My take on a tire carrier

[midcoma]

Better patent this ASAP! and retire

No need for a patent. I use forums to share ideas, get ideas and learn. I posted so many pictures with so much detail so that anyone who wants to copy the design should be able to replicate it.

I need to learn how to weld.

It's amazing what you can do in this hobby once you have the ability to weld.

Nice job on the design and fab work! The brackets, bracing, and welding look good! Just one thing, how thick is the hitch? I just worry about the carrier tearing a hole in the hitch after carrying the weight of your spare for a couple thousand miles. You might have to plate the outside of the hitch to keep it from tearing.

I'm not sure how thick it is. Hopefully the multi-directional gussets at the base will provide enough support to spread the load. I tried to make them wide enough to cover a significant area. I'll keep an eye on it.

After seeing your design, I remembered a design that I had thought of a while back that is similar to what you were designing this around. .... With an added gas strut like you did to assist is raising an lowering it, it may actually be easy for the wife to operate.
You got me thinking if I should actually try this idea now.

If I'm picturing what you described correctly, you would still have to remove and remount the tire from a good height. I was trying to avoid that with this design.
But if you have an idea go for it and post it when you're done :thumb:



If any locals are interested in having one built, PM me and we can probably work something out. I'm in Sneads Ferry, NC. [MENTION=112743]nc-grayson[/MENTION] [MENTION=47263]ralatkins[/MENTION]


Thank you all for the compliments.

 

[huckle.berry]

Great engineering! That cutaway part at the bottom of the main vertical support is actually a very important design when constucting a building with large wooden floor beams. Its so that if the building catches fire and the floor collapses on the third level (for example, but it is for any above-ground level) the floor wont leverage the wall into collapsing as well. The floor would just fall away from the wall. Awesome handywork! And great welds!

 

[Runna4mts]

Dyammnnn

Wow! That looks great! Super functional as well, good job!