DEVILSTOY

im building a roof basket and also fabing up a rear bumper , whats the preferred area of interest to mount a spare , im up in the air now , i kinda like the roof but we got tight trails and i feel it may be to high and was wondering if the roof mounted spare throws the vehicle off balance ? the thing with the rear is it blocks vision and you would have to swing it open everytime you wanna open the rear hatch , whats everyone opinion ?

4.3L XJ

Some of this depends on how big your spare is. A 31" tire wouldn't be too bad to get on the roof, but a 38" tire would be near impossible. Personally, I prefer the rear swing away approach. I have had two of them and it really isn't much trouble.

DEVILSTOY

i run 33's but possably soon 35's not sure

itsanxjthing

I would go up on the roof, but im never going bigger than 31. My only reason for this is my bros blazer has the rear tire carrier and i was in front of him crawling a really steep incline, no troubles, he hops into it but with his a/ts has less traction then me and s,lides back and his spare tire pushed his back window right out. Not sure if a homebrew tire carrier would flex like that though

4.3L XJ

That is a lot of tire to hoist up there. I realize it is out of the way there, but when you need it then that is another story.

DEVILSTOY

yea but geting it up and down once and a while i wouldnt mind , i think it would be easier then it being in the way every time i go in my tail gate

ahenderl

Do both...and mount one on your hood while you're at it. I dig the old Rovers with the spare on the hood.

MOSendero

I'm running a swing away rear mount for my spare, 31", really isn't much problem to get in the back hatch. Granted the roof mount is "outta sight, outta mind", but I don't really like the looks of the spare on the roof rack.

YMMV,
MO

DEVILSTOY

haha a 33" tire on the hood would be gangster

BlueXJ

Another consideration would be the type of trails you run. Some the roof mounted spare would get hung up on every low tree branch while in some situations the extra 10-15' hanging off the back would make tight turns on some trails more difficult. Just my thoughts.

DEVILSTOY

thats one of my biggest conerns , alot of trails we hit around are super tight , i already backed into a few trees trying to make a u turn lol

JakeWI

i wouldnt do a 33" or larger on the roof. thats a lot of extra weight up there. i would do a swing out for that unless you dont use the inside back area. i have my 31" spare in the stock location but thats the largest that will go there.

bryanboonern

Is there any modding needed to put this large of a spare in the stock location?

whowey

Having had both....Rear end for the win...

My wheel and tire combo is right at 80 lbs. Hoisting that onto the roof basket above my head happened once. That was enough for me to know it was time to make a spare tire carrier for the bumper.

But most of the trails around here have alot of tree branches and other overhead stuff that like to grab onto stuff on the roof. If you had alot of tight trenches or turns, the rear end carrier might be a problem for you.

gpXJ

How big of a difference do you see with gas mileage on the road, with a 31"+ tire mounted on the roof? Anyone done this on a more DD type of rig? I'm tossing this back and forth now. I want it out of the back end, but I don't want to kill my gas mileage driving it to work every day.