GM Barn Door tire carrier

[Rosco862003]

So being the cheap bastard I am I didn't want to pay triple to quadruple digit prices for a "Overland rated" tire carrier so I decided to head to my local pull a part and get creative. What I found was a sturdy looking tire carrier from a mid 90's forest green Isuzu Trooper that closely matches the color or my Suburban. Isuzu used some unique bolts so I had to head to the auto zone to get "push sockets, that have little fingers that recess to mold to the bolt.hopefully I explained that well enough. Back home I noted where the structural horizontal cross member was in the door and decided to drill through that for the bottom two holes. I had some spare unistrut lying around that I decided would be perfect for reinforcing the top holes. In case anyone was wondering, the Trooper carrier fits the GMT400 rear door like it should've come from the factory that way. 1/2 hardware was used along with red locktite to secure the carrier to the body, and to keep scuffs and rubbing to a minimum I used nylon washers to separate the carrier from the body. It's a pretty straightforward process that would end right there for those of you utilizing a 6 lug pattern, but I have yet to re-drill the carrier to accommodate my 8 lug pattern. If you plan on going bigger than a 33" tire, this might not work for you as there might be some clearance issues with you getting the door open past the tire.

Issues:

• My current 245/70/16 rubs the bumper based on how I lined up the bottom two holes with the cross-member so this will need to be taken into consideration when using bigger tires. I plan on adding a different rear bumper that will address this issue, but if you have a body lift, that will also help any clearance issues as would raising the carrier.

• I still need to re-drill the carrier to accept an 8 lug bolt pattern, but worry that the additional holes might weaken the carrier. Still looking at adapters.

Part 2 - Passenger door mounted Jerry Can..

 

[rayra]

That's my kind of 'getting it done'! And you're right, the curve is almost made to match.

Wondering how the door hinges will hold up to hanging ~120+-lbs on the door. And when closed / latched 99.99999999% of the time, the weight doesn't matter.

Looks good though and sits nice and low, too.

 

[Bear in NM]

Back in my early Jeep days, I added one of the old style type jerry can holders to the spare of Jeep, then proceeded to hang way to much weight. The hinges suffered, and the flexing of the spare tore into the skin of the door, at the mount corner. Your door hinges are obviously larger, and may hold up to the weight, but I would keep an eye on them. You might also consider adding rubber bump stops at a location where when torquing the tire onto the carrier, the stops will slightly compress the sidewall of the tire. This will keep the weight of the tire from transferring all the rotational/flexing forces to only the bracket. This would likely help the hinges, latch and bracket mount.

Craig

 

[justcuz]

Will be keeping an eye on this.
This is a great idea for GMT800 Suburbans with barn doors, since their spare is under the vehicle.

 

[Rosco862003]

Thanks for the heads up Bear in NM, I believe I'll take you up on adding a bump stop of some sort on the door to help disperse the load a bit more evenly. While filling up my lawn mower the other day with the gallon sized gas can the nozzle broke which was nice as love getting gas all over myself. Not really sure what happened but a spring went flying and my nozzle turned into a two piece assembly. I obviously had to convince my better half that we need a bigger and better jerry can and a way of transporting it that doesn't involve blurred vision and psychedelic thoughts fueled by gas fumes. With her on board I went down to the local toy sto...I mean 4 wheel parts and picked up a universal smittybilt jerry can mount along with a jerry can. While this isn't a NATO version with the clamp style spout, I'm hoping it will get the job done. I mounted the carrier to the passenger in much the same manner I did the tire carrier albeit with 5/16" SS hardware. Along with my 42 gallon tank, I should be cresting 600 miles worth of range. I'd still like to try and squeeze a few more mpg out of the thirsty beast, but I think a gentle right foot is the best approach in getting respectable mileage out of a moving barn. I'll keep the thread updated as I tack on the miles with any issues I encounter down the road, but thus far, everything feels good and solid.

 

[Bear in NM]

The funny thing about the bump stops is that as I had added a wheel with a different backset, it did not mate up with factory bump stops. I thought, "no big deal". Well, sort of yes for me.

