Love my tire carrier....
Is one essential? No, not really. I have a Tahoe with a tire carrier and jerry can holder and my work truck is an Expedition with the underside tire holder. I have had
6 flats in my Expedition and changing the tire on that thing is a
royal P.I.T.A.:violent-smiley-031: If I had a tire carrier on the back it would save me about 10 minutes a tire change, owing to the time to crank down the spare and crank it back up. (and that is using a custom made crank the guys at the county shop fabbed up for me. Using the factory crank handle takes about 20 minutes!) Ugh. And everytime I pull the spare out it is covered in road grime and is overall way more cruddy than a tire mounted to the rear would be. So, I LOVE having my swing out tire carrier on my Tahoe, even if it is a minor inconvenience in day to day living.
As for James Downing's rig, his tire carrier is very well made. Have seen it myself, and seen James stand on top of the tire where it is mounted with no ill effect on the assembly. Very well made.
My Kennesaw Mtn bumper is pretty stout and the removeable Jerry Can holder is a pretty nice accessory.
The bumper is about 10 times stronger than the factory one to boot, GM just dont make things like they used to....