2003 Wrangler Sport, 4.5" RE Lift, 33" BFG KM2's and a never ending wish list by jeepinjeffrey

3 minute(s) of a 77 minute read

Today I finished fabricating and welding up my new tire carrier idea. With my 33X12/50 matching spare tire on the stock carrier it came down to far to fit the bumper back on as well. I looked online and found lots of different bracket adapters to fit a larger spare but they all brought the tire out as well as up and with my stock hinges I didnt want to put any more pressure on them my moving the tire out, so I wanted to find a way to move it only up and not out at all. (yes I will get a tire carrier in the future but while im in school I dont have enough to afford one yet ) Here is what I came up with. I took a 10.5" X 16" 3/8" sheet of steel and drilled 4 holes for the stock tire carrier bolts to go threw and old it to the tail gate in the stock carrier holes. I mounted the plate flus to the button of the tailgate then took the original tire carrier and raised it to the top of the 16" plate and welded a bead at the top and at the button, all done! It looks great and fit perfectly!

The stock carrier before 

Here is the top bead weld with my CB antenna mount that still bolts threw the carrier.

You can see the flat steel sheet with the stock carrier against it. 

Here is the about 1/4"-1/2" space between the bottom of the tire and the bumper.

And now here it is all said and done! It looks great and I would highly recommend it to any one who needs to mount a larger spare with out putting any more pressure on the stock tailgate hinges.