The can looks good. I have a 31 gallon tank in my Av, and have about doubled my range, over my Jeep. Pretty excited about that, but 42 would be very nice.......

Craig

 

[chilliwak]

Pretty cool way to easily get your tire mounted on the back. Thanks for posting those pics Rosco. Cheers, Chilli..:wings:

 

[KE7JFF]

Darn it, I wish I had not thrown out that tire carrier from a Isuzu Rodeo from years ago. I'm wondering if one from a Nissan Pathfinder would work...a friend has one in the junk pile.....

 

[rayra]

Probably make a good mount on a roof deck, too.

Clearing the spare from under would allow fittign a ~25gal tank underneath, where the spare is now. What's another 200# when it helps push your unrefueled range over 700mi?

 

[Rosco862003]

Well, I kind of forgot about updating this until someone asked me if I had a write-up detailing how I stuck a tire on the door with no carrier. As mentioned earlier I'll provide an update on how everything has held up and any issues I've had. After roughly 3 months of having the tire on I have had absolutely no issues to speak of. I picked up a set of OEM aluminum rims from the GMT800 platform that included a set of 285/75 tires, albeit bald. I plan to keep the tires as a budget spare, which will most likely require some modification to the bumper. The 245 that currently resides on the door sits perfectly on the bumper, which I suppose carries a bit of the weight as opposed to the door.

With that said, there has been no signs of fatigue, despite several miles of dirt road usage and one particularly corrugated road. As a sign of it's strength and dare I say inattentiveness, my girlfriends 9 year old was out helping me on the sleep platform and as I was crawling on the underside of the platform I noticed her climbing and swinging on the tire..Needless to say I quickly told her to get off, and as the adrenaline wore off I felt a sense of pride and happiness in knowing that it held up with no ill effects. I should also note that I've loaded the trasharoo up with both firewood and a fully loaded trash bag and have yet to have any issues, and yes- I have checked the mounting hardware to check for loose bolts or cracks of any sort.

The gas can holder on the other hand doesn't utilize 1/2" hardware like the tire carrier, nor does it need to, but the weight is distributed in a manner that causes minor flexing of the rear door even with the kindorf reinforcement I've placed behind it. This doesn't strike me as something that will be a structural issue down the road, but rather a minor inconvenience that I'd prefer not exist. Based on where the rear door support was in regards to the mounting hole, it put the gas carrier at a slight downward angle, that also pokes at my OCD, but in no way upsets the structural integrity of the mount or door. Due to the gas can being about an inch slimmer than the mount, there is considerable vibration and racket which will be addressed with rubber or neoprene grommets of some sort. Those minor issues aside, I'm more than happy with the end result and am grateful for the barn door setup which has allowed me to save considerable coin.

 

[Martinjmpr]

I wonder if it would be possible to reinforce the hinges or otherwise offset the weight of the tire?

Of course, the door frame is what is bearing the weight when the door is open, and the frame is pretty stout so I would imagine this is a better solution than the old "swing out spare tire carriers" that they used to sell that bolted on to the sheet metal. Those worked in the days when sheet metal was thick but with modern vehicles having much thinner sheet metal it would be tough to pull off.

 

[rayra]

I would think the thing to do is add some sort of weight bearing shim between the tire and bumper. Something that won't rattle out but can be readily removed when you want to open that door.
Extra style points if it takes the form of some sort of cradle, which is attached to the spare mount with some sort of bracket and built in a sort of wedge fit manner so you can open the door right up without any extra efforts and likewlse just shove it shut and have a snug weight-bearing support of the wheel. Maybe something like a pair of those hard rubber wheel chocks sold at Harbor Freight.

 

[DEROW0089]

There any pic on how u mouted it. Hardware placement and such??

 

[CrazyDrei]

That looks fantastic, looks so good that it could have come from the factory. Will follow to see how well it holds up long term.

 

[Rosco862003]

Just jumping back into the thread after being away for a while, however I sold it about a year ago to a guy who I actually kept in touch with and he never mentioned any issues with it. It’s actually back up for sale due to him needing s more efficient vehicle and if I had the funds I’d take it off his hands. That’s the way the cookie crumbles I suppose.