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I know, normally anything lambo style is teh ghey, but a local guy built one of these for his 4Runner and it got me thinking. Basically instead of your standard swingout tire carrier, he rotated it 90* so that the tire swings UP instead of out. So where the hinge used to be vertical, it is now horizontal and tire lifts up and out of the way. One of my main reasons for wanting to do this is that when I am pulling the M416 a swingout tire carrier will not open all of the way because of the trailer, and that will limit my ability to get into the back.
With a 35 on the carrier, obviously it won't be the lightest thing in the world, but if I can keep the tire as close to the pivot point as possible, that should at least help. I've seen a couple where they used removeable gas springs to help with opening and closing, but that seems overly complicated.
There's some threads on PBB (can't get there from work so I can't provide a link) from the local guy I saw doing these, he runs Addicted Off Road and I think posts under that screen name there.
What do you guys think? The only downfall I see is having to lift the tire out of the way, but for me it's really not that heavy.
I have seen one of those before, dont recall where, Looked pretty cool, I dont have any negatives to suggest not doing it.
Honestly, I don't see it being much of a problem. I would make sure that your first aid kit, fire extinguisher, and any other "emergency" items (where seconds could count) aren't kept in your rear hatch. You may have no trouble opening it up quickly with your height/strength, but I'd be concerned with someone smaller not being able to open it quickly in an emergency if it was needed.
I would also be concerned with someone hurting their fingers/hands if they accidentally "drop it" when trying to close the carrier (which is probably most likely to happen just past vertical when you need to switch from pushing it up to gradually letting it down. I could envision some ways around that (like a fold out handle), but that may add more complexity than is perhaps needed.
In keeping the tire as close to the pivot as possible, it may not really be that heavy even for a shorter person, so my speculation could be moot.
Last edited by SirFuego; 03-13-2013 at 01:14 PM.
I would have said it will take a large person to lift if or some kind of door pneumatic will in your case I dont think the pneumatic will not be needed.
I see 2 easy ways around the getting the hand smashed part, but it's something that I would know going into it so I would be okay but I would want to take precautions in case someone else uses it. Grabbing hold of the tire itself would be pretty easy I think, and I could have the "arm" that it sits on extend past the actual latch to provide even more torque in lifting/lowering the tire and leave enough room so the hand doesn't get smashed.
First aid kit and fire extinguisher both are right behind the passenger compartment, so that part of it shouldn't be an issue.
The horizontal portion that the carrier mounts to will likely be deeper than a swingout would need to be, but I don't see it being so much so that it really starts to hurt departure angle. The latch itself would still need to be very strong so that if I catch the tire on a ledge it doesn't break and swing the tire up. But even if that did happen, I would securing this type of carrier with a broken latch would be safer than a similar situation in a swing out.
On the carriers that I've seen, the guy used some type of pad, maybe Delrin or the UHMW or whatever is used for boatsides as pads for both the down and up position. One thing to take into consideration too is that the "up" position could be impacted by an off-camber situation, so having a way to lock into the up position might be beneficial.
Why not make a traditional tire carrier with a quick-release hinge and just keep the spare on the tongue of the trailer when you're pulling it? You could even make duplicate mounts on the trailer and transfer the whole thing over if you're planning to drop the trailer at camp before wheeling and want to keep a spare. A pair of stiff poly/ plastic bushings in a piece of tube, a double shear mount, and a snug-fitting hitch pin would work for the hinge and keep rattles down.
The tongue of the trailer is very small, not enough room to really keep a 35 anywhere there. I have gas cans mounted to the front of the tub already, but even if I put the tire there it would interfere with a lot of other things like the RTT and leveling jacks.I may also make the tongue itself adjustable, in that I can pull a couple hitch pins and extend the tongue a foot or two which would help with a traditional tire carrier, but that involves basically rebuilding the whole front end of the trailer when I think I can accomplish the lambo carrier easier.
It's hard to come up with a clean, relatively safe way to do the rotating Lambo-style hinge. I like the idea, but don't like the execution of the Addicted Offroad setup with the disconnecting strut and nothing holding it in place while up - looks like a concussion/ smashed hand waiting to happen, especially when off camber.
One easy way to lock it in place would be to use a D44 spindle, hub, bearings, and stub as the hinge and a locking hub to lock it in position up and down - get the whole assembly from a TTB Ford for next to nothing. I'd still put some kind of latch on the other side to account for any play when down. Only problem is the assembly would be fairly long, but could be accounted for in the bumper design if you sneak the hinge under the tail light.
I'm not a small guy, but I wouldn't want to have to manhandle a mounted 35" tire at that height every time I wanted to open the hatch. Maybe a strut could be placed far enough away from the hatch to allow it to sneak by? Another option would be to copy an old spring-loaded hood hinge and figure out how to get it to open to 90+ degrees and make it handle the load. Shit, maybe I should figure it out and market it
Why can't you just newb it up and throw the damn thing on the roof in a basket?
Doesn't sound like a bad idea, sounds like you have most of it covered.
If you've even picked up a hatch off of the vehicle, they're not exactly light, and the mechanics and struts on them you can open them with two fingers, so I'm sure you can work your way around this. Eager to see what you come up with
Chop off the back of your ZJ and make it into a truck bed
I was wheeling with a guy in a bronco who was using a locking hub on his swing out carrier. Worked well parked on an incline.
Dave, did you ever make any headway on this way back when? If you're still contemplating it, check out this one that one of the local Scout guys here in NC whipped up. It's pretty beefy, and I think it's what you're going for to some degree. You may have to scroll through the pictures, but the thread itself is worth looking at.
http://www.binderplanet.com/forums/s...=121232&page=3
Holy crap! I've been keeping that idea in the back burner for when I cage my zj. Thank you for posting that! I've been looking for a long time for someone doing that. Looks like he's using some narrow garage springs, I hope he posts what rate he used and maybe the geometry to calculate the leverage.
Imaging how awesome it'd be to lift up your tire with your hatch like how the wrangler guys have the tire carriers that attach to the tailgate. Just have to be damn sure it's secure cause that'd be a ton of weight coming down if it's not
If you want to speak to him directly, I can get you his contact information. Randy is his name, and he's a great guy and an excellent fabricator.
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