RockSolidOff-Road

OK so the bumper and tire carrier are pretty much done. I'm about to get started on some skids, sliders and a front bumper so I figured I'd better get a thread going on the rear or else I never will.

I built the entire thing from left over pieces I had in the shop and a set of skid plates I built for an Xterra that I sold and stripped my parts back off of so some of the design was based on what I had and not really what I wanted to do. As long as it didn't cause any functional issues I went with it. I have about $30 in it on top of that stuff so...

Picture heavy time.

So I started with the intent that I had to have a hitch to tow my camp trailer before our winter camping trip so that was the base point of the build then I had the time so I just kept going.

First part of the mounts for the hitch.


Trying to keep everything straight while I notched and welded the receiver in.


I didn't like only having two bolts in a horizontal line so I added the upper parts on the right to get some vertical strength. If I weren't using scrap I'd start with some 2x3 instead of 2x2 for these.



Now you can see the extra bolts in place to keep it from twisting and the recovery points. Those are two pieces of 3/8" v'd out and welded together. The inside stops at the front of the 2x2 and the outer half goes all the way back into the mounts so it's all intertwined and welded together on several planes.











Starting to piece in the body now. If I were to go to production on these I'd have to design it so the bulk of it was bent out of a single piece of steel. I had miles of welds in this thing.








Here I had to do a little origami in steel to get the angles of the body lines to match up with the bumper angles. I'd cut out the shapes then slice almost all the way through with the plasma cutter and bend it to fit. I really need a press brake.


Ready for the grinding.





Coat of primer and 5-6 coats of Dupli-Color bedliner and it's ready to go back on.








I had intended to bring it all the way up along the body to the flares but I decided I'll make those separate pieces. I thought it was getting to cumbersome for me to try and slide it on and off and have it wrap around. Once I pulled it off it wasn't as heavy as I thought so maybe I should have just done it after all.

Tire carrier to come. I'm going to the shop.

unidentifiedbomb

RockSolidOff-Road

Thanks.

thewhiteknight02

Dope. Where's the carrier?

RockSolidOff-Road

Sorry, I had to make it a two part post. So here's the carrier.

I started off with some 3/4" wheel bearings so I made a housing out of 1-1/4" pipe that I had to weld a ring around the inside of then ream it back out to the right size. A mill would be so nice.





Mocking up the tire height. I wanted it high enough to use the hitch and not hit coming off of every rock but I also wanted to keep the torque on the swing arm down so I looked for the happy medium.


I stopped the main upright short of the light cover for the license plate. I figured if it had some serious bounce dropping off a ledge or something it would have a couple inches to move without hitting the body. Tucking it into the bumper really kept it in tight.
And again I'm working with scrap so the random holes in the 2x4 tube were from a little shop press I had built years ago for doing u-joints. They get filled in later.


The wheel bearings weren't a tapered bearing and as soon as I swung it out and put some weight on it they failed miserably. I should of known but I was committed to it and sometimes I waste a lot of time trying to make something work that I shouldn't.

On to bearing number two. On my TJ I had made plastic bushing from some round stock my Dad had. We turned it on his lathe. I don't live near him anymore and don't have a lathe so turned my drill press into one and made a parting tool from some flat bar. Cut some pucks out of some 1" thick plastic and turned them down to fit. Unfortunately it appears that the original one I built was UHMWP and this stuff must be PTFE. It's super soft and flexed more than the broken wheel bearing did. More time wasted.

Finally gave up and sleeved the inside of the 1-1/4" with some 1" pipe and used bronze bushings. More welding and machining with the die grinder to get them to fit. Now it's pretty tight and only sags less than an 1/8" at the very end when it swings out.

Hindsight I should have gone with a regular tapered wheel bearing and started with a bigger tube to hold it. If it doesn't hold up well I'll cut the end off and start over.



Well from here I got a little lazy on taking pictures so here we are in the paint booth. I made the actual tire mount a bolt on setup so it would be easier to change if I ever need to. It also adds another layer of 3/16" to the front edge where all the weight will be.





I bought a license plate mount for a trailer and ran piece of aluminum out to hold the plate. Ran the wires back into the stock bulb location so the light works. Gotta be legal.








The little block acts as a ramp to make up for any sag and line the pin up. Also lets the weight rest on it instead of hanging on the hinge and the pin all the time.
Inside the keyhole is another block of PTFE that I machined to pull the pin in tight and when it's turned. At the end of it's rotation it drops into a slot to lock it.


The rubber grommet lets the pin drop into it's lock and keeps tension on it. So far it works great. I really wanted the latch on this to be as simple to use as possible and with the stop blocks I welded on it stays in right position to slide in when you close it the stops in the down position so it can't slide past it's lock point.

On my TJ I had a nut welded on top of the bumper and a bolt with some key stock welded across the top that I had to screw in and out every time I opened it. It would get rusty and really hard to open. My wife never could open it. She should be fine with this.


Overall I'm happy but I may have to make at least one change. I had originally intended to angle the recess in the bumper next to the hinge point so that it could open further. Somewhere along the line it got built square instead and now it just barely opens far enough. The tail light cutout on the hatch actually wraps around the tire with about a 1/2" to spare. There's no way I can add a Hi-Lift mount or any kind of rack except on the driver side because of that. I'll probably end up cutting the corner off and boxing it back in so it swings out further.
I would also like some kind of locking pin to hold it open so that will probably get incorporated into the change. It's pretty tight now but I'm not sitting off camber on a trail trying to use it. That changes everything.

XJPat

Looks great. Love that I am not the only idiot to tape an air filter to the back of a box fan to make "adequate ventilation". Haha

RockSolidOff-Road

And recirculate it right back into the garage outside the plastic.

I usually do at least put the fan in the window but it was too stinking cold to keep the garage at painting temps if I blew the heat outside.

I do use a canister respirator so I'm not completely exposed.

sunshine81

Looks very nice, what would you charge to fab one up for me?

BrawnyDog

Mirin

JeepinMT

nice work

RockSolidOff-Road

Not ready to go into production yet. I need to work out some kinks and get some trail time on it to be sure its worthy of selling. I'll check in with you when I get it worked out.

Thanks all for the good comments.

unidentifiedbomb

Respect, it's great when a company actually test out their products before selling.

RockSolidOff-Road

Thanks man. The fab side is more of a future plan for us once the website is on good solid ground I'd like to get our own line going. For now I'm just going to build, tweak and beat on them myself and make sure its a good product. Hopefully soon though.

DanB98TJ

Very nice work!

Wheeler0801

This is awesome, wish I had the talent to make something like this. If this goes into production I'd most definitely be interested.