kennethboyd

Hello, I'm in my senior year studying Mechanical Engineering and for my capstone project me and a couple of others are designing a new way to carry spare tires. We are designing a way to carry a tire in the rear that doesn't block access to the hatch and can carry some gear.

What I need help with is some "market research."

Organize the following categories in order of importance to you if you were in the market for a spare tire carrier:

Strength
Cost
Reliability/longevity
Difficulty of storing/removing the spare
Weight of system
Tire size/weight capacity
Extra gear capacity
Ease of installation

Thanks for the help, if I've left anything out or you have an idea feel free to add/say whatever you want. I'll throw some drawings up later and hopefully actually be building this for myself over the summer.

dmill89

Here's how I'd rank them:


1. Reliability/longevity
2. Strength
3. Cost
4. Extra gear capacity
5. Tire size/weight capacity
6. Weight of system
7. Ease of installation
8. Difficulty of storing/removing the spare, Some might find it surprising that I ranked this last, but I've only ever needed to use the spare on my Jeep once since I have owned it, though the spare does need to be able to removed with no/minimal tools (beyond something like a lug wrench) or it may be useless when needed.

jswift716

Im gonna have to go with dmill, thats how id rate it.

BrawnyDog

kennethboyd

Thanks for the input guys.

lol and hello guy from Metairie @ brawnydog

Wheeler0801

Really curious to see how it comes out, keep us updated! As for the ranking, mine is below, but I don't have your typical offroading or daily driven jeep, mine is going to be more expo oriented.

1. Extra gear capacity
2. Strength
3. Cost
4. Reliability/longevity
5. Difficulty of storing/removing the spare
6. Weight of system
7. Tire size/weight capacity
8. Ease of installation

BrawnyDog

Wassup brah!

oldguy52

Same but I would put 5 before 4. 4 is what the roof rack is for.

kennethboyd

Right now we are designing around a 35x12.5" tire. What do you guys think? Bigger?

Ianf406

1. Strength/Function (angles/doesn't hang to low/ tow capacity etc)
2. Tire size/weight capacity
3. Reliability/longevity
4. Extra gear
5. Cost
6. weight of system
7. Difficulty of storing/removing the spare
8. Ease of installation (only do it once!)

jswift716

Im doing the same for my personal build. At max even if I ever get lucky enough to go expo 35s would deffinitly do the job. I personally dont see the need for bigger.

Ianf406

35 is more than what most will run/the largest most will run. Doesn't hurt to make it strong enough for something else though. Cant cost all that much more. I want to get up to 37s someday but that involves even more axle work.