Sonofmayhem

Trust, TC, ive seen his truck, he runs 33s w/ no lift, and it works good.

sts2usnss

GT88YOTA, thanks for your opinion! I am actually using pretty thick rebar and the guy doing the welding for me is also doing all of the bending also. I am in no way looking to build a rig to win shows with. Although I think this will turn out pretty cool if all goes well. And the best part is the rebar only cost me like 40 bucks and it's sturdy as hell. I only want it so I can relocate my spare tire and jack and to be able to mount a few lights.

tc

I'm not real keen about putting spares on the roof - that's A LOT of weight up pretty high...

sts2usnss

Yeah but if I'm not really gonna be in off camber situations hardly at all then why not put it up there and give myself that extra clearance underneath?

tc

1. how do you know you'll never be in an off camber situation? Could be a serious OH NOOOO moment

2. Why don't you just put it in the bed and tie it down? Ratchet straps are cheaper than steel/fabrication.

trythis

Rebar is pretty easy to break when you weld it. That is why they ti it with rebar tie wire for use in concrete. You can heat 1/2 inch rebar, and snap it in half with your hand if it is in a vise. It isn't good for a situation where it could break and junk falls off on the highway. get some lightweight tubing and your rack will be lighter and stronger.

tc

Some people just gotta learn the hard way I reckon...

sts2usnss

Ok, so you got a good point there. I am still going to build the rack for some extra storage space, i.e. shovel, jack, lights. But I think I might just take your advice and look into storing the spare in the back cargo area. I remember a thread a while back someone did about a mounting bracket for it in there.

And by the way, this is why I LOVE this site! Thanks again to everyone for all of the great advice.

Doc279

sts2usnss,

I had a 1990 4 runner and I ran 33's with a 1" body lift from 4crawler.
I also used the Downey HD rear coils to get rid of the sag.

I moved my tire underneath by using a Tacoma truck winch cable set up.
My 1990 had the rear tire carrier - I mounted a tool box on the swing away tire carrier.

This set up worked real well !!!

GT88Yota

The rack is a decent idea but still, the rebar is just plain dumb. Not only will it look like ass but as others pointed out it is not very strong when heated. I know you are not building this truck to win shows but using rebar will look like a couple of chimps built it.

sts2usnss

Ok, so I didn't know how brittle rebar could be. I never claimed to be an engineer. I looked at it as a cheap and simple way to get the job done. However like I said, I didn't know that welding it would make it significantly weaker. Guess it's time to look into some tubing.

GT88Yota

Tubing or pipe is definitely the way to go in this case, pipe will be cheaper but will be more then adequate for what you want to do. Glad to hear you are taking the right path.

sts2usnss

Well like I have said before, that's the best thing about this site. There are a lot of people here who through trial and error have figured out the right and wrong way to do things and have plenty of knowledge to share.