Sorry the rest of this has taken so long! This, along with the rebuild of my dirt bike engine is what I have been up to this last week. Feels great having no school work!
First I picked up four of these guys. They are 1/2 inch diameter, forgot how long exactly they are. This is what I am going to use two of them for. The plastic thing that I put the sleeve in is another sleeve out of the original carrier set up on the Blazer.
Right here is the top mount without the nylock and lock washer. It is a 4 inch long 1/2inch grade 8 bolt and a 1/2 I.D. and 1 inch outside diameter washer. The plastic part with the steel sleeve in it shown in the above picture is in the carrier itself and is what the grade 8 bolt is going through, along with another one of those sleeves where the bolt threads are exposed. All the blue stuff all over everything is marine grease. I put a very generous amount between every mating surface and went with marine because well it rains a lot in Washington!
Here is what the carrier latches onto. It has a slight curvature to it so it will not work on our tailgates so I ended up taking a cutting wheel to it. The only thing the half that I cut off had was a little rubber bump stop for the top part of the carrier, but there is one build into the carrier for the latch plate so it is no big deal missing. Here is a picture of the latch in one piece (still cut but pushed together).
Here is a picture of it cut, the left part is the bump stop deal and the right is what the carrier latches onto (only part that I will use).
Bottom hinge all bolted and greased up.
Top hinge all bolted and greased up.
Here is a mock up of the latch on the tailgate. I just latched it to the carrier and pushed it against the tailgate.
Another mock up of how it will sit
Here is the latch all bolted up (self taping screws
) and taped waiting for paint
All painted. Ran out of black and closest was cast aluminum so why not!
Pictures of it all put together! I opened it up and put all my body weight on the very end of it and it didn't even budge! The key to success is grade 8 hardware!!!!!!!
Last but not least a picture of my little helper! If by helping means always sitting next to me waiting for some attention haha
The only problem now is the bolt pattern on this one is smaller. I have not decided what to do yet but have though about a couple different options.
1. Cut the plate off that has the studs off both carriers and weld the old one to this one (people without welders will not be able to do).
2. Buy a wheel spacer that changes the lug pattern (do not know if it will be sold as a single adapter anywhere).
3. Cut the studs that are currently on the carrier off, measure where the studs should be, drill holes accordingly, and press and weld in place.
I am going to mount my gerry can and hi-lift to it this week and will also describe each step along the way on how I did it (going to mount the gerry can with old bumper ends!)
Feel free to ask questions, give constructive criticism, and steal this idea and donate to me so I can have a premium membership!!!!!!!!!! Thanks everyone
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Tire carrier/fold down tailgate write up
