Stroverlander wrote:Yes, also me as well, too.
I almost stroked out when I saw those gas prices!
Indeed; I think it must be the Techron...
I knew I wanted a second spare and gas. I fretted way to long on whether I wanted to be able to open the top hatch w/o releasing the tire. After looking at it from a practical standpoint for our needs, it was OK to have to take the extra few seconds to release the tire. We don't have any middle or rear seats so our typical access is thru the slider except at camp. This allowed me to mount the tire plenty high and mostly out of the impact zone.
Due to the outward swing of the lower doors, all hinge and latching mechanisms need to be below door level. Even though I very rarely open the lower doors beyond 90°, I felt compelled to design it so the doors cleared for the full 180°. This of course made things a bit more complicated.
Most of the Jeeper carriers mount the hinge on the bumper. Well it was clear to me that I wouldn't be mounting anything on the tinny stock bumper, not to survive the rattly roads I seem to drive on. As well, I never felt confident about using the HiLift on the stock bumper either. Too, getting rid of the receiver meant losing the bumper brackets. This meant starting my build from the body back.
For materials I found that you can use DOM tubing (Dats O'lotta Money) or steel pipe. The DOM has a better weight to strength ratio, the sch 40 pipe a better greenback in wallet ratio. Sch 40 is plenty strong for this application. I opted for 2" id for the main bumper tubing as it seemed right esthetically (and I already had some).
Other materials would include some 1/4" plate, 2x3" angle, 2x2 square tubing and some 1 1/2 pipe
So I took the 'ol '81 down to the salvage yard; this is just the 2" pipe section....
These are the bumper bracket prototypes
Borrowed this HF pipe bender from a friend and mocked up some bends with some thin walled pipe to match the curve of the body
got pretty close
