Today we took off the Old Teraflex bumper/tire carrier and added the cool new Teraflex hinge mount tire carrier and beefy hinges. Fairly easy install. Had to unbolt the stock hinges (I did that with the door closed) and put on the Teraflex hinge setup that is at LEAST 4 times stronger than stock (that number was not tested in a lab is not an actual tested number but similar to most quoted stats, just pulled out of thin air). I love Makita tools for assembly.
Here's the older Teraflex bumper/tire carrier combo. Good unit but the new one with the stronger hinges opens with the latch from the factory making a two step process into a simple one step unit. Nice upgrade!
So here's two nice white boxes from our good friends at Teraflex. (my "helper" needs a shave or something)
Stock hinges removed
New BEEFY Tera hinges installed. I had to get a helper to hold the hinge up while I put the bolts in the body. (pulled him off a CPS install on a '97 XJ for a minute) Didn't want to scratch my tub.
Here's where things got a little interesting for me. I took my stock tire carrier off a couple years ago and the bolts would have been really handy for me. Tera supplies bolts for the hinge side of the proper depth for the aluminum bracket (did I mention this thing was beefy?). They assume that you'll be taking off your stock carrier and reuse some bolts from that. Can't find any fault in their logic but I don't have my bolts from when I removed the carrier (I bet I do but they are in the "magic bolt bucket" and I didn't want to dig through there). I took a quick run up to the local hardware store (while doing a honey-do) and they had EXACTLY the right metric bolt for the tire carrier side.
Once the bracket is installed, you assemble and install the actual tire carrier piece. I'm running 35" tires and Tera's instructions say to use the middle bolt settings (this will work for 33", 35" or 37" tires according to their instructions). I went with the 35" and sent the wheel studs home with a brass drift. Turned out to be the right setup. Then you need to set depth for the tire so it will rest against the sturdy aluminum bracket. The instructions recommend installing the tire to the carrier, then putting it in place on the tire carrier. Mark where the depth hits the hinge bracket then remove the tire from the bracket and reinstall and secure the bracket about 3-4 mm deeper than your mark. This sets the tire firmly against the bracket and likely reduces rattles and keeps everything secure. The last thing you want to do is lose your spare tire while rolling down the highway and have it hit anyone around you. That would suck.
Test fitting the tire on the carrier
If you're a "normal" setup, you move on to cutting your stock 3rd brake light out of the stock tire carrier. Again, mine were long gone. I had installed a basic marker light in place of the stock brake light. It's worked great and shows through the topmost hole in my spare tire. I had to pull the stock hacked wiring harness back apart (I'd paired that with my CB coax cable and ran it outside the tailgate in my previous install) and reinstall my CB cable (which I broke
) and the light. I drilled some holes in the bracket I had made for the other carrier and drilled some corresponding holes through the 1/4"+ thick plate of the tire carrier and secured the light with a couple of sheet metal screws. The wiring took a few minutes and a parts store run to make "right".
...and we're done with the tire carrier
