Combat Vet

After seeing a few guys tackle this project I decided to try it myself. The difference was I could not acquire the brackets from a four runner so I had to fab them up myself. All in all I spent a little over a hundred dollars and about a day of fabricating to make it fit nicely. I used 3/16" steel plate and countersunk 1/2" bolts for the gusses. (If you are not sure what countersinking is I'll get to that.)

Supplies: 3/16" steel plate
4. 1/2" x 6" bolts
10. 3/8" x 2 " bolts
Lock washers, washers, nuts ( I used aircraft nuts on outside and regular nuts equipped with lock washers on the inside)


Tools: side arm grinder, welder, drill, various sockets and ratchet set, various wrenches, duct tape, C- clamps. Anvil, hammer pencil various drill bits up to 1/2"

1. First I took of the license plate, because it does not fit in that location and that's where I want my Jerry can to be. Grind off the brackets until smooth and paint the area to prevent rust. ( as shown in the picture below.)





2. Remove the passenger rear light assembly and clamp the tire carrier I the desired position ( as shown below)



3. Drill holes to fit bolts. ( this is where we will countersink) countersinking is where you put a nut on each side one goes directly behind the plate located on the inside of the corner panel then another one goes on the inside toward the bed side of the truck and the last one goes on the outside of the bolt ( on bed side of truck) you will have to choose which ones to counter sink I got 3 out of the 4 bolts countersunk ( the more you countersink the stronger your gusses will be) here is a picture to help clarify countersinking



4. After the holes are drilled take off the tire carrier because the corner panel is not load bearing yet. Now comes the fun part molding the 3/16" steel to the corner panel. I started out on an anvil and with a hammer I mimicked the bend of the panel. Once it was close I clamped it to the outside of the corner panel and softly hit it until it perfectly fit. Here are a few pictures to better explain it.





Once the plate is molded you can place them inside the corner panel and clamp them in so you can take a pencil and trace the drill holes then pull them out and clamp them down and drill the holes ( start off with a small drill bit and work up to the according size it's a lot easier)

5 now that you have all that done. You can clamp the carrier and the plates to the truck and start countersinking. ( when you put the nuts on don't let them cross-tighten on you it's not easy getting them apart again.) once you have it all bolted up you can start working on the tailgate

6. The tailgate part is pretty easy you will cut the bracket as shown below



Next you will place the bracket on the carrier and close it to mark the holes that need to be drilled I used 3/8" bolts on the tailgate.

7. Now you can take the panel off the inside of the tailgate to get to the inside and bolt it down. I placed a steel plate on the inside of the tailgate. Also I found to pit the washers and nuts on the bottom I had to duct tape them together and to the top of the wrench.

Next you will need to weld the tire carriers hanger to a steel plate. And place another steel plate on the back side (as shown below)



Mount it up and your finished. (As shown below)



Here are some pictures of the finished product:









If you have any questions I'd be be more than happy to answer them. Just shoot me a message and ill try to answer them.