After checking out some roof baskets at a local auto parts store, I decided that I didn't want to pay hundreds of dollars for something that I could attempt to make myself. Now the problem with this theory is that I have pretty much no experience fabricating anything out of metal (although I am an accomplished woodworker).

I have an old roof mount tire carrier that is in rough shape but I thought it might make a good base since I plan on keeping my spare up there anyways.


I wanted to keep it as light as possible so I decided to use 3/4 electrical conduit. Its cheap and easy to work with. My plan was to make 2 identical squares (with rounded corners) and weld a bunch of uprights between them to form the basket, then weld it to the tire carrier and fill in the floor with some expanded steel mesh. So... 50 feet of 3/4 conduit and a manual bender set me back about $75 and I already have a cheapo flux core welder that I bought to patch the floors in my 93. First step, make some bends and attempt butt welding for the first time!


Didn't turn out too bad for a first attempt, I thought I would have to try a few times before I got it right. Not the prettiest welds ever but good grinding can make up for a lot of bad welding! Skip ahead a bunch more bending and welding and we get this:

I am pretty impressed that I got 2 of these to come out the same on my first attempt. The uprights were easy enough to cut, but notching out the ends with just an angle grinder was a pain in the ****. I only had a total of about 2 hours to work on this today but this is how far I got in that time. here's the basket mockup resting on the tire carrier. I think its going to turn out ok.



More updates to come, as I get a chance to work on it... comments welcome!

-John

 

looks good, try to do something to the conduit before you paint it, i had trouble with the paint flaking off in the wind