Delux2769

Well, a few weeks ago I picked up a Smittybilt Tire Carrier from a friend who got a replacement.

The tire carrier was lonely. It had no spindle, or tire mount, just a latch.

I had to fabricate a spindle and latch plate for my homemade bumper.

I started with the tire mount:
It started its life as a 5x5 trailer axle hub.
(Not same exact)


After a lot of cutting and grinding on the inner seal part, it ended up like this:



I then cut a some thick flat stock we had into a rectangle, and drilled 4 holes in it to mount to tire carrier.

Then welded a pipe from the hub to the mounting plate, because the offset of the hub is ~1", lol. I think my pip was ~9", didn't measure. I just cut it longer than needed to clear my 285/70/17 tires, as I will someday have a 37" tire on it.



I figured I had better make a gusset for it so i grabbed a scrap piece of 1" angle iron that was 1/8" thick and made a gusset from the outside of pipe to bottom of the mount. Here's a couple ref pictures:







The latch was quite easy. It was just a couple thick flat stock with hole cut out:





The Spindle was a nasty thing to make. I ended up cutting the spindle off the axle from a trailer, taking the hub, cutting its side, and a hole in my bumper top plate, welded up my hub, packed the bearings in my hub, getting that spindle i cut off, welded a pipe to top of it to lengthen it, stuck it through, and tightened it down. Here's some pics, lol:











Here's how it sat before the tire got mounted:



Will finish write up in morning. Most of the work was done at my work during my lunch breaks. Did some of it at home with my mig welder, just don't have gas for it so the welds on my late receiver are ugly. Forgot to take pictures with Spare Tire on it in the daytime.

Just need to make a spacer for the latch, rattles a little. And a couple other minor things. Going to mount my Hi-Lift Jack to it as well.

Ryan0260

Looking good so far.

jaker t5

Dude why didnt you do a slant back carrier , you did all that

Delux2769

I can always build the slant back mount, and have my straight mount on it. I just had to get my spare out of my back seat, lol.

I have some stretch metal in the shop, I'm planning on doing it similar to yours.

Westtexasjku

turned out sick

Gman*2007

Congrats, looks good.

Delux2769

Couple updates:

I welded a washer onto the latch plate to tighten up the handle and remove any rattle.





I also made a "ramp" for the carrier to slide up onto and relieve some tension from the hinge and sit level.





More updates to come.

bigmike17

Great ideas on beefing that thing up! They should use your tire carrier idea and give you some sort of credit/payment. The basic one they use could be beefed up quite a bit.