New Bumper/Tire Carrier Build

Lazer87

New member
So I am about halfway done with my new rear bumper. Thought I would post it up for you guys to see the progress. From Cad to steel. Also maybe get some opinions on a tire carrier hinge. I found one on amazon from AtoZ Fabrication. Not sure, it has good reviews. Let me know if you have any recommendations or thoughts.Bumper2-Temp0001.jpeg20200108_205127.jpeg20200108_205134.jpeg20200113_114412.jpeg20200113_114408.jpeg20200113_114357.jpeg

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JTCO

Meme King
Nice looking bumper. I built a carrier for my wj and used that A TO Z fabrication hinge. It's been almost 5 years and has been great. I even redesigned my carrier twice but was able to do so in a way to keep that same hinge without cutting it out. It's been awesome. I've even hit my tire on a couple ledges by mistake and the carrier is surprisingly OK. Make sure whatever you do that the weight of the tire is secured in some way where it doesn't vibrate at all. I've seen some nasty pictures online of the hinge pin shearing off after the tire carrier had been vibrating for awhile.

Here's some pics of the hinge on mine.

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Lazer87

New member
Nice looking bumper. I built a carrier for my wj and used that A TO Z fabrication hinge. It's been almost 5 years and has been great. I even redesigned my carrier twice but was able to do so in a way to keep that same hinge without cutting it out. It's been awesome. I've even hit my tire on a couple ledges by mistake and the carrier is surprisingly OK. Make sure whatever you do that the weight of the tire is secured in some way where it doesn't vibrate at all. I've seen some nasty pictures online of the hinge pin shearing off after the tire carrier had been vibrating for awhile.

Here's some pics of the hinge on mine.

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Thanks. That looks really clean, good job on your's. Ya that was what I was hopping for, going to order it. The Mega hinge. I only have 35s but I want to put my gas tanks on it as well. The mega hinges says it does fine up to a 37. Thanks for the input.

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JTCO

Meme King
Thanks. That looks really clean, good job on your's. Ya that was what I was hopping for, going to order it. The Mega hinge. I only have 35s but I want to put my gas tanks on it as well. The mega hinges says it does fine up to a 37. Thanks for the input.

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Thanks. If I were to do it again, I would get the mega hinge just so I could carry extra weight like you said. That hinge is a thick bastard. It stays hot for a long time, lol.
 

MrGiant

New member
Awesome! Always cool to see guys fab up their own stuff :thumb:
So true....norhing better than that!
Ireally like the carrier on your WJ and the plan you made in CAD for your rear bumper, always helpful to have access to those tools

Mr.Giant - '92 YJ
Giant 2 - '18 JLUR
 

tobyw

Member
I'll give you my $0.02, worth exactly what you paid for it...

I've built a lot of bumpers and tire carriers over the years, and the vast majority of them have been on wheeling-oriented vehicles. Trailer spindles are not for tire carriers, period.

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Just like in your suspension mounts, double shear is your friend.
 

JTCO

Meme King
I'll give you my $0.02, worth exactly what you paid for it...

I've built a lot of bumpers and tire carriers over the years, and the vast majority of them have been on wheeling-oriented vehicles. Trailer spindles are not for tire carriers, period.

Just like in your suspension mounts, double shear is your friend.

Wow. That sucks. Guess I've lucked out over the years. What's the exact story on that one?
 

tobyw

Member
I think you built yours a little better than that particular one, your tire is mounted much lower and doesn't put as much leverage on the spindle. BTW, totally dig the stealth look of that setup, nice work!!

As for what happened to that one in particular, you can see from the close-up of the sheared spindle that it had been failing for awhile (rusty on the perimeter), and it finally gave away on that snow run as we were bombing over some whoops. In all fairness, that TJ had been running 37" Pit Bull Rockers on Hutchinson dual beadlocks for years, which is quite possibly the heaviest tire/wheel combination known to man, and this was one of the first trips after downsizing to some cheap 35's. I didn't build that one, but the guy that did was there that day and admitted he'd seen similar failures on a few others he had built the same way. I've personally seen it a couple of other times as well.

I'm a big fan of dual shear setups, just need to capture the top of the pivot somehow and keep that sucker from being able to oscillate. These are a couple of the pivots that I've repeatedly used over the years:

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Lazer87

New member
I think you built yours a little better than that particular one, your tire is mounted much lower and doesn't put as much leverage on the spindle. BTW, totally dig the stealth look of that setup, nice work!!

As for what happened to that one in particular, you can see from the close-up of the sheared spindle that it had been failing for awhile (rusty on the perimeter), and it finally gave away on that snow run as we were bombing over some whoops. In all fairness, that TJ had been running 37" Pit Bull Rockers on Hutchinson dual beadlocks for years, which is quite possibly the heaviest tire/wheel combination known to man, and this was one of the first trips after downsizing to some cheap 35's. I didn't build that one, but the guy that did was there that day and admitted he'd seen similar failures on a few others he had built the same way. I've personally seen it a couple of other times as well.

I'm a big fan of dual shear setups, just need to capture the top of the pivot somehow and keep that sucker from being able to oscillate. These are a couple of the pivots that I've repeatedly used over the years:

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I'll take $0.02. In the first photo, did you weld a nut into the bumper or is it threaded pipe? What are the bushings? I'm assuming grade 8 bolt maybe 1 1/4?

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tobyw

Member
Yep, there is an all steel locking nut welded to the inside of the bumper for the bolt to engage. I like the all steel locking nuts because they help hold the torque without backing out, and you can weld them in place as opposed to a nylock type locking nut which would obviously melt out when welded. The pivot is a piece of heavy wall tube with a bronze bushing pressed inside, and the bushings are UHMW. The through bolt is 1" diameter grade 5.
 

Lazer87

New member
Yep, there is an all steel locking nut welded to the inside of the bumper for the bolt to engage. I like the all steel locking nuts because they help hold the torque without backing out, and you can weld them in place as opposed to a nylock type locking nut which would obviously melt out when welded. The pivot is a piece of heavy wall tube with a bronze bushing pressed inside, and the bushings are UHMW. The through bolt is 1" diameter grade 5.
Awesome, thanks for the insight. Time to go to the store and finish this thing.

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Lazer87

New member
Bumper Update

So I finally had some time to get some work done. Not 100%, but close. I welded the bumper up and built the roof rack as well. I tested everything out at this years Winter Jamboree. It did amazing. The bumper is just a bumper. But the roof rack was solid through the trails. I was able to add the pieces for the tire swing that I needed to powder coat the bumper. The tire swing will come later. I added some pictures of the bumper fully welded. With the locking nut and reinforcement for the tire swing. A few pictures crawling through Sand Hollow and finally all powder coated and installed. 90GHeCMZ-95378797.jpegicdSFKnk-95370786.jpeg20200527_112004.jpeg20200527_112015.jpeg20200527_112110.jpeg20200528_221905.jpeg20200528_203116.jpeg20200528_203109.jpeg20200528_203130.jpeg20200528_203144.jpeg

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