Anyone have any experience in building a rear tire carrier for a 4runner. Granted, mine is a 1st gen, I still would like to know how much money, time, etc... you spent, just something I am thinking about, maybe for a summer project?
Or for one of our "WA 4ROC Wrench-a-thons"

 

I am purchasing a rear tire carrier from Rockware later this month.

They need 72 hours for the work and a price tag of $1250.

I know that Trail Carnage (I think) is working on a rear bumper w/ or without a rear swing. Do a search on rear bumper and you should hit it.

It is a 4 page post with lots of pics, CAD drawings, and a lot of discussion on frame stiffness and problems associated with the swing. Plus tube dimensions, labor time and lots of feedback.

Hope this helped.
Dave

 

do you think the TC one will be around a thousand plus too? I e-mailed the guy, and haven't gotten a response

 

It sounded to me like it will be a less expensive option.
Especially if you leave off the tire swing.

 

Would it be possible to tweak one from a Nissan Pathfinder to fit? Go to a junkyard and see what they would change for the peice?

 

Something to think about, if your a handy type person. In my spare time, (2 kids full time job and home to take care of) which is not alot, I am trying to design antire carrier that will swing up instead of out. I have come up with maybe useing a trie carrier off a conversion van. The type that attaches to the rear door. Reason being is that it is a nice even triangle all ready and it is small enough to be hidden by a 31 inch tire for sure. Re bracing above the rear sliding glass in my 91 is the current speed bump. Probly not all that hard really but not a lot of time to work on it. I was planning on using some hatchback type lifts for making the lifting easier. Problems there, waterproofing the shocks. Dont want the metal to rust and pit. Trying to find some smaller type shock sleeves or something like it. Last but not least, how to make it stay down and not make all the noise in the world from rattling. Most of that can be fixed by a bit of rubber in the right place. The hinges are easy, just some heavy stainless steel door hinges.
Why the hassel? it wont be 1200 dollars, bout 300 if you have no material at home. Custom made so it looks different than the aftermarket stock stuff you see everywhere. And a bit of pride in doing it yourself. That and have ya ever seen one of those swing outs come loose on the trail or highway? Not a pretty sight
It would mount high, and you will lose almost all of your rear glass vision, but I personally never use that mirror anyway. If look out your rear glass when crawling, you can always leave it up. Depending on your rigging ability ya may wanna brace it when you do that though. Plus the high mount will reduce the chance of the tire hitting the ground when dropping in a hole. Saw a tire carrier come off that way too.
Something to think about, If ya make one, Make two. One for me, for building it yourself is great, sometimes the design is just as fufulling.
Just a thought, feed back is appreciated.

 

I'm doing something different. But for a tire carrier, I'm going to make a tubing system that slides in my hitch tube to get it out from underneath the truck while off-roading, but I'll keep it under there during normal on-road driving when I'm not off-roading.

Chris

 

I had also been working out this same arrangement. I'm not so concerned about the struts rusting - as it would be possible to keep the working parts lubed and the other parts painted to ward off rust. My big concern with these struts is when it's really cold, they don't work worth a damn.

The mount for this unit could be to a roof mounted rack. Mounting to the body would create a lot of stress issues witht he sheet metal. Probaby need to reinforce the roof rack mounts also - maybe a backing plate under the headliner behind the mounting points.

I've since come up with a more conventional arrangement that should not break spindles (no spindle utilized).

I'd be interested in seeing the swing up developed further though!

 

Well if you're looking for ideas the only way to do a tire carrier is like this, bombproof. I have some more pics here.

 

i also called Rockware, about a month ago, they told me it would be $1400 and 3 - 4 days, what rig ya got ? im wondering why the price differance, mines a 99 SR5

 

shane
that one is real nice! did you make that yourself? does the entire thing just swing out? or is it actually on the back door?

edit: sorry the rest of your pictures just finished loading on my comp and now i see that it swings out. real nice! id be interested if you had any more

 

No, didn't have the tools necessary at the time so I bought it. There may be a few more pics scattered around my website, but that's all the detail shots that I have.