Quote:
Originally Posted by bowrappyo
Looking into the best rear tire mount options.
It’s a shame the US didn’t get the awesome rear tire mounts like the proper hilux surf did in JP.
What options have people found?
Has anybody been able to convert to the full hilux surf rear Tire mount option in their 3rd gen?
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I did it to my xUN 4Runner.
Since my back door was not in good shape (there were some bents, the window wasn't moving fast enough, and wanted to make room for a future aux tank), I found a Hilus Surf spare back door at a scrapyard and bought it.
After I repainted it, I replaced everything from my old door, to the new old door and was amazed how fast and smooth everything moved and locked in place.
I said to myself that I'd go with a new custom rear bumper and attach the rear tire on it, but that was too complicated, considering the guy would sell me the whole spare tire carrier for about $100.
After some measurements and dozen tries lifting and lowering the carrier, I found the right place to drill the holes for the two mounts.
The guy didn't want to cutout the lower panel and pull out the two brackets inside the fender, so I had to make them myself.
One the 4Runners, the 3 holes exist in the pillar, but may be blocked by a weird bracket (pic shown), that must have its spot welds drilled, so it can be removed. For this, I drilled a bigger hole thru the pillar(not for the faint of heart), to be able to reach and drill out some of the spot welds. I think there were two or three.
The first four pics are of a friend who is doing this to his 4rUNner!
The top one was easier to make: all it is is just a piece of sheet metal about 2-3mm thick, and on every opening for the bolts to go thru, i welded a... I don't remember - 16mm nuts. The sheet metal was precut in the shape of the outer mount on the carrier. Sorry I dont have a pic.
The bottom one was a two piece of sheet metal, one vertical which basically follows the same curve of the lower carrier mount and then one end bolts to the front part of the internal pillar, and the other follows back then makes a turn towards the center and then turns again to the front of the 4Runner and bolts where there is a rubber bushing that the back door butts against when you close it. I also added some rubber padding between the outer fender and inner bracket to act like a bushing. It turned out ok. Sorry no complete pics.
This lower bracket is also reinforced with a horizontal piece of the same sheet metal that is precut to the same curve of the lower fender and welded to the vertical piece, to make the whole custom bracket look like a curved T beam. It's a bit awkward to bolt the carrier to it. The pic below is not the finished bracket but a test. If you don't reinforce the bracket, the outside sheet metal will bend on every swing of the carrier and eventually brake the fender. So fiddle around with it and make a sturdy bracket.
The really not-for-the-faint-of-heart part is when you realize that the lower mount bracket does mount correctly to the fender...but the whole carrier has to go left in order for the lock bracket and especially the courtesy switch for open-carrier-dash-signal to work properly.
I used a small hammer with a rubber padding to hand bend the fender to shape it into a Japanese fender...
The open carrier signal should activate the open dash light if the original back door ECU is used. In my case I used my cars ECU, because the car I got the door from was a 96 and the ECU is older than mine cars. I tried to insert a pin to the connector following the electrical diagram for the Hilux Surf, but the 4Runner's pin slot there doesn't provide any signal to the dash via the multiplex com system. Anyway I getto hacked it with a relay connected to the original door lock signal. If you want a diagram how I connected everything, let me know.
The carrier is pretty strong. I did step on the tire a couple of times during the last trip. I am around 200lbs.
I plan on mounting a small folding table, a rear fog light in the center where the spare wheel rides, a small lock box inside the rim to carry recovery gear, and maybe an HF antenna on the top mount shown in the example pics ive seen online.
Hope this guide helps.