Rear tire carrier bumpers? Love em Hate em?

[xcmountain80]

Well while a considered mod for 2009 I would like some folks who HAVE or HAVE HAD rear tire carriers to weigh in. I was considering a unit from Ibis Offroad and he offer both tire and non tire models. How much more of a PIA is it to get in the rear? Do they rattle? Higher prob of tire disappearing? Cool factor? What does the sig other think? Cost effective? And so on.

Link to what I'm considering.
http://irbisoffroad.com/bumpers_rear.asp

Thanks in advance

Aaron

 

[BKCowGod]

My only problem with the one I had was the inconvenience of getting OUT of the truck. No tire carrier I have found so far has been designed to be unlatched from inside. Of course, if you don't camp in yours it's not such a big problem.

 

[xcmountain80]

No I sleep on the roof in the RTT or in a ground tent but not often in the car and if the need arose for in the car it would be in the drivers seat or rear seat as I have had to do this in truck stops before.

Aaron

 

[02TahoeMD]

Love mine, it is at least 10 times stronger than the factory bumper, the tire does not rattle or shake at all, and it puts the spare where it belongs on an overlanding vehicle - on the exterior instead of buried under the bumper. Got more clearance out back too when I put mine on. Don't have a "sig other" so I can't help ya there. And having the removable jerry can holder adds to the overall utility of it. No complaints at all.....

 

[HarryT]

I've got a Big Daddy winch/tire carrier rear bumper on my '05 Rubicon. It works great for what it is but its very heavy. It makes getting into the rear of the Jeep a pain and I can't open it all the way with the trailer hooked up. Its a good place to carry the tire, shovel, ax, hi-lift jack, and gas cans.

 

[xcmountain80]

I often wondered what might happen when a trailer was in tow whether a stock trailer or an adventure one. No doubt I'll have to research and get some heavier FZJ80 front coils for my 4Runners rear.

Aaron

 

[DenCo40]

If you build it right it wont rattle. A lesson I learned when I built my first swing out tire carrier.

 

[BiG BoB]

I love them, can't imagine why anyone wouldn't.

We use twin Kaymar carriers on the back of all our troopies, and have the back area set up as a work space and desk. On a hot day I close the rear doors to help the aircon, and just leave the wheels in the open position (Kaymar have a locking mechanism to do this).

Decent brand carriers don't rattle, and give you somewhere convenient to stand when accessing the roofracks (on the tire)

Sean

 

[rickc]

The only real downside for me is rear-view but a truck full of stuff usually cuts rear view anyhow. My Durango has an underslung spare - MMMMM to get out and in on a muddy trail. My Hummer's spare weighs around 115lbs. Some store spares on the roof - hard to get up and down as they get bigger and heavier. As stated earlier, a big, well-built rear spare carrier can carry other stuff too. Just make sure you get one that is chunky, doesn't rattle and has very secure mounting/locking.

 

[xcmountain80]

Well take a look at the link that I posted in the beginning of the thread and let me know what you think.

Aaron

 

[spressomon]

I've had the Slee rear bumper with tire carrier/swing arm (LC's only). It not only stores my 35" spare but my shovel and HiLift too. I know some complain of the extra few seconds to open/close. But it really is the lesser of two evils compared to storing the spare underneath or worse yet in the rig.

Slee rear bumper: Solid, no flex, no rattles, no BS.

 

[toy_tek]

I've got the Irbis. I like it. Doesn't rattle, well built. I've looked at all the models online, and there are some design features that I prefer in the Irbis over the others. Mainly strength related with extra gussets at the front and 8 mounting holes, but also the recessed hitch receiver and the lower angles seem to work well. It also sits very high and with the 80 coils and 285's, I have 25" of clearance directly behind the tire (all the way across) and 26" at the end of the bumper. The lowest part hanging down are the mounting bolt heads.

I like the tire carrier feature for two reasons: 1) the added clearance mentioned above 2) because I sleep inside the truck. Yeah it looks cool but that is only secondary.

Visibility is impaired slightly but like somebody else mentioned, usually there's enough crap in the back you'd have issues anyway. You get past it quickly.

It doesn't really impede access to the back like I thought it might, its a quick flip of the lever and pull up on the lock. Easy.

A negative I hadn't prepared for is fitting it in my garage. I can, but can't walk around the truck anymore.

Also, if you're doing some hardcore rockcrawling, you need to remove the tire from the carrier. I didn't, and my truck slipped backward off a waterfall and mashed the spare tire on a big rock. It bent up the tire mounting plate, where the studs are welded to. I had to cut it off and I'm making a new one. If you can, have Irbis make that triangle shaped plate out of 1/4" instead of 3/16".

One word of caution with the 4Runner. The rear frame rails are not as beefy as we'd like to think. When you open the tire carrier and pull down on it, the frame FLEXES big time. I can get an extra inch between the bumper and body doing this by hand. Obviously you wouldn't be hanging 200lbs off the back but think about 60lbs or whatever the tire weighs while tearing down a 50 mile washboard or rutted road. I've got some plans to add 1/4" plate to both frame rails from the axle back. That should stiffen it up enough.

I used to hang the hi-lift back there too, but I think from now on I'll keep it inside where it won't get so dirty, and save the 30lbs or whatever from the tire carrier.

Just some thoughts. But Irbis definitely put some thought into his design.

 

[esh]

The Irbis design looks pretty ideal, and at a great price too.

Components I look for-
over-built spindles
rear quarter protection
decent latch

These look to have all that and include a strut to keep the arm open(very useful feature). My 4x4Labs rear is similar, only that it adds modular accessory mounts (I can mount any of a dozen or so things to the dual swingouts) and it has more of a design to it than raw function and straight edges.

 

[lowenbrau]

A rear tire carrier is like a backpack. It solves the question of how to carry a bunch of stuff that you hope you never need and it is a pain in the ********.

A good latch and some gas struts make it much less painful.

 

[rickc]

Hi Aaron:

The Irbis looks great though it would be better if it had a grease nipple on the hinge. I have read on other forums about swing out carriers jumping off on bumpy trails due to lightweight fastening/locking mechanisms.

I have a military IbisTek carrier. One advantage of the IbisTek design is that the drop down part can be removed easily if you want to get rid of the spare for any reason.