Junkyard spare tire carrier

[Agreen]

Of all the neat spare tire carriers I've seen available, I really haven't seen a viable option for one from the junkyard. At least, that is, from what I've searched over the past 3 or 4 years. I found some like to use a Bronco II carrier, but they're pretty hard to find these days. Same for the old 80's OEM. So I set out to find something. What I came up with is a 1st Gen S10 Blazer tire carrier. There were 3 of them in the Pull A Part near me, so I went ahead and grabbed it. I started to check it out on an XJ in the yard and realized why I haven't seen anyone try it. The hinges would end up bolting to the hatch and a tail light.

So it's going to take some chopping and welding and probably some sheet metal reenforcement, but hopefully before too long I'll have a functional rear spare carrier. I'm just brainstorming now. I think I'll try to mount the latch as pictured:

 

[Agreen]

In other news, photo hosting sites have gotten just awful...

 

[Rob Mayercik]

Interesting idea, if likely limited to the 97-01 crowd (I don't think bolting that to an older model's fiberglass hatch would be such a hot idea).

Even so, that's a clever idea and I'm looking forward to watching your progress.

 

[Agreen]

I was actually reading up about that. I didn't know until yesterday that they were fiberglass.

Today's progress was slow. I might not make much more for a while as I'm working night shift for a bit, but I'll see what I can come up with.

First things first. Those Blazer mounts have to come off. They do me no good with the angle mount, so out came the ball joint press and I had to press the pins out. I'll be fabricating mounts for the side, then reenforcing the inside where I want to mount it, so I'll probably start tearing apart the inside before making that decision.

 

[Agreen]

Oh my God every photo hosting site is garbage now.

Let me try again:

 

[Agreen]

Maybe like this:

 

[upsidedownxj]

+1 for a DIY spare carrier. I have a custom drop down hitch mount I just installed a few weeks ago. Its a pain in the ass if I want to open the hatch, but it sure beats having it on top or in the Jeep.

 

[moparmansfield]

+1 for a DIY spare carrier. I have a custom drop down hitch mount I just installed a few weeks ago. Its a pain in the ass if I want to open the hatch, but it sure beats having it on top or in the Jeep.

I've started leaning more towards this type of option. There's a few guys on youtube that did a good job of making a swing down tire carrier from a fixed hitch mounted carrier. Haven't seen one with springs/struts yet to help with the weight though. The few companies selling hitch mount tire carriers that swing out of the way are ridiculously overpriced IMO.

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