Newbie attempt at a 3rd gen rear tire carrier
01-21-2010, 10:46 AM
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Newbie attempt at a 3rd gen rear tire carrier
Hello all,
Thought I might share the build process of my rear tire carrier. I've gone out and bought some 2" and also some 1" square tubing to begin with. I'm currently looking at some different ideas on how to set up my carrier (swing out, swing up, or swing down). So far, I'm kinda leaning toward the swing down set up. I'm planning on building it off of my towing package, this way i'm not hacking into the trucks original equipment bumper.
The reason I'm leaning more toward the swing down carrier, is because I think I'll be able to have it sit alot closer to the trucks hatch, rather than have it stick out so much. I know that with an integrated tire carrier and rear bumper, it would sit close, but I want to retain my stock bumper. I'm not a hardcore off roader, and simply want to make a functional tire carrier that looks kinda pretty.
Like the title of this thread implies, I'm a newbie at fabrication, in fact, I've never even welded before! So it's going to be interesting to see what I come up with. My dad has a little bit of welding experience, and is no pro by any means, but we're going to take a crack at it.
I'll keep you posted on the progress, and will post some pics of the buildup.
Thought I might share the build process of my rear tire carrier. I've gone out and bought some 2" and also some 1" square tubing to begin with. I'm currently looking at some different ideas on how to set up my carrier (swing out, swing up, or swing down). So far, I'm kinda leaning toward the swing down set up. I'm planning on building it off of my towing package, this way i'm not hacking into the trucks original equipment bumper.
The reason I'm leaning more toward the swing down carrier, is because I think I'll be able to have it sit alot closer to the trucks hatch, rather than have it stick out so much. I know that with an integrated tire carrier and rear bumper, it would sit close, but I want to retain my stock bumper. I'm not a hardcore off roader, and simply want to make a functional tire carrier that looks kinda pretty.
Like the title of this thread implies, I'm a newbie at fabrication, in fact, I've never even welded before! So it's going to be interesting to see what I come up with. My dad has a little bit of welding experience, and is no pro by any means, but we're going to take a crack at it.
I'll keep you posted on the progress, and will post some pics of the buildup.
Last edited by fightman80; 01-21-2010 at 10:49 AM.
01-21-2010, 12:34 PM
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01-21-2010, 12:54 PM
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01-21-2010, 01:00 PM
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welding is fun to learn, but can be royally frustrating when you try to do a job right. Are you going to stick weld it? Don't expect it to be pretty, just take your time. Congrats for even trying. Good luck
01-21-2010, 01:03 PM
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[quote=aowRS;51341137]I'm kinda glad we're not driving on the same highways........
Don't you worry, I'm going to test it extensively before I take to the road with it. We've already fabricated a towing package and the brackets for the light bar on the front, so we're not totally green at it! (lol!)
Don't you worry, I'm going to test it extensively before I take to the road with it. We've already fabricated a towing package and the brackets for the light bar on the front, so we're not totally green at it! (lol!)
01-21-2010, 01:06 PM
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Yeah, we've got a crap load of sticks in the garage, and an AC/DC welder......my dad's used it on other projects before, it gets the job done!
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01-24-2010, 05:01 AM
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I decided to go with a swing down carrier. I wasn't keen on having the spare tire in the way when loading up the cargo area, but wanted the carrier to sit as close as possible to my hatch. So I went to a fabrication store, and bought 2 heavy duty hinges. When I got them home, we welded 2 angle iron, that my dad had lying around, to the towing package, and mocked up the hinges. (My dad thought that it would be a good idea to bolt the hinges to the angle iron, this way the carrier would be easily mounted and unmouted if need be.) We drilled out the hinges to match the holes in the angle iron, and began mocking up the carrier.
We cut 3 pieces out of the 4ft length of 2" tubing that I bought, using a mitre saw and a table saw, which we outfitted with a cut off disk. This process was a little lengthy, but it worked out well. We then joined the 2 pieces together using a 45 degree angle and formed a "C" like shape. We then welded them together and cleaned them up using a grinder.
My wife even gave us a hand, and showcased her welding skills, as she took welding classes in highschool. She was pretty rusty, but did alot better than I did.
