Rover and beat the absolute hell out of it on trails due to the reduced departure angle. It looked terrible underneath, but it suffered no functional damage, nor did the truck.

Thank you for letting us know of your real world experience. What kind of trail did you try this on? Moderate rated trails or harder?

I am looking to do mostly road trips and moderate rated trails. Avoid rock crawling.
If this thing can handle something like Black bear trail in Colorado, or hells revenge trails while avoiding difficult stages, I would be happy.

I am planning for a 4 to 5 month road trip throughout US and Canada, including Alaska.

Do you think this will stand up to the test ? could this work?

Thank you

 

[TheGrrrrr]

I don't think its a matter of if it will survive, but more a matter of to what extent it will limit you. I did most of the damage on Broken Arrow in Sedona which is more of a Moab type trail. Lots of terrible sounds, but didn't stop me. I haven't done any of the Moab trails or BB Pass, but I suspect it would be more of an issue in Moab than BB Pass. For 99% of what you would be doing it wouldn't be a show stopper, but I think in Moab it could be a limitation at best.

 

[mep1811]

Thank you for letting us know of your real world experience. What kind of trail did you try this on? Moderate rated trails or harder?

I am looking to do mostly road trips and moderate rated trails. Avoid rock crawling.
If this thing can handle something like Black bear trail in Colorado, or hells revenge trails while avoiding difficult stages, I would be happy.

I am planning for a 4 to 5 month road trip throughout US and Canada, including Alaska.

Do you think this will stand up to the test ? could this work?

Thank you

That will be mostly highway driving. Should not be any issue.

 

[2014 LEX 570 GA]

I picked up a Westcott designs hitch mounted tire carrier. Jeff Westcott personally supervised the fitting of the carrier and explained how it worked.

The carrier is strong and rattle free. The D/S tray can be removed and a second spare tire can be fitted . There are mounting points for three Rotopax.

There is a built in fold down table that will be very handy while camping. The tray can fit four jerry cans or a large cooler or anything you can mount to it.

Since I have a 40 gallon aux fuel tank I don't need to carry extra fuel anymore but the tray will come in handy for carrying water.

Universal Hitch Mount Tire Rack - Westcott Designs

This Westcott Design Hitch Mount Rack comes with standard driver and passenger side tire racks. The tire racks are designed to hold up to (2) 37″ tall tires.

westcottdesigns.net

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Following up on this - it looks like you are the only one to post about this set up on forum. Wondering if you can share a review or if anyone else is using?

Similar to you I do not want to go down the road of bumpers due to weight and cost, and I cannot have a semi-permanent drawer system or fridge in my third row due to need for modularity in my rig (mix of mall crawling and overlanding duties), so I have a bunch of stuff I need to be able to carry on the roof or the tailgate depending on the specific use case (yeti, grill, misc gear storage, water, fuel, bikes, luggage, etc.).

It seems I am between the following:

A combination of Wilco Hitchswing with a Pakmule (I know these are hated on the forum but aside from cost and compromised departure angle, they are highly effective and very well made).

This unit (assuming you can do double table storage, instead of spare tire carrier, as my spare will remain in OEM location).

My priorities are storage capacity/modularity and minimizing the compromise to departure angle. After some google image searching and YouTube, I thought this unit would be the best of both worlds, but above photos seem to tell a different story.

My question is, is the unit mounted correctly in these photos?

Based on below photo, It looks like it may be mounted via the top receiver position (which I think is for adding additional racks if desired), as opposed to the bottom receiver position, which is causing the bottom bars to hang down so low and compromise the departure angle.

 

[Mooterman]

Following up on this - it looks like you are the only one to post about this set up on forum. Wondering if you can share a review or if anyone else is using?

Similar to you I do not want to go down the road of bumpers due to weight and cost, and I cannot have a semi-permanent drawer system or fridge in my third row due to need for modularity in my rig (mix of mall crawling and overlanding duties), so I have a bunch of stuff I need to be able to carry on the roof or the tailgate depending on the specific use case (yeti, grill, misc gear storage, water, fuel, bikes, luggage, etc.).

It seems I am between the following:

A combination of Wilco Hitchswing with a Pakmule (I know these are hated on the forum but aside from cost and compromised departure angle, they are highly effective and very well made).

This unit (assuming you can do double table storage, instead of spare tire carrier, as my spare will remain in OEM location).

My priorities are storage capacity/modularity and minimizing the compromise to departure angle. After some google image searching and YouTube, I thought this unit would be the best of both worlds, but above photos seem to tell a different story.

My question is, is the unit mounted correctly in these photos?

Based on below photo, It looks like it may be mounted via the top receiver position (which I think is for adding additional racks if desired), as opposed to the bottom receiver position, which is causing the bottom bars to hang down so low and compromise the departure angle.

View attachment 3209287

Have you considered the Stowaway 2 Swingout hitch carrier? Had one for years and used it mostly for road trips in the 100. It's quite stout, swings open for hatch access and has great ground clearance as the hitch bar curves up. It's just a basket so not sure it would meet your modularity needs but great for hauling all the 'gear'. Might save you some money too.

StowAway Cargo Carriers - Versatility in Action.

How many times have you wished you had more space for your road trip? Packing up for a road trip requires careful planning - how much to take and where to put it.

www.stowaway2.com

 

[2014 LEX 570 GA]

Similar to you I do not want to go down the road of bumpers due to weight and cost, and I cannot have a semi-permanent drawer system or fridge in my third row due to need for modularity in my rig (mix of mall crawling and overlanding duties), so I have a bunch of stuff I need to be able to carry on the roof or the tailgate depending on the specific use case (yeti, grill, misc gear storage, water, fuel, bikes, luggage, etc.).

It seems I am between the following:

A combination of Wilco Hitchswing with a Pakmule (I know these are hated on the forum but aside from cost and compromised departure angle, they are highly effective and very well made).

This unit (assuming you can do double table storage, instead of spare tire carrier, as my spare will remain in OEM location).

My priorities are storage capacity/modularity and minimizing the compromise to departure angle. After some google image searching and YouTube, I thought this unit would be the best of both worlds, but above photos seem to tell a different story.

My question is, is the unit mounted correctly in these photos?

Based on below photo, It looks like it may be mounted via the top receiver position (which I think is for adding additional racks if desired), as opposed to the bottom receiver position, which is causing the bottom bars to hang down so low and compromise the departure angle.

View attachment 3209287

I think I spotted the issue here - it looks like the lower half of tailgate on 200 series cannot be lowered fully with this unit mounted, so you may have been forced to use the higher receiver in order for the tailgate to clear the unit.

 

[2014 LEX 570 GA]

Have you considered the Stowaway 2 Swingout hitch carrier? Had one for years and used it mostly for road trips in the 100. It's quite stout, swings open for hatch access and has great ground clearance as the hitch bar curves up. It's just a basket so not sure it would meet your modularity needs but great for hauling all the 'gear'. Might save you some money too.

StowAway Cargo Carriers - Versatility in Action.

How many times have you wished you had more space for your road trip? Packing up for a road trip requires careful planning - how much to take and where to put it.

www.stowaway2.com

Thanks. Will take a look at this.