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tire carrier mount hinge/pivot

Kejtar

PostMaster General
NAXJA Member
I'm finally hoping to get around to finishing my fugly bumper (major redo ;) ). Anyways, I want to put a tire carrier on it and I'm trying to figure out the best way to do it. I've looked around and the best thing I could find so far is a rockstomper hinge. Unfortunately I don't think that it will work out for me as I want to mount the tire on the back of the bumper instead of on top (no room on top as the bumper will tuck in very close).
In any case I see couple options:
1. modify the rockstomper to work for my application
2. make something
3. find something different

So at this point I would like to concentrate on 2 & 3.
- if you've made a pivot or customized something other than the rockstomper what is it/how have you done it
- if you've found a better suited hinge/pivot, what is it?

Thanks
Remi
 
Luckily mounting to the bumper face makes fabricating a strong hinge easier.

Depending on the size of your bumper I've seen a couple options that have worked well.

One on a bumper 6" high two pillow block bearings were used as a hinge. A large bolt went through a piece of tube sandwiched between the bearings. The opening motions is very easy with this setup as there are bearing which are also greaseable since most pillow blocks come greaseable. Standard bearing sizes are 3/4" and 1" I.D which are also standard bolt sizes and you can easily find DOM tubing with those I.D's as well so no machining required.

On a shorter 4" high bumper it's probably easier and cheaper to weld two tabs sticking out instead of using pillow blocks. Have a hole drilled down through the tabs for your hinge bolt. Between the tabs use a piece of tubing as your hinge. If you want it to move open and close easier with less slop size the tubing to push in some flanged bronze bushings with the same I.D as your hinge bolt. The flanged bronze will allow you to tighten down the hinge bolt more without binding up the hinge...although grease will help as well. To make this setup greaseable you'll have to drill and install a grease nipple in the hinge tube. Make your tabs nice and beefy....say 3/8" thick or so and take your time welding them to the bumper.

This is all assuming you have a decent bumper to mount to. If you've got the stockie then you'll have to start by making a stronger bumper mount for the hinge.
 
Flanged bronze bushings with 1" I.D. and 1 1/4" O.D are $2.88 each from McMaster-Carr

Is that closer to your price range :D
 
bearings on a tire carrier are way overkill. On my old bumper I had two tabs (1/4" IIRC) with holes drilled in them and used a peice of tubing with bushings like to other guys mentioned. I used nylon as the bushing instead of bronze or brass. It held up great. I slammed down on it more times than I can count and it never failed on me. I had it for 6 years before I sold my XJ to someone else- nevre had a problem.
 
I used the Trailer spindle on my CJ8 Scrambler and I am about to do the same with the XJ.

While I will have the problem you have it would be easy to fab up. From Trout industries you can order the Sleeve for $13 and buy the axle shaft at the Trailer supply. I plan on getting a shaft that is Square and welding it to the bumper them coming back an bracing it.
 
By the way, Mike Stout can sell the entire thing for less than $80 with all the bearings and everything and probably get you a square shaft if you like. he also has Wheel mount rings with different lug patterns.
 
i used the rockstomper hinge, and had a similar issue b/c of how close my bumper is to the body. i used sections of 2x2 to space a ~12" 2x4 away from the bumper, and dropped the hinge into the 2x4. worked well, wasnt the prettiest set up due to the space left between the 2x4 and bumper, as well as open ended 2x2s. but that could have been fixed by plating the top and bottom of the "box." i just recently chopped the whole thing off the bumper to get rid of all the weight back there.

Pat
 
Pat said:
i used the rockstomper hinge, and had a similar issue b/c of how close my bumper is to the body. i used sections of 2x2 to space a ~12" 2x4 away from the bumper, and dropped the hinge into the 2x4. worked well, wasnt the prettiest set up due to the space left between the 2x4 and bumper, as well as open ended 2x2s. but that could have been fixed by plating the top and bottom of the "box." i just recently chopped the whole thing off the bumper to get rid of all the weight back there.

Pat

Have you seen Remi's rig he doesnt care about pretty.........:cheers:
 
jrsxj98 said:
Have you seen Remi's rig he doesnt care about pretty.........:cheers:
I do too! I am going to buy couple can's of cheap black paint to bring back the herculiner to it's original color this weekend :D
 
ZPD said:
bearings on a tire carrier are way overkill. On my old bumper I had two tabs (1/4" IIRC) with holes drilled in them and used a peice of tubing with bushings like to other guys mentioned. I used nylon as the bushing instead of bronze or brass. It held up great. I slammed down on it more times than I can count and it never failed on me. I had it for 6 years before I sold my XJ to someone else- nevre had a problem.
Hmmm ok, so you've used some nylon? I might end up going that route as I got access to starboard material (I think that's what it's called) and that stuff seems like it would work out perfect in this application. If that doesn't work, it'll be bronze bushings.
 
hey remi...

you might look at custom 4x4's rear tire carrier for ideas... if you want some close up pics of the hinge i'll get some tomorrow as it's freaking dark already (6pm)... i'll bet if you give him a call, mike will sell ya just the hinge & bracket and give ya some measurements too...
 
rokclimbertx said:
hey remi...

you might look at custom 4x4's rear tire carrier for ideas... if you want some close up pics of the hinge i'll get some tomorrow as it's freaking dark already (6pm)... i'll bet if you give him a call, mike will sell ya just the hinge & bracket and give ya some measurements too...
Yeah, close up pics would be nice :D
 
if you werent running a posished turd front end, id suguest using a D44 hub and a lockout - that way with a broken stub shaft, you could open it, lock it, and walk away and it wouldnt move

and you'd have a spare hub...
 
I used a straight 1" trailer spindle then used two 1" ID 2" od sealed ball bearings. I put the bearings in a piece of 2.25"X.120 DOM with an internal sleeve of 2"X.120 DOM to space the bearings. Plugged welded it in place. If you leave the top bearing recessed about 1/4" one of the metal bearing covers works.

yjrear_pivot.jpg
 
Kejtar said:
Yeah, close up pics would be nice :D

Uhh...hello! I have the C4X4 tire carrier. You can look at it on Saturday. :)
 
My BPI bumper has teh spindle on top. The thing I don't like about it is the amount of leverage it puts on the bumper is enough to twist the end of the bumper slightly as the tire swings open. Of course that is based on the strength of the bumper itself, the size of the swingout/tire and the location of the spindle, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't do that if it were mounted flush to the back and lower. Something to consider.
 
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