Pics of roof rack w/spare tire mounted

ddonaho · **Posted:** Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:11 pm

Sorry these aren't very good. I'm out of daylight.

The pedestals and the bottom rail are 1" square tubing.
The uprights and top rails are 3/4 square tubing.
It tapers from about 40" in back to about 42" wide at the front mount.
Its 64" inches deep. I wanted to be able to get to 32's up there if I needed to.
It weighs about 43 lbs.

In order to cover my not-pretty welds I painted it with undercoating. (before I found the spraycan bed liner)

I learned enough to mandate a second try although this one is perfectly funtional and very strong.

Had to create this so I put up some other pics I just took of the rack going for a ride.Even hooked up the 1/4 ton military trailer which might interest some of you.
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2516539/1

Doss

Signcutter21 · **Posted:** Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:39 pm

Do you just have the tire sitting in there, or did you fab a bracket to hold it. If so can you post pics. Just been using ratchet straps, but know sooner or later they'll start seperating. Looked at some on the net, but $80+, no thanks.

later
mike

Gris · **Posted:** Wed Nov 29, 2006 9:06 pm

I was, at one point, trying to find an old rotor to make a bracket out of. I lost motivation though.

ddonaho · **Posted:** Wed Nov 29, 2006 9:10 pm

Her are some pictures of the bracket.
It might not be finished yet.

I've shaded in the parts here becasue they were hard to see.
Its a piece of 3/4' square tubing with two tabs (flat bar) welded to it. In the middle of the 3/4" stock I drilled a hole put a 3/8 x 4" bolt through it and welded it so it wouldn't spin.

On top (above the rim, not shown) is another shorter piece of 3/4 square tubing with a hole in the middle and a nut welded to one side. It acts like a big wing nut.

I just set the bar on the roof, plop the tire over it and hold the bolt and tighten the "wing nut" until the tabs catch the bottom of the rail and stop trying to spin.

4" is really too short of a bolt and i have the tire mounted shiny side down. To mount it valve up (like to be able to check pressure easy) you'd need a much longer bolt.

Current design pretty much tells you when the pressure is down though because with no air in the tire the wing nut would come loose

Rayze78 · **Joined:** Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:41 pm **Posts:** 36

I wonder if you could somehow get the spare tire bracket thats currently on the back of the liberty from a junkyard or whatever and mount it in your roof rack and use it to hold the tire?

ddonaho · **Posted:** Sun Sep 16, 2007 1:47 pm

It would be much easier just to use the spare tire mount I took off th tailgate, but its not an elegant design. At the least it weighs about ten pounds and uses a lot of space inside the rim and holds the tire out (or up) farther.

I really like the space inside the rim. Its a great place to dry shoes and hold drinks, etc when riding on the rack. The rack easily holds 3 adults and sort of makes up for not having a ragtop.

Doss

ddonaho · **Posted:** Sun Sep 16, 2007 1:58 pm

Bangor maine--that's funny.

Fulltimer · **Posted:** Sun Sep 16, 2007 2:42 pm

ddonaho wrote:

I really like the space inside the rim. Its a great place to dry shoes and hold drinks, etc when riding on the rack. The rack easily holds 3 adults and sort of makes up for not having a ragtop.

Doss

I would have NEVER thought of doing that!

Terry

scrambledKJ · **Posted:** Tue Sep 18, 2007 8:33 pm

I just threw my spare up on the rack cause my trailer will smack it since my ball is so high. I used the stock mount and bolted it through my coleman rack using the stock steel plates as the backing. It is about 1.5-2 inches off of the floor of the rack. Nice and steady, and even the wife likes it. I finally yanked off the coleman stcker on the airdam and put on a nice optima batteries sticker that has been in my toolbox for 6 years.

Travis

ernestgj · **Joined:** Wed Sep 27, 2006 10:50 am **Posts:** 19

How is that mounted to the roof? Got a close-up pic? I've been trying to find a rack that is more solid/higher load rating and everything just puts cross-bars on the stock rails.

Greg

Frostednutz · **Posted:** Wed Apr 09, 2008 2:13 am

it's not how well you weld but how good you are at grinding which makes a good welder. they also make mig welders which even a monkey could weld with

need tips on welding just shoot me an IM. btw what did you make the rack out of? stainless steel or carbon steel?

csamano · **Joined:** Wed Oct 11, 2006 6:48 pm **Posts:** 59

Hey by any chance do you have photos of the fabrication process? It looks pretty simple but this would be my first welding project. The more info I have, the better. Also, where did you get your M-100? It looks pretty cool.

Pics of roof rack w/spare tire mounted

Who is online