New rear tire carrier

A few of you saw it already out at Hidden Falls, but I figured I'd put it on here for anyone that's looking for ideas to build one. I made my last one which was good and held my 35" KM2 on Cragar soft 8 wheel just fine, but I got tired of having my trunk area filled with tools, co2 tank and accessories, rags, straps, jumper cables, and some other stuff. I started drawing up a new carrier on google sketchup and started working. The end product came out real nice. I made it out of 2", 3/16 square tube and 14 gauge panels. The hinges are just currie johnny joints. I had to put flush mounted led tail lights (which I wanted to do anyways) to put a latch on it. My reverse lights are led and my led license plate light are from Advanced auto parts. While I was there, they had a back-up camera with a 3.5" screen which i thought would be fun to have so I got that also. I also had to make a rear bumper so I threw one together real quick so I can tow my little trailer. The box holds everything that I originally had in the trunk area except my small bag of air accessories so my trunk is now dang near empty. The door also drops down to create some what of a work area if needed. Here's some pics of my old tire carrier and the new one.

Old homemade carrier:




New and improved carrier:

Sweet!

Saw it HF. Nice!

Not to be critical....all it needs is a mother in law seat and you would have everything covered. Dad & I were talking about it at HF....SWEET

Saw it @ Hidden Falls and it is very well built.

why the opposite swing though?

...nice concept - I haven't seen anything like that before!

akonius wrote:

why the opposite swing though?

...nice concept - I haven't seen anything like that before!

I had to have the opposing swing due to the tailgate hinges being in the way on the other side. I could have made I work but would have to push the joints out father to side of the body so it would clear the tailgate when it swings out. Either that or would of had to lower 4 or 5 inches to go below the hinges.
Thanks for all the compliments as well.

So what did you do with the old set-up?

akonius wrote:

why the opposite swing though?

...nice concept - I haven't seen anything like that before!

I thought it was also cool to have the "work bench" and the Jeep cargo area open at the same time for easy access to all your stuff.

DangerMouse wrote:

So what did you do with the old set-up?

I ended up selling it to fund the new one.

nice work

Good Job

That's really nice, sir. Any idea what it weighs?

I love it, you did a great job!

Wow, that is very impressive. Love the extra secure storage. Kudos!