body mounted spare tire holder

[wkastro]

That is very, very nice, Peter, hide the structure inside the door and go directly to the hinges, and don't load the sheet metal much. Might try it on a dutch door, which I hear have the same hinges as the barn doors. I'd like to use the under floor space now occupied by the spare for a house battery or two.

[Herbie]

That is very, very nice, Peter, hide the structure inside the door and go directly to the hinges, and don't load the sheet metal much. Might try it on a dutch door, which I hear have the same hinges as the barn doors. I'd like to use the under floor space now occupied by the spare for a house battery or two.

Unless you use a very small tire or remove the bumper and mount the tire low on the door, the tire won't clear the top hatch on a dutch door system. You'd have to un-mount the tire to open the back end!

Nope, for a dutch door, you'll need a swing-away that you can open first, or find someplace else for your spare and put jerry cans on your back doors, like I plan to do!

Also: Holy Zombie thread, Batman!

[Moreforles]

yes, the ones that hinge open... and the one in the avatar, that's actually not mine..... it's what I hope mine ends up looking like when I'm done working on it...... mine isn't in that good a shape (yet)

I'll post some pics now that I got it to the new house.... got a yard full of astros now.....

96 Safari (my work van)

94 high top conversion (white one) (SDTBRV)

and newest 88 shorty window van (to be my wife's when I get it running again)

I was looking spare holder for the Safari first (since it's full of carpet cleaning gear....)

thinking along the lines of a hitch haul with tire holder for the 94 some day to be RV

I looked under the 88 and no spare, cable and tire holders rusted away, so a tire holder for it might be a good idea (along with a spare to mount on it....)

all gone except the newest, a 2000 astro. in the process of turning it into a carpet cleaning van, but still would like to mount and external spare tire holder on it.... barn doors on this one and hitch in place already, maybe just go with a small hitch hall with spare tire mounted on it.

[markinnh]

http://www.v-sales.com/vstirecarrier.htm

[Herbie]

I'd like to resurrect this thread from the dead once again to revisit the question of a body-mounted spare tire rack.

Running through Craigslist this AM I came across several body mounted racks and was inspired to revisit my notes on this subject. In particular, I was reminded to look at the body-mounted solution for the Vanagon that Gary Lee makes:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/gary2 ... ngtire.htm

In particular, he seems to have put a lot of thought into reinforcing things so you aren't putting too much weight on the body itself:

What you don't see in that photo is that he also has backing plates, almost as big as the front plate that get put up inside the unibody structure and bolted down.


One of my criteria for a tire rack has always been that I want to retain the ability to open the Dutch doors the full 180 degrees. This means the normal offroad style of spindle-mounting a tire rack onto the bumper won't really work since I wouldn't be able to swing the doors through the arc. Basically, whatever tire system I build would have to have the pivot point outside and forward of the bumper line so that the rack can pivot out 180 first, then the door. This is why I keep coming back to the body-mount stuff.

My van is already partially interior stripped, so I guess I need to pull it the rest of the way apart and see what access we have to the back/inside of the body panels on the corners to see if there's room to put some sort of backing plate system in, or even better some way to tie in to where the door hinges mount, since that should be sufficiently beefy. For my purposes, I like the heim-joint system that Gary uses, as it would give me the large swing radius I need to get the rack out of the way of the doors.

Anyone have any other ideas?

[Rotor]

Herbie, I have been thinking about this same problem a lot this year. I even had a friend who works for a local wrecking yard drop off a complete swing out tire carrier from a blazer. What I can tell you about the blazer swing out is the body brackets will not work. The length also puts the catch right in the middle of the doors. What I am planning on doing is cutting the hinge knuckles of the swing out and welding in some threaded pipe inserts so I can use adjustable heim joints. I also wanted the hinge to be bolted to the door so that it would not interfere with the doors ability to open 180 degrees if you wanted to.

Unfortunately my garage was broken into last month so I don't have a welder or tools anymore... still waiting on my insurance company to cut me a check so I can get some new ones.

By the way, what you have done with your van is amazing.

Rotor

[unrreal]

hey rotor i've been debating on this issue myself and i think i foud a good solution, a swing away tire carrier from a jeep jk that has the same bolt pattern as our vans and i also conveniently found a bunch of them on ebay for around $300-$400 bucks here is a pic:

with only minor mods it can be used on the astro and here is a link to the ebay listing also: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... gory=33731
only drawback i see so far is that one of the doors on the back will not be able to be opened all the way anymore, but i can live with that..

[Herbie]

hey rotor i've been debating on this issue myself and i think i foud a good solution, a swing away tire carrier from a jeep jk that has the same bolt pattern as our vans and i also conveniently found a bunch of them on ebay for around $300-$400 bucks here is a pic:

jeep jk tire carrier.jpg

with only minor mods it can be used on the astro and here is a link to the ebay listing also: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayI ... gory=33731
only drawback i see so far is that one of the doors on the back will not be able to be opened all the way anymore, but i can live with that..

Looks nice. I've seen others use a Hummer carrier in a similar way. One question: Planning to bolt to the stock bumper, or what? I'm always stymied when I try to figure out what to do with the stock bumper and cover. I think I'd have to swap out for something all-metal first, at least a simple rectangular tube or something...

[ihatemybike]

i think i foud a good solution, a swing away tire carrier from a jeep jk that has the same bolt pattern as our vans and i also conveniently found a bunch of them on ebay for around $300-$400 bucks

I'm around Jeeps all the time and have been looking at possibly getting some 16" steel take offs to try on Grumpy. Why the heck haven't I once thought of this?

[ihatemybike]

Thanks, now I have bad ideas!

[markmitchinnh]

http://www.amazon.com/Spare-Tire-Carrie ... 00CANYFQ/2 This is what I have on my van

[Jeffryscott]

http://www.amazon.com/Spare-Tire-Carrie ... 00CANYFQ/2 This is what I have on my van

Pictures?

[doyoulikeithere]

http://www.amazon.com/Spare-Tire-Carrie ... 00CANYFQ/2 This is what I have on my van

Pictures?

X2.
Rule 6B dude!!

How does it fit how does it work?
Think its strong enough for 31x10.5 tires?

[ihatemybike]

I've looked at these Surco racks and I'm not too impressed. The door mounting surfaces just look so small for what it attaches to and the load it has to carry. Still I was about to get one for Grumpy, till the JK carrier was mentioned. I'll be buying something this week, stay tuned.

[markmitchinnh]

Sorry my van is stripped for body mods and paint so I don't have any pictures, I did however add flat steel stock to the inside of the door when I had it installed and I had a 235/70R15 on a steel rim mounted and never had any problems.