Thinking more...you could make the "tie-ins" to the bumper removable for whatever reason. Tube clamp on the side hoop and a bolted plate at the bottom of the vertical 3/8 support would make it easily removable.

 

Just a quick question, how did you round over the corners on your plate steel? Was it just done on a bench grinder? Looks great!

 

That would be a good option for support, but I want to keep the tire carrier completely separate from the bumper...I wish I would have thought of adding a tire carrier set up when I first designed the bumper and I'd have been able to make a way better set up, but what can ya do? I have been thinking about supporting the corners, and I'm pretty sure I know what I am going to do. I am going to weld a third piece of 2" tube across from one mount to the mount on the other side under the swing open part for lateral support, then I am going to make a J shape piece for the top of the bedside welded to the mount and bolted on to the bed railing, and then a 45 degree angled 1.5" tube mount going from the top of the corner to the bed floor.

I appreciate all the comments and suggestions, I've definitely benefitted from posting this build up!

Thanks! It was fairly simple, yet tedious. I cut the corner at a 45 degree angle and then used a flap wheel on a grinder to blend it in to a smooth rounded corner.

 

I just finished the 45 degree support. I made it out of 1.5" .120 wall tube and scab plated the underside of both bolting locations. I welded the piece inside the light housing area up and put an extra two bolts to hold it on near the bottom. This set up really helped stiffening the corner up, and I doubt I will need anymore support, but I'm still gunna add another tube going across for some lateral stiffness. Oh, and I cut off the old carrier mount stuff finally

Inside the light area scab plate, I had difficulty getting the welder set up to weld such thin metal with the .035 so the top and bottome welds are pretty crappy, but I got it dialed right the third time for the middle weld





And just to show the extra tube I am going to add going across:



And I cut these out as well, just in case I needed more support, but I am not going to add these as of right now, we'll see if I incorporate them later...



That's it for now...next step is going to be cutting and notching all the tubing...I hate notching tubing without a tubing notcher

 

Might save you $40 worth of headache.

http://www.harborfreight.com/pipe-tu...her-42324.html

Looks great so far by the way.

 

Thanks, and thanks for the link! Have you used one of them? If I wasn't on such a tight budget right now, I may consider picking one up, but for now just using a regular hole saw has been doing the trick...it's just not as easy

 

I haven't used one. I guess a regular hole saw would work well. Do you have a drill press and a vice? That could help too.

 

No, but I wish I had both of those! haha A vice is my next tool purchase, it would make all the metal work that I do so much easier, but to get a nice big one is like 150 bucks. I've made legs for sliders and welded them up on a buddies truck just doing it with a hand drill and hole saw blade...I can only imagine the luxury of having a nice tube notcher...

 

Looks good

 

your new bracing looks really good 89.

 

Thanks guys! It might be a bit before the next update, gunna be out of town most of this weekend, but hopefully I'll get a little done Sunday.

 

Well, I ended up working on it a bit today, I got the third tube welded in, and notched and welded up the mounting tubes and main cross tubes. I also started to get some of the structure of the tailgate together....but after looking at the pictures and thinking about it, I'm probably gunna have to cut that bottom third tube out and weld it in again...I've gotta drill the holes for the bolts for the pivots and I am probably gunna have to go in through the bottom due to lack of space between the pivot mounts, I knew it was going together too smoothly edit: I'm trying to think of a different route so I don't have to cut the third tube brace....how would a step drill bit work on 3/8" steel? Or does anyone know of a short length style drill bit series so I could fit the drill between the mounts with the bit in??

 

I got some more work done yesterday, I got 2 of the 3 supports in between the rails, kind of tricky using a hole saw to get it perfect, but it ended up turning out pretty well. I also got the main tire holder welded up. I just need to have my hookup at the metal yard cut me a perfect circle for the actual mounting surface.

 

From the sketches you provided in your first post. I thought you were mounting the spare inboard of the tubing, but I see now that your plan is to have the tire hang off the back.

 

Whoa.



I HAVE THAT SAME STOOL!!!!!!!!! hehehehe

 

That was one of my original ideas and I kind of sketched it up that way, but I ended up making it with the tire on the outside. The whole purpose was to get the tire out of the bed.

 

I worked on it for a while yesterday and I got it 90 percent done. All I have left is to skin it, graft in the latch on the skin, round off the latch side top corner, add some simple hi-lift mounts and then paint it up. I just took some quick shots while I was working, so they aren't the best pictures, but I'll post up some more detailed photos once it's all done. The latch system worked out better than I thought it would. It doesn't rattle and everything is tight and secure. The slop in the bushings is way less than I thought, it only drops down maybe 3/4 of an inch at the very end. Not bad for $20 poly performance bushings holding a 65 plus pound tire I'm happy with it. I'm still thinking of how to mount the hi-lift, I've got a couple ideas but none I'm super happy with yet. Anyways here are the pictures:

Mock up-


Idk why that center gusset looks so off-center, but it doesn't look like that in real life lol



Latches




kinda dark but oh well, this is with the latch side cut down



And to try and keep sticky fingers off my tire

 

 

COOL, bet it'll look good skinned

 

nice!

what kind of latches are those?