Removable Xj swing away tyre carrier
 

Last week I started fabbing up a swing away tyre carrier that is removable, why? Because my wife hates rear tyre carriers so it needs to be removable for normal day to day use and can be easily fitted when required.
Eventually I will build a replacement bar but for the time being I will be using a factory bar.

Basic design consists of a modified and reinforced mounting system behind the bar with the bar being bolted to it, the tyre carrier will utilise most of these mounting points effectivel sandwiching the bumper between the carrier and the mountings behind it.
My Xj has a genuine towbar instead of the usual Hayman Reese towbar which for me is a really good thing, the OEM towbar uses 2 mounting points per side and a central mounting point in the middle behind the bumper bar, this is good for me for two reasons, firstly my long range tank uses the front mounting point on each side allowing the tow bar to still bolt up against the chassis (unlike a Hayman Reese which uses all 3) and because it has the central mount it gives me another solid mounting for this project.....

The original sandwich plate for the towbar was removed and I welded some nuts to it allowing it to be utilised behind the body panel above the towbar for a little extra support, these two holes will hopefully be the only holes that I need to drill into the car its self, I am aiming to use all original mounting holes.
I used a peice of scrap 100x100x5mm angle which is bolted to the towbar tag and the auxilliary plate above it.

The next step is the main mounts, I am going to be using the original mounts for the bumper bar with a 100x5mm plate sandwiched between the mounts and the body, this plate is welded to the mounts which have also had a hole cut into them allowing some 40x3mm SHS to slide through them, this is welded to the plates and also to the original mounting brackets.
I then welded some more 40x3 SHS between the modified mounts to create a frame, then I used some 100x5 plate which I bent to match the profile of the bumper bar which was welded to the frame, it the centre of the frame I welded on a piece of 75x5mm plate which will mate up with the centre of the bumper bar.

looking forward to this thread

On the drivers side there a two holes in the body so I planned to pick up these mounts but they are recessed by about 5mm so I just welded a piece of 5mm plate behind the end of the mounting plate, this allowed the use of a couple of 10mm bolts to pass through to the sandwich plate behind the body work to try and help distribute the load some.
Once all this was bolted up it was easy to add some 5mm angle to the centre to pick up the bracket attached to the middle of the towbar which really makes the whole thing nice and solid.
I plan to add a brace on the drivers side to pick up the end of the towbar nice and low to provide some good support for the mount that holds all the weight when the swing arm is open, I have some scrap 5mm flat bar in various widths so that should be pretty straight forward.....

So test fit time..... oops... the tailgate hits the tyre if it is back against the frame which means the tyre needs to sit out and even then it needs to be swung out almost to the mechanical limit which puts it out past the mirror which is not really what I was wanting but I will have to cope with that....

There is some flex in the whole assembly but I feel that is from the fact the bumper bar isn't flat and I don't have any packers behind the raised sections which leaves a gap between the backing plates and the upper and lower section of the bumper, only the middle strip is in contact with the backing plates but that is an easy fix....

Oh well lunch is over time to get back to it.....

Me likey! :)

Well I have fitted the packers to each backing plate which makes a difference, it also means that the bolts that pass through the bumper aren't distorting the face of the bumper anymore which is good, the flex has also reduced to a point where I am happy, enough to mean that I am not going to bother with the brace to the towbar.
I am still not happy with how far the swing away needs to open to clear the tailgate so much so that I fitted a bare rim to the mount and took some measurements....

Tomorrow I will cut up the swing away and lower the "A" towards the main arm which will mean that I can clamp the tyre up against the frame and it will only need to open to a right angle square with the car so it will be barely past the mirror which I think will be safer.
I then need to sort out a strut so it is self opening and then the latching mechanism once the latch arrives....
Tomorrow should see all the under bar frame work all painted as well as the bar as at the moment it is dark metallic blue which doesn't go so well with the red so it will become satin black.....

Cheers, JJ