I have taken that tire carrier of the truck at this point, the materials from A to Z fab were top notch but i ran into a few design problems with the install, it worked but i was not entirely happy with the outcome, here are the problems I ran into:
1. the straight bar design, it was easier than putting the bends at the end in but the swing out part is too short for the tire to clear the liftgate when you try to open it, i had to play around a bit with offsetting the tire, ended up with the tire on one side. getting the spindle as far to edge of the truck would be ideal, I like the tire in the center.
2. watch out when welding the carrier to the swing-arm, if you don't go slow with the welding the bar will "walk" or bend from the welding.
3. make sure you use a heavy wall steel for your square stock, the stuff i used was 3/16" wall 2x2 tubing, there are some other carriers that people made with thinner wall stuff, its lighter but I wouldn't trust it, last thing you want is the carrier coming apart on the highway.
4. lateral flex- when it was all said and done I ended up not using the carrier because even using the heavy steel the carrier would flex when going over bumps front to back and I just wasn't 100% about it.
5. It took a long time to get right, what started out as a Saturday project turned into a month of trial and error.
hope that helps, any more questions let me know.
FYI: I'm going to drop the coin on a full bumper at this point, probably CBI
