The rear door on the landy
has been a concern for a while. The rear tire is simply to heavy. For one, the
kids were having a heck of a time trying to close the door and secondly, the
rear door would sag. The rear
door is a 90 door, which has the 3 door hinges. The door can never stay in one
place! I tighten the bolts
and after a few short weeks, the rear door has sank again.......There's gotta be
a better solution for the
rear tire.
Searching the popular Land
Rover magazines and the internet, I knew I can buy a swing away rear tire
carrier or I can make one. Homemade tire carriers for Land Rover's as per say,
was not easy to find,
but there were many Toyota's, Fords and Jeep's, that gave the inspirations for
my carrier.
In the picture to the right,
that's the original design I had, the white parts being the mounting plates
to the frame , with the carrier pivoting on the right and locking in place on
the left. Not many have made
a carrier that pivoted with the door, but rather pivoted in one place and locked
in another, which all
has to be done on the outside. This was not what I was looking for, I want a
carrier that swings with
the door, so the kids can get in and out without any hassles. BUT, it was
the best solution I could
find for the time being, to stop the rear door from sagging.
The bases for the pivot
point for the carrier is a axle assembly for a trailer. The axle assembly is
rated for 750Kgs. The wheel studs had to removed and then, using the angle
grinder, I removed the
the tire mounting face, till I had a nice round pivot to later weld to.
The axle shaft was then
welded to a mount that would later bolt to the frame. My desire with the
new mounting plate, is that it bolts to the frame, using the original holes,
that are there. The new mount
I made also, had to be strong, so I used 10mm (1 cm) plate. It had to be strong
enough to stop any flexing
in all directions. 2 50mm holes were drilled into the protruding plates,
then the axle shaft was placed in
holes and both sides of these plates were welded to the axle shaft. All of the
plates are welded on both
sides. This part alone is heavy, but it's strong!
All of the square piping
used in the carrier is 6 cm X 4 cm X 2.5 mm wall thickness. The bottom pipe
that I welded to the axle assembly, I deliberately cut it longer than the width
of the rear door, incase
the double pivot I was going to make later didn't work. ( I could still go the
first plan of locking the
carrier from the outside.)
The upright for the tire, is placed in the center of the
original door tire carrier.
The double pivot point for
the carrier to the door was interesting to build. I used blue gas line pipe,
which is strong and has a wall thickness of 3.5mm. A lot of measuring and
trial and error till I got this
right. For one, the two pivot points had to even from each other and two the
length of the of the center
connecting pipe gave me the spacing I needed for the carrier to the door.
The mount on the door, I placed
it so, it was bolted into an upright brace in the door frame. The aluminum of
the door is too flimsy for
any kind of strength for the carrier.
The mount for the tire on
the new carrier was next welded up to the carrier. I used M14 fine thread
blots, which have the same thread pattern as the original wheel nuts, therefore
allowing me to use them here.
The plate that rests against the inside of the reserve tire,
had to be rather large, so that it had full
contact with the inside of the rim. This then gave a better hold of the tire and
stopped it from jiggling on
the carrier. I also, made this mounting face a little longer out from the
carrier's frame, so that one day I
could mount a wider tire, other than the 235's I have today. 265's
are the next set of tires ;-)
In the next 3 picture's to
the right, here is a trial fit of everything. The carrier holds the tire firmly
in one place. There is no flexing in the mount to the frame. The double pivot
point between the door and
carrier works perfectly. BTW, I used M16 bolts in the pivots. They were a snug
fit. With the weight of
the tire on the carrier, there is no backlash in the pipes with the M16 bolts.
However, there is lots of
flexing with the carrier and the door when your closing the door. So, I had to
place some extra strengthening pipes into the carrier. Also, now it was OK for
me to remove the excess
pipe I had on the lower cross bar. A cross bar was then placed between the pivot
point and the upright.
Then another pipe was placed on the underside of the tire
mounting plate.
Once all the extra braces were welding into place, it gave me a nice compact package. Super strong!
Everything all painted up and fitted, the carrier works a treat.
The mount of the carrier to
the frame, is bolted to the frame using the original bolt holes for the
body and the rear grab handle. The 2 lower left bolts, are reinforced with a
plate on the inside of the
frame. I also had to use a 3mm shim on the outside, because of the gap that was
created there, because
of using the rear tub body mount for the 2 other securing bolts.
There was just now a little
flexing in the bottom of the carrier. Which was easy to solve. I placed
a piece of 5 bar aluminum plate between the 2 center upright braces in the door
frame and then bolted
a piece of round rubber there. When the door is closed, the rubber is in contact
with the carrier and
has stopped it from flexing when I close the door.
I've driven the Landy on
some very bumpy roads and the carrier sits firmly in place. The kids now
can easily open and close the rear door from either the inside or out. The read
door hasn't needed to be
adjusted since installing the rear tire carrier. Considerably cheaper than
buying a new carrier and it
was lots of fun building it. I'm very pleased, to say the least!
