Amazon spare tire carrier

[Ksnau]

So I finally decided that instead of getting a regular lift, I'm going to put air suspension on my car. There's a local shop that I was recommended by a guy at a car show with a focus RS. And his system seem pretty legit. Of course mine will be set up totally different. I'm going to leave it at the stock height and it'll allow for 3 inches up and 3 inches down.

But to get this done, the only place to mount the compressor and tank was where the spare tire was. We looked everywhere and they're just wasn't anywhere that it would fit that didn't also have possible heat issues or potential for getting hung up when I off-road.

So I really wanted to get one of those swing out tire carriers but my budget's kind of limited. And since I'm already dropping three plus grand on an air suspension system, I don't want to spend 1500 on the swing out tire carrier from I think rigid or there's someone else that had one

So I decided to see how the cheap $105 Amazon one worked. Actually it was $125 cuz I got the one that came with the hitch lock and then it has like a device that helps secure the hitch to the pipe. It slides on it so it doesn't rattle around.

Worked out good. I cut 3 inches off the end of the pipe that slides in the hitch so that it wouldn't stick out as far and when I use the lock it slides into the very last hole. All in all, it took about an hour to put it together, but the welds seem good. The steel seemed thick and solid. The hardware was Zinc coated grade 8.8 for the hitch bolts, the bolts that hold the tire on have no markings so I'll replace those with some grade 8 bolts It also only came with two bolts for the tire and I want at least three.

But it seems to work out nicely at least so far it allows me to still open the glass part of the tailgate and it does fall down easy to open the whole tailgate. Although if I ever have to change my tire getting the tire on the carrier is a little tricky but not too bad.

At first I was thinking I was going to have to relocate the reverse camera too, but it does actually still show a couple feet behind the car. So I'll see how that works out before I decide to figure out how to pull the rear camera out and extend the wires and mount it on the carrier.

I am probably not going to be able to start on the air suspension until August or September. Just cuz of work but I'll definitely make a post for it once I do and put down what everything costs and where I went to get it. But it's looking like it's going to cost about three to four thousand dollars being overly conservative and that's with me installing it myself.

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[GoHack]

What about your license plate?

Have you got a P/N for the Amazon tire carrier?

 

[Ksnau]

You would think I would have thought of that But I didn't and it is blocked pretty well. So it'll be pretty interesting. I guess I'll have to see how long it takes to get pulled over for that.

There's a screenshot of what I got. I guess I wouldn't recommend anyone else get it then. Also, when I reversed it said that my reversing sensors would not work for the cross traffic alert.

So definitely would not recommend anyone getting this. I'll have to think about a way to make the tire sit up higher so the license plates visible and it gets more out of the way of the camera and sensors. Although the pole itself might be enough to block the sensors, but it's not bad for the camera at least.

Thank you for mentioning that. I seriously would not have thought of that for a while.

Looking at everything I'd say that if the pole that the tire attaches to was like 6 in longer it wouldn't be a problem. So I'll probably have to cut the mounting plate that the tire attaches too off of that pole and welded onto a longer pole. Great! More stuff to do before I can start on the air suspension.

 

[Robink]

What about trying to attach the plate to the spare? I have been trying too figure out how to carry a full size spare. I'm in the desert and I off road a lot and the donut just won't cut it. How far does the tire drop down to open the hatch?

 

[Ksnau]

It flips to almost parallel with the ground so you can open the hatch really easily and I thought about attaching the plate to the spare tire but I want to raise the spare tire so I can still use my rear view camera and hopefully my sensors will start working again cuz I really do appreciate that cross traffic alert so I'm going to be raising it anyways so my license plate will be visible so I won't have to move the plate. But for someone who can't weld that would definitely be a good option.

Also anything based on the Badlands gets the full size pirelli tire as a spare but because I have the falkens. They're not exactly the same, 1/2" bigger, but it's definitely better than the donut. But I have heard that you can't fit anything bigger than the 235/65 falkens, although some people got 245/65s in there, from reading other posts.

Also the cool thing because I wanted the $1,500 Ridgid swing out or the $1,000 Wilco swing out one but I don't want to pay that much (kind of silly because I'm paying so much for air suspension in a month, but I did also want to find out in case other people wanted to use this and it was so much cheaper). There is a $250 and a $350 swing out hitch attachment on amazon that has an extra hitch in it so I could then slide this hitch tire carrier into that one and basically have very similar to what the Wilco and rigid is.

