Urgent Request: Spare Tire Carrier

[illzoni]

All,

I need help sourcing/making a spare tire carrier. I leave on a roadtrip Saturday and currently don't have a safe way to carry a spare. In the past I've simply carried one inside or on my trailer....but the dogs will occupy the inside and the trailer is loaded with my two motorcycles.

I think I want to mount to the outside of the trailer. It's a 5x8 utility trailer with 2" angle iron sides 11" tall. I could pretty easily fashion a flat surface on the outside of the sides, if only I could find a tire mount that would then bolt to that flat surface.

Maybe the attached photo will help show where I think I can mount it.

I'm also open to suggestions! Most importantly, I need to get it done ASAP.

Thx,
Jon

 

[fngfish]

I cannot see the front of your trailer. Is there enough room to put it on the outside up front? Or along the side using a u bolt through a couple of the bolt holes and the angle iron. Cheapest idea unless you're going to start welding. My only short notice idea

 

[Clone of the Mean]

What town do you live in? There is a junked out Runner at Drake and Sons Salvage with a stock tire carrier that mounts on the back of a Runner. Think it's off of a 91.....

 

[illzoni]

I think I have a plan....

I'm simply going to mount a piece of 1/2" plywood to that side, with wood spacers to get it out past the 2" edge. Then I'll run two long bolts through the wheel lug holes, then the plywood, then the spacer, then the vertical, inside part of the upper angle. The bolts should be plenty to secure it, but the plywood will form a plane to keep the wheel from moving at all.

 

[JohnsD90]

You can't racket strap it a few times to the frame of that trailer?

 

[illzoni]

You can't racket strap it a few times to the frame of that trailer?

No. The 1/8" edge on the rail would ruin the sidewall.

 

[JohnsD90]

No. The 1/8" edge on the rail would ruin the sidewall.

put a folded towel or 2 between the edge and the tire, and pull it down tight.

 

[BrianSD_42]

a better picture would be nice.

 

[illzoni]

Here's the solution...

Using a scrap of 1/2", 2' by 4' plywood I cut it in half, giving me two 2' by 2' squares. Each serves as a decent flat surface against which to bolt the tires and keep any one spot from wearing the sidewall badly.

I started with 2x4s mounted vertically on the trailer rail uprights, but later ripped them on the table saw such that they're just wide enough to clear the plywood of the projecting side of the angle iron top rail.

So each plywood sheet got two vertical 2x4s (former 2x4s, really) mounted with wood screws (two each). Then each assembly was screwed to the uprights with more wood screws (two each upright). At this point each wood assembly was firmly mounted to the trailer with wood screws, but certainly not adequate to hold the tires themselves.

I drilled 1/2" holes through the vertical portion of the top rail angle iron, then through the plywood. As the long 1/2" hex head machine screws were a bit too long, I used some scrap 3/4" wood to create spacers rather than using many washers. From the inside out, the long screws pass through a washer, the 3/4" wood spacer, the 1/8" angle iron, the 1/2" plywood, the empty backspace of the wheel, then the face of the wheel with another washer and a lock washer.

After bolting the tires to the trailer, I got a 1" spade bit out and created some pretty rough holes to run a security cable through the wheels (and the motorcycles.