Question about rear door spare carrier

[artpeck]

I have a 73 S III with the mount for a spare on the rear door (plus mount on the bonnet and behind the front seats). My question is about how robust the rear door is for placing the tire weight there. I also have a defender with the swing away carrier that keeps the weight off the door. The series door seems pretty light weight for the mass of the tire but maybe I am under estimating the engineering. If anyone has experience and a pov I would appreciate it. Thanks!

[singingcamel]

You could add a third hinge between the