 

[Robink]

Hey thanks I will check this out!!

 

[Wabarca2]

I made this with my friend doesn't cover the camera or the license plate.

 

[Bucko]

If you lift the Amazon unit higher to get the camera and sensors back in decent view, you will loose the functionality of the rear glass hatch to open.

While it seems to foot the bill for a spare tire carrier, it prevents too many other features from working as designed. I appreciate your recommendations for telling others to pass on this.

 

[The_Jimmer]

You could always get a roof rack and mount the spare up top. Just an option...

 

[Mark S.]

I made this with my friend doesn't cover the camera or the license plate.

Do you have any documentation/plans for this? I’d love to see what you did.

 

[Martinjv71]

So I finally decided that instead of getting a regular lift, I'm going to put air suspension on my car. There's a local shop that I was recommended by a guy at a car show with a focus RS. And his system seem pretty legit. Of course mine will be set up totally different. I'm going to leave it at the stock height and it'll allow for 3 inches up and 3 inches down.

But to get this done, the only place to mount the compressor and tank was where the spare tire was. We looked everywhere and they're just wasn't anywhere that it would fit that didn't also have possible heat issues or potential for getting hung up when I off-road.

So I really wanted to get one of those swing out tire carriers but my budget's kind of limited. And since I'm already dropping three plus grand on an air suspension system, I don't want to spend 1500 on the swing out tire carrier from I think rigid or there's someone else that had one

So I decided to see how the cheap $105 Amazon one worked. Actually it was $125 cuz I got the one that came with the hitch lock and then it has like a device that helps secure the hitch to the pipe. It slides on it so it doesn't rattle around.

Worked out good. I cut 3 inches off the end of the pipe that slides in the hitch so that it wouldn't stick out as far and when I use the lock it slides into the very last hole. All in all, it took about an hour to put it together, but the welds seem good. The steel seemed thick and solid. The hardware was Zinc coated grade 8.8 for the hitch bolts, the bolts that hold the tire on have no markings so I'll replace those with some grade 8 bolts It also only came with two bolts for the tire and I want at least three.

But it seems to work out nicely at least so far it allows me to still open the glass part of the tailgate and it does fall down easy to open the whole tailgate. Although if I ever have to change my tire getting the tire on the carrier is a little tricky but not too bad.

At first I was thinking I was going to have to relocate the reverse camera too, but it does actually still show a couple feet behind the car. So I'll see how that works out before I decide to figure out how to pull the rear camera out and extend the wires and mount it on the carrier.

I am probably not going to be able to start on the air suspension until August or September. Just cuz of work but I'll definitely make a post for it once I do and put down what everything costs and where I went to get it. But it's looking like it's going to cost about three to four thousand dollars being overly conservative and that's with me installing it myself.

Should have bought a much higher quality than Amazon. That is some pretty thin metal and also is going to rust.

 

[Wabarca2]

Do you have any documentation/plans for this? I’d love to see what you did.

I'm sorry we didn't write nothing down, it took us a couple days to make. We did put a wedge system on it so it wouldn't wobble in the hitch.

 

[Ksnau]

Yeah, if you're not able to weld I wouldn't recommend this one. The metal is a little thinner than the bar stock that I got from my metal shop to extend it 6 inches but it's not bad and did the job before I realized it was too short and it had an ok coating that seem more than just spray paint. the glass will still be able to open. I checked that before and after. The question is if it's enough for the sensors to still work but if not what I'll probably do is do like they did I think but I'll be buying most of it instead of creating it from scratch. I'll order that swing out hitch part I mentioned above because that'll raise it another couple inches but also stick it a little further out from the glass. So we'll have the swing out function and I should still be able to get into the glass. But I'm going to try it without having to buy that swing out part first. I'll post pictures in a little bit on it work right now

 

[Ksnau]

And as always, I apologize for the terrible grammar and wrong words to use my phone's voice recognition and rarely go back to edit it

 

[Escape2Bronco]

What about trying to attach the plate to the spare? I have been trying too figure out how to carry a full size spare. I'm in the desert and I off road a lot and the donut just won't cut it. How far does the tire drop down to open the hatch?

What size tire are you running? Most full size spares fit in the well.

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