I decided to build a tire carrier for my wife's daily driver. I'll give a brief explanation of my thought process, followed by a lot of pictures. I think [MENTION=17736]AddictedOffroad[/MENTION] might be interested in this. Sort of like your lambo carrier, but opposite.
As stated, this is my wife's daily driver. I removed the stock gas tank and replaced it with a Ford gas tank that is located where the factory spare tire use to be. Since then, we haven't had a spare tire on the vehicle. I needed a design that would work for my wife. Ideally, she should be able to complete a tire change on her own if I'm not around to help. So here's my take on some designs.
Swing out.
Too bulky. She would get frustrated with having to open it completely every time she wanted to lift the rear hatch. If anyone ever parked behind her, forget getting into the back. But the main concern is that if she ever had to change the tire, she would have to remove one from head/chest level, then lift the damaged one back up there.
Swing down.
Easy to remove and remount the tire once lowered. Would have the same problem as a swing out if someone parked behind you. Would also have to either lean over the tire to load/unload things from the back or do it from the side. She would also get a good deadlift in every time she had to lift the tire.
Even if she pulled forward into a parking spot in a parking lot, the swing out/down would open into the driving lane. That isn't something I wanted her to have to worry about.
Lambo.
I really liked this design, especially with the gas strut. Easy to lift, doesn't take as much space to open, controlled lowering. The only down side I saw to this design was that she would still have to remove/remount a tire from head/chest height.
So I decided on a swing down design. I got the idea from the "KnuckleBone" tire carrier produced by Detours USA found here.
I wanted something that mounted to the stock trailer hitch, without using the hitch receiver. I did not want the license plate to mount in the center of the spare tire because I don't want to remove it every time the spare tire comes off. I also didn't want to make the license plate easy enough to remove that it would be easy to steal. I know that weight distribution is already heavy to the driver side, but I wanted the tire offset to the driver side so that the right lane could be viewed through the rear window for merging.
So here's pictures.
This was the design/build stage. The most difficult part was getting the geometry correct so that the tire cleared the hatch when lowered.
This was the initial mock-up for the gas strut.
This is all the parts after paint.
The idea for the gas strut came after initial test fitting. I installed the tire carrier, mounted a tire, then had my wife try to lift it. She was seriously struggling. The first strut I tried helped, but she was still having to put in some serious effort. The strut I settled on is part #6465K6 from McMasterCarr. It has a max extension force of 269lbs and a max compression force of 383lbs. It's also adjustable. It comes pressurized to max force and can be reduced. I found the max force to suit this design well. I can lift it with one hand and she can fairly easy manage it with two. It controls the downward motion of the tire, only needing slight hand pressure to control it from waist down. If you try to lift the tire too quickly, the strut will fight you. You need to lift it at the strut's pace to allow it to adjust. Overall it's a very controlled, relatively easy motion.
The addition of the strut added one more challenge. If the strut is adjusted for the weight of the tire, when you remove the tire the strut will push the mount back up. This isn't a violent motion because the strut controls it, but I want the tire removed and remounted from as close to the ground as possible. That's why the tabs were welded to the right side of the pivot point. When the tire is lowered, the pin gets inserted into the upper holes to fix the assembly in place. Then the tire can be removed without the bar raising. The fixed position also holds the tire about 1.5" above the ground so you don't have to slide the tire across the pavement to get it removed or mounted.
As stated, this is my wife's daily driver. I removed the stock gas tank and replaced it with a Ford gas tank that is located where the factory spare tire use to be. Since then, we haven't had a spare tire on the vehicle. I needed a design that would work for my wife. Ideally, she should be able to complete a tire change on her own if I'm not around to help. So here's my take on some designs.
Swing out.
Too bulky. She would get frustrated with having to open it completely every time she wanted to lift the rear hatch. If anyone ever parked behind her, forget getting into the back. But the main concern is that if she ever had to change the tire, she would have to remove one from head/chest level, then lift the damaged one back up there.
Swing down.
Easy to remove and remount the tire once lowered. Would have the same problem as a swing out if someone parked behind you. Would also have to either lean over the tire to load/unload things from the back or do it from the side. She would also get a good deadlift in every time she had to lift the tire.
Even if she pulled forward into a parking spot in a parking lot, the swing out/down would open into the driving lane. That isn't something I wanted her to have to worry about.
Lambo.
I really liked this design, especially with the gas strut. Easy to lift, doesn't take as much space to open, controlled lowering. The only down side I saw to this design was that she would still have to remove/remount a tire from head/chest height.
So I decided on a swing down design. I got the idea from the "KnuckleBone" tire carrier produced by Detours USA found here.
I wanted something that mounted to the stock trailer hitch, without using the hitch receiver. I did not want the license plate to mount in the center of the spare tire because I don't want to remove it every time the spare tire comes off. I also didn't want to make the license plate easy enough to remove that it would be easy to steal. I know that weight distribution is already heavy to the driver side, but I wanted the tire offset to the driver side so that the right lane could be viewed through the rear window for merging.
So here's pictures.
This was the design/build stage. The most difficult part was getting the geometry correct so that the tire cleared the hatch when lowered.
This was the initial mock-up for the gas strut.
This is all the parts after paint.
The idea for the gas strut came after initial test fitting. I installed the tire carrier, mounted a tire, then had my wife try to lift it. She was seriously struggling. The first strut I tried helped, but she was still having to put in some serious effort. The strut I settled on is part #6465K6 from McMasterCarr. It has a max extension force of 269lbs and a max compression force of 383lbs. It's also adjustable. It comes pressurized to max force and can be reduced. I found the max force to suit this design well. I can lift it with one hand and she can fairly easy manage it with two. It controls the downward motion of the tire, only needing slight hand pressure to control it from waist down. If you try to lift the tire too quickly, the strut will fight you. You need to lift it at the strut's pace to allow it to adjust. Overall it's a very controlled, relatively easy motion.
The addition of the strut added one more challenge. If the strut is adjusted for the weight of the tire, when you remove the tire the strut will push the mount back up. This isn't a violent motion because the strut controls it, but I want the tire removed and remounted from as close to the ground as possible. That's why the tabs were welded to the right side of the pivot point. When the tire is lowered, the pin gets inserted into the upper holes to fix the assembly in place. Then the tire can be removed without the bar raising. The fixed position also holds the tire about 1.5" above the ground so you don't have to slide the tire across the pavement to get it removed or mounted.
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