After mounting the hi-lift jack and adding the slide out storage, I felt like I still hadn't added enough weight over/behind the rear axle to completely ruin the handling and off-road performance of this truck. So, I decided to make a swing-out tire carrier. Nothing like hanging 140+ lbs off the back of a longbed
I started with an AtoZ Fabrication spindle kit and an axle cutoff from my yard. Mocked up the tire position, measured the sag both vertically and how much the tire rotated the hub downwards.
Next was turning some delrin on my lathe to make some bushings. Adapt these 5/8" heims down to take 1/2" bolts, and make a tapered bushing that will locate the carrier when closed. You can machine delrin with just about anything, as I show here with a broken drill bit ground to bore a taper into the bushing pressed into this steel sleeve.
Here this tapered steel proboscis slides smoothly into the tapered delrin bushing (how naughty), locating the carrier and preventing it from bouncing upwards and popping out of the pin that locks it closed.
The rest of the owl, now primed with a "cold galvanizing" high zinc primer. Never tried it before, will see how it holds up.
The secret sauce of the design is this turnbuckle that can counteract the sag of the carrier with the 120lb wheel and tire mounted. I preset the horizontal bar to be about an inch above the bumper unloaded, this turned out to be a bit much so the turnbuckle is actually in compression pushing it down roughly 1/8". Two spring loaded pull pins are located on the horizontal bar, one to lock the carrier closed and the other to lock it open at 90 degrees. I ground smooth ramps into the bumper so they engage seamlessly just like closing a door. I also set back the hub face about 4 degrees, the tire pulls it down to a final angle of about 2 degrees.
Rear visibility... isn't fantastic. I have a backup camera that I just need to install and wire up to complete this project. Oh, and move the license plate. This truck is already such that I use air quotes when I say it's "street legal", don't need to give probable cause.
