[Ghaniba]

Hey folks,

I thought I'd share my shenanigans with you guys. I have tinkered around making stuff for my jeep. I've made a couple of custom front bumpers for myself and my friends. I've toyed with the idea of selling stuff, but it seems way too much like work to me!

Anyway. As with anything, best of intentions doesn't always do it. Sometimes your hand is forced. I was planning on taking my time, doing it over a few weekends, etc.... but that didn't work out. I ended up building a tire carrier in a day. Be forewarned, I'm a huge slob. I could tell you it's because I'm far too busy, or some other clever excuse, but really.... yeah.

I did purchase a few bits to save myself time before I started:

2 Shackles to be welded through both sides (a2z)
1 Trailer hitch (tractor supply)
1 Spindle kit rated for ~1000 lbs (a2z)
1 handle & latch setup (a2z)
2 threaded 1/2" thick plates w/ 6 holes (a2z)
1 tire carrier plate & 3 wheel studs (same as in jeep hub assy)
1 55" piece of 2x4 rectangle tube, 1/4" wall
2 48" pieces of 2x2 square tube, 3/16" wall

Tools used:

Drill press
Hand drill
Plasma cutter
Metal Chop saw
Lincoln Welder (110, yeah yeah... soon enough I'll upgrade it, I know I've already outgrown it)

I'm sure I'm going to be forgetting stuff here, but perhaps I'll comment after with other memories as they flash through my thoughts later.

So, I took the square tube, did some quick measurements, 55" was dead on for what I wanted to do. I put it up in a vice on the new drill press (hence the c clamps) and pop'd a hole for the spindle:



After it was drilled, I put on my fancy shoes and gave it a shot! Sure enough, it fit as expected. A bit of play, perfect for deep welding around it! I also drilled ~3/8 hole through the bottom of the tubing so that I could weld the base of it in place, too.



I drilled some pilot holes for the hitch and checked out the alignment of the spindle, height etc:



Now I want to point out something very important here. My first big messup.... The measurement, I centered my hitch with... the tailgate rubber stops from the original tire carrier.... It was wrong. It's not centered at all. Learn from my dumb, k? I didn't even catch it until I was welding the hitch in... too late! next time baby! :P And yeah license plate not covered in this one. I give up. didn't care enough to redo it while typing this in.



I drilled out some pilot holes for the shackles:



Once the holes were done, I let my buddy take a shot using a plasma cutter for the first time. The plasma cutter is quite possibly one of the scariest tools on the planet. I'm afraid of anything that just blows 1/4" steel away like I can blow sawdust out of the palm of my hand... It's just not right!




So, I welded in the hitch & shackles, which came out good. Now we're flyin' but it's getting later...



At this point, I didn't document as well. I drilled the holes for the new mounting plates to go on the back of the crossmember, to eventually hold the bumper. So, the bolts go through the crossmember, into the plates. The plates were going to have 1 1" piece of 2x2 square tubing, but my buddy asked me why not use two? ... I had no reason, and the design in my head went on better than before! So, those squares were done with the chop saw, came out perfect after considering the size of the blade... I welded those in place on the jeep with the plates bolted to the jeep, all around the top & sides, and a heavy bead in the middle of the 2 squares. I even did the inside of those squares as best I could.... then up came the bumper. Positioned the bumper with a bit of effort for it being unbalanced and not really having a good way to hold it up other then my couple of friends that were there... Tacked it in place, did the tops & the sides and pulled the whole bumper off by unbolting it!

At this point, I went back through, welded everything that wasn't done or just tacked.

The bumper went back on while I continued to start the swing arm. a bit of eyeball of the sleeve and cutting of a 2x2 tubing, I got the sleeve welded to the tube as close as I could, and welded it in place. It came out fantastic. Now that I had the base, I test fit it on the jeep, manually setting it centered in the sleeve with the spindle since the bearings weren't in yet.

I was planning on making an A frame for this carrier, but due to suggestion from one of my friends, I just did not. I'm actually glad I didn't, it seems just as strong and with a good amount of 2" square tube NOT being used, it saved SOME weight, anyway!

With the main vertical center tire support in place, measured between the 2 taillights I grabbed some of the scrap tube, cut the 45 degree angles on it, and slapped it in place between the horizontal and vertical bars. Mint. I love no math!

I welded that in place, then onto the tire carrier plate...

5 1/4" out from the frame, straight out, with ~5 degree cut at the end to tip the top of the tire in.

I welded the plate on first, then the tube onto the frame.

Before I was welding that on, I had friends fighting with getting the studs in the plate I got. I think they would have gone in nicely if I had a press, but that's at my buddy's house, so I never bought one myself... it's only moments like that where I wish I had it, since it was a 45 min ride over to use it... which I didn't have that kind of time.

They ended up grinding the holes larger which in the end worked, they were able to hammer them in, and I welded them on the back to assure no movement.

With all the pieces together, I welded it to the frame and cut another short piece to act as a brace. Again, quick n' dirty.

Now, we got the bearings setup in the sleeve and put the cap on, all of which was a fight. Awesome, at 11pm, 11hrs in. Gotta be up for 5am for the event the next day. Always the way. Under the gun, last things fighting.

Thankfully, it worked good enough after a bit of coercing with the dead blow, bashing the cap up a bit, but who cares. My jeeps' got worse dents other places than that! Now here, you can see that the hitch IS off center. I'll live with it for now, it's no big deal.



The last thing was the latch assembly. This went super smooth. I placed the threaded plate under the door on the drivers side of the bumper, standing out a 1/4 " so that it's flush when I finally go back to cap all of the bumper ends. I tacked it in place, put the screw and the tube in the place too, tacked the tube in place on the swinging arm (on the rear face of the arm, specifically) and took the bolt back out. I welded the handle to the bolt to make a T and finished up those welds with everything on the Jeep. Put some never seize on the bolt, screwed it back in, threw on the tire, MINT! Midnight, I was washing my hands after all the work.

6:30am headed to the event location, I stopped for fuel, came out of the gas station and had to take a pic. Looks awesome. Not bad for zero plans, just theories and ideas thrown together!





Hope you enjoyed my tale!

Dave aka Ghan

[Nick]

That is really nice. I like it a lot. What was the total cost?

[Ghaniba]

Total cost was about
~$100 in steel
~$150 in parts (Saved countless hours mind you.)

Dave aka Ghan

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Ghaniba

Total cost was about
~$100 in steel
~$150 in parts (Saved countless hours mind you.)

Dave aka Ghan

Want to make me one?