Once the "C" section was welded together, we welded the 2 hinges to each of the bottom pieces, and began to mock-up where the spare would be.
The next step, will be to create the triangle form at the top of the "C" section, which we will mount the tire mount to. We will be using the 1" tubing to create the upper portion of the mount, and add some bracing to give it some strength.
We cut 3 pieces out of the 4ft length of 2" tubing that I bought, using a mitre saw and a table saw, which we outfitted with a cut off disk. This process was a little lengthy, but it worked out well. We then joined the 2 pieces together using a 45 degree angle and formed a "C" like shape. We then welded them together and cleaned them up using a grinder.
My wife even gave us a hand, and showcased her welding skills, as she took welding classes in highschool. She was pretty rusty, but did alot better than I did.
Once the "C" section was welded together, we welded the 2 hinges to each of the bottom pieces, and began to mock-up where the spare would be.
The next step, will be to create the triangle form at the top of the "C" section, which we will mount the tire mount to. We will be using the 1" tubing to create the upper portion of the mount, and add some bracing to give it some strength.
Last edited by fightman80; 01-24-2010 at 05:05 AM.
01-24-2010, 07:09 AM
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Your hinges and mounting are not NEARLY strong enough. The Toyota factory setup on the second gen uses approx 1/2" diameter Grade 10.9 bolts as the pivot.
The tire weighs quite a bit and is subject to a fair amount of vibration. The mounts need to be BEEFY or your spare will be bouncing down the road behind you.
A recent episode of Xtreme 4x4 had a much better way of doing what you're trying to do with a tube inside a tube. It was for the tire carrier for the Scout.
The tire weighs quite a bit and is subject to a fair amount of vibration. The mounts need to be BEEFY or your spare will be bouncing down the road behind you.
A recent episode of Xtreme 4x4 had a much better way of doing what you're trying to do with a tube inside a tube. It was for the tire carrier for the Scout.
01-24-2010, 07:17 AM
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iTrader: (3)
Your hinges and mounting are not NEARLY strong enough. The Toyota factory setup on the second gen uses approx 1/2" diameter Grade 10.9 bolts as the pivot.
The tire weighs quite a bit and is subject to a fair amount of vibration. The mounts need to be BEEFY or your spare will be bouncing down the road behind you.
A recent episode of Xtreme 4x4 had a much better way of doing what you're trying to do with a tube inside a tube. It was for the tire carrier for the Scout.
The tire weighs quite a bit and is subject to a fair amount of vibration. The mounts need to be BEEFY or your spare will be bouncing down the road behind you.
A recent episode of Xtreme 4x4 had a much better way of doing what you're trying to do with a tube inside a tube. It was for the tire carrier for the Scout.
01-24-2010, 01:34 PM
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@OP, you're using a table saw with a fiberglass disk in it? that's brilliant!
Last edited by peow130; 01-24-2010 at 01:36 PM.
01-24-2010, 04:43 PM
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Aside from cosmetic reasons, I decided to change the spares location because the original setup had the tire bouncing down the road last summer. The cable snapped, and the spare almost bounced onto the hood of another car! That was a scary scenerio.
01-24-2010, 05:11 PM
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Your hinges and mounting are not NEARLY strong enough. The Toyota factory setup on the second gen uses approx 1/2" diameter Grade 10.9 bolts as the pivot.
The tire weighs quite a bit and is subject to a fair amount of vibration. The mounts need to be BEEFY or your spare will be bouncing down the road behind you.
A recent episode of Xtreme 4x4 had a much better way of doing what you're trying to do with a tube inside a tube. It was for the tire carrier for the Scout.
The tire weighs quite a bit and is subject to a fair amount of vibration. The mounts need to be BEEFY or your spare will be bouncing down the road behind you.
A recent episode of Xtreme 4x4 had a much better way of doing what you're trying to do with a tube inside a tube. It was for the tire carrier for the Scout.
The hinges are made of what I believe is 3/8 of an inch steel, and the fact that there are 2 of them, should give it more strength?
I had a friend of mine stop by today, he works as a heavy duty mechanic for a trucking company, and does all kinds of work as well. He helped me out with the structure today, gave me some pointers on welding, and checked out the whole setup for me. He seems to think it will be plenty strong.....check out the rest of the carrier in the next posts and let me know what you think!
