RLC rear tire carrier / swing out / jerry can / custom fab bumper
- Thread starter Willy beamin
- Start date
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the bumper is a skin there at the hitch, the frame mounts are about 1/3 the way across or so on each side of the crossmember. they mount with thru bolts in the crossmember (vertical), and then four bolts per side bumper bracket to frame mount. they also tie into the tie down location
Isn't there a possibility of bending this area or miss aligning the bumper if it comes down hard on a rock or if a rock grabs on to this section when coming down on it?
Yes. I tweaked mine. Getting it mostly straight was a PITA. I think that's why some vendors hitch cutout is not cut at the bottom.
A better design here would be one in which there was a plate which mounted to the frame crossmember and that bumper lip so that you'd slide off and not catch it. I've considered buying some steel or aluminum plate and bolting that to the frame crossmember at least... it would be better also bolted to the bumper "skin" but that would require some welding that I'm not capable of.
If you don't use your hitch or for people that don't know how to weld and fab things, they can get one of those hitch skid plates to see if it fits and protects the area.
Something similar to this.
I use mine all the time, but not when off-roading.
That’s pretty much the finished product there. Majority of the bracing is on the big 90° areas, and on the two main brackets that secure to the chassis
Selling a used RLC bumper in the Los Angeles area (Monrovia) if anyone is interested! For Sale - Los Angeles: 200-series RLC rear bumper with dual swingouts - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/los-angeles-200-series-rlc-rear-bumper-with-dual-swingouts.1357768/
Love how this looks. Regarding your dial swings. Do you have an issue at all opening the swings if you have a trailer attached? The tire carrier swing looks longer so I suspect if you have a front jack on the tongue of the trailer it wouldn’t clear that?Here are some shots of the new RLC bumper installed w the 4x4labs upgrades…
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Kent had to modify the 2” hitch on the driver side and bring it a few inches over in order to run the atv rack for the canyon cooler.
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And then, the atv rack was able to fit with the 34” KO2…
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Opens nicely for full access…
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On the driver side swing out, it came with a basket for 3 Jerry cans, but w the 40 gal auxiliary tank installed I prefer to run the canyon cooler secured with some steel core straps. Easy access to cold food and drink is really convenient.
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I was worried about that and had James make my swingout lengths the same. Mine latch to each other horizontally rather than to the bumper vertically. That said I actually found my spare tire was more of a potential interference issue with the jack than the arm because the tire sticks about 15” outward so even though it doesn’t stick as far the arc starts at a different point. It’s actually fine when parked straight but if the truck is turned a bit to the tire side I can’t open the swingout
So are each of your swing arms the same length and essentially touch when closed. My thought would be that if I can get a short enough swing arm it would be good. However like you the wheel does stick out and wondering if there is some alternative I’m not thinking of.
Pretty much. They’re the same length. There’s a small gap, but they latch to each other. I put some rubber feet on the bottom of the arm to keep it from vibrating much. The latch works well, and I’ve had the setup about 4.5 years I think.