- Location
- Southern Maryland
I got a stock bumper-mount tire carrier a couple of weeks ago, it needs some repairs but is mostly intact. First repair I'm looking at is replacing the stock hinge and bushings with something stronger. The way the hinge is setup from the factory, there are two pairs of brass bushings that go into the tire carrier arm where it meets the bumper, and then fat bolts go through the bushings into weldnuts on the bumper bracket. Here's a pic of the bumper bracket and the top bushing pair, along with a capture of the exploded parts catalog.
Since there are two short bolts acting as the main hinge points, they are able to rack independently of each other, which makes it easier for the arm to lever downwards.
One option here would be to simply drill out the weldnuts on the bumper bracket and run a single long bolt all the way through. That would prevent some of the racking problems and provide greater leverage. However the failure point for the stock design is the bushings, and unless I changed those somehow they would still be the failure point.
This got me to wondering if some of the aftermarket tire carrier hinges might work. The inside gap on the arm is about 7.25" and the holes for the bushings are 1". I'm willing to ream out the bumper bracket if that's needed. Does anybody know if there's a good quality aftermarket hinge that would work for this?
Or another idea... Is there something like a Heim joint that does not have any lateral play? Maybe I can weld something into the arms and just replace the bushings instead?
Any other ideas?
Since there are two short bolts acting as the main hinge points, they are able to rack independently of each other, which makes it easier for the arm to lever downwards.
One option here would be to simply drill out the weldnuts on the bumper bracket and run a single long bolt all the way through. That would prevent some of the racking problems and provide greater leverage. However the failure point for the stock design is the bushings, and unless I changed those somehow they would still be the failure point.
This got me to wondering if some of the aftermarket tire carrier hinges might work. The inside gap on the arm is about 7.25" and the holes for the bushings are 1". I'm willing to ream out the bumper bracket if that's needed. Does anybody know if there's a good quality aftermarket hinge that would work for this?
Or another idea... Is there something like a Heim joint that does not have any lateral play? Maybe I can weld something into the arms and just replace the bushings instead?
Any other ideas?
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