I am looking for a cargo rack that mounts over the rear spare tire. I have looked at a bunch but I want to hear from personal experience who has the best rack out there lol.
By the way I have the ace manufacturing rear bumper and tire carrier with 35" tire
It's the weekend give time for people to respond. I did build one that I use with my teraflex spare tire mount. It sits on top of the tire and I have a 4" wide ratchet strap that goes around the tire.
Yeah I understand. Wish I was out playing with my jeep but gotta work. I am trying to find something I can sit a cooler on. I was debating on a roof rack but I don't like the big cages and not planning on keeping it on permanently
Ok I looked at the Aries trunk and that's not what I am wanting. I have all of that area packed down and needing an additional cargo area outside the jeep above the spare tire I have a cargo carrier mounted off the bumper but it's loaded also.
From past experience the "best" rack is one that will mount to the spare tire swing out, for a lot of reasons.
You might talk to Ace and see what they can do.
The link you posted is a Hansen setup. I have an LoD on order, after having a chance to look at one up close. They build a very quality product.
I found a couple bolt on kits that bolt to the tailgate one made by bestop the other made by smitybilt both in the $200-250 range. I am needing one to put a cooler and the folding chairs on I just need a little more room not looking to mount 200lbs of stuff
Worse case scenario it tears up the sheet metal on the tail gate, and causes the hinges to wear out faster.
Some nice upgraded hinges at a reasonable price are available now, so the hinge thing is kind of a "non-issue".
Tail gates aren't that expensive either. Probably about $1K painted.
So may be worth the risk. Really as long as it doesn't tear off while traveling down the freeway, it's not going to be that big of a deal. You can always find a place to strap it all down in order to get home.
Just keep an eye out for the sheet metal on the tail gate breaking at the spot welds, and starting to tear. Catch it early, and you can have a body shop weld it up, then re-think the rack situation.
Comanche you have a good point. I am tempted to build my own that attaches to my Ace rear bumper tire carrier to keep the tailgate issue. One plus I have is the 35" spare tire is not mounted to the tailgate but on its own swing arm
I talked to a guy that has a rugged ridge bracket and harbor freight basket he bought for like $40 he likes it but the bolts are rusting so would need to replace all the bolts with stainless
Well I ordered the bestop brackets I read a lot of reviews saying the bolts that come with it are junk and rust really quick so I will be replacing all hardware with stainless steel. I will update later. It should be here today
Ok I got the bestop trail rack bracket in and installed. even with my ACE rear bumper tire carrier combo still was a breeze. The instructions tell you to pull the rear rubber bumpers for the stock tire and discard them. I chose not to because then it leaves two holes in your tailgate for water to enter. What I did was cut them down to about 1/2" and re installed them. This does two things. Fills the holes and puts pressure on the trail rack bracket to eliminate vibrations. Also I made two 1.5" pieces of metal that sit on the top of my spare tire which helps with weight distribution. For the basket I went with a $69.00 cargo basket from harbor freight and just removed the center 2" receiver portion. Also I recommend going with all stainless hardware because the ones sent with the bestop bracket is junk. I will try and upload some pictures later.
Looks good, I wish I could get that bracket to work with the teraflex hinge, but I dont think it would work. Here is the carrier that I made that I just ratchet strap to the tire. Granted I do not put much weight in it. The picture is from when I had my TJ.
That is why I made this one sturdier. It can hold over 200lbs. And I have a hitch mounted cargo carrier.........its full too. I really just need a small trailer lol
Tae73. That is a cool design and I'm not sure how the TF hinge works so I don't know if this bracket will fit or not.
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