Rear Door Spare Tire Mount

[Marlin]

Interesting... you could mount the tire just above the floor but have a pad for it to sit on to relieve stress from the mount during travel. Still don't like the weight tho...

I am not sure what this weight we are talking about is coming from. I just weighed the spare and mounting hardware and then my full size spare. The spare and hardware was about 27lbs. My full size was about 70 with the new bracket.
Assuming the whole door is around 300lbs, that is an increase of around 12.5 percent or so. That is not significant at all. Even if the door was 200lbs, that is still only around 20%, still well within engineering specifications.
The real concern would be departure angle, which I believe you would lose cladding first, and as Tom said, for the once in a lifetime need, you could always remove the tire right quick and clear your obstacle. A PITA, but you might do it once...ever.
Jack, is that a better presentation...LOL.

[pbkid]

I'll let Jack do it first and get all the wrinkles out of it first.
Peace.
Tom

whoa whoa whoa.... i said i wasnt gonna be the guinea pig...(tom, im refering to a guinea pig who offroads on a regular basis )

Dropping off some of those Moab ledges with a spare mounted out back would definately "reshape" the rear hatch! I think a removeable baja style mount in the rear is what I'd go with...but I'm quite happy with a few ratchet straps in the rear.

ya, thats EXACTLY what im worried about...

Jack, is that a better presentation...LOL.

thats more like it


with all this talk, i have actually came up with a great idea... may work for some, maybe not for others, i havent actually measured so i dont know, but its worth a try...
why not build a wooden or metal box where the factory spare goes, and mount your full size spare on the inside of that??
would eliminate our small amount of cargo space, but would hold the tire, take the weight off the sheet metal, and still be able to carry a full size spare...

hmmm.... ill let you guys know how it works once i get the money to build the box lol

[tom4bren]

"Hmmm, using the rear VX door as a full-size spare mounting point like on Tom's VX gives me the hebee-jebee's."

Yer Welcome. Glad to know I still have that effect on people.

"It is way too much stress on the VX door hinges and thin sheet metal."

No damage to date. My primary concern is that if I ever get rear ended, the spare will prolly focus all that energy into the door & we all know how hard they are to replace.

"A much better idea is to use a 2" square receiver tow hitch for the "mounting point" for a full-size spare. Just go to www.JCWhitney.com and type-in "SPARE MOUNT" in the little search box. There you will find various 2" tow hitch mounts for spare tires."

I haven't checked their site in a while but when I did, I wasn't too wild about their selection. All of the ones they offered came straight out & I wanted one that angled up from the receiver. I also wanted one that would drop down so you could open the door without removing the spare.

Tom