Last edited by fightman80; 01-24-2010 at 05:17 PM.
01-24-2010, 05:37 PM
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So today we worked on the upper portion of the mount. Like I mentionned previously, we were using 1" square tubing for the upper portion.
After talking with my friend, we decided to add some extra bracing to the mount in order to strengthen it up. We ended up using a piece of an old leaf spring that was lying around in the storage shed which had some holes drilled into it, to brace the upper portion from behind. It was welded all around where it met the tubing, and all of the earlier welds were revised by my friend.
After all of the main structure was finished, we used thick steel pipe that had a think plate welded to one end of it, as the mounting point for the wheel. We then welded the plated end of the pipe to the top of the carrier tubing, and lifted my aluminum wheel with my 33" tire, in order to check for clearances. Once everything was measured out, we cut an angular slice into the tubing in order to slide another thick plate into and welded it in place. The plan is to use the second plate as the resting point for the back of the wheel, and weld in some wheel studs in order to secure the wheel to the tire mount.
Here is the result of todays work.
After talking with my friend, we decided to add some extra bracing to the mount in order to strengthen it up. We ended up using a piece of an old leaf spring that was lying around in the storage shed which had some holes drilled into it, to brace the upper portion from behind. It was welded all around where it met the tubing, and all of the earlier welds were revised by my friend.
After all of the main structure was finished, we used thick steel pipe that had a think plate welded to one end of it, as the mounting point for the wheel. We then welded the plated end of the pipe to the top of the carrier tubing, and lifted my aluminum wheel with my 33" tire, in order to check for clearances. Once everything was measured out, we cut an angular slice into the tubing in order to slide another thick plate into and welded it in place. The plan is to use the second plate as the resting point for the back of the wheel, and weld in some wheel studs in order to secure the wheel to the tire mount.
Here is the result of todays work.
01-24-2010, 05:40 PM
#16
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I don't really have any input for your project, but I couldn't help but notice your Laking Toyota plate frame! I bought my Runner near Sudbury and according to the records my '95 truck came from Laking Toyota when it was new. Good luck on the tire carrier, looks good so far.
Last edited by pwd; 01-24-2010 at 05:44 PM.
01-24-2010, 06:06 PM
#17
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The 2 can give it more stength if everything is perfectly balanced/equalized - but that's tough!
IMHO, Unless they are load rated by the manufacturer for 500 lbs or so, the pin in the hinge needs to be at least 7/16" diameter (and even then, I would knock it out and put a grade 8 bolt (grade 10 metric) in.
For reference, some of this is from experience. A friend of mine built a carrier using a trailer spindle - 1" diameter solid - and it broke and the tire went bouncing down the road. The biggest part of that problem was not having tight enough support - the vibration eventually fatigued the spindle and made it fail.
01-25-2010, 04:41 AM
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If those are 3/8" thick, your camera doesn't do them justice. No reason to "believe" what thickness they are - put a tape measure up to them!
The 2 can give it more stength if everything is perfectly balanced/equalized - but that's tough!
IMHO, Unless they are load rated by the manufacturer for 500 lbs or so, the pin in the hinge needs to be at least 7/16" diameter (and even then, I would knock it out and put a grade 8 bolt (grade 10 metric) in.
For reference, some of this is from experience. A friend of mine built a carrier using a trailer spindle - 1" diameter solid - and it broke and the tire went bouncing down the road. The biggest part of that problem was not having tight enough support - the vibration eventually fatigued the spindle and made it fail.
The 2 can give it more stength if everything is perfectly balanced/equalized - but that's tough!
IMHO, Unless they are load rated by the manufacturer for 500 lbs or so, the pin in the hinge needs to be at least 7/16" diameter (and even then, I would knock it out and put a grade 8 bolt (grade 10 metric) in.
For reference, some of this is from experience. A friend of mine built a carrier using a trailer spindle - 1" diameter solid - and it broke and the tire went bouncing down the road. The biggest part of that problem was not having tight enough support - the vibration eventually fatigued the spindle and made it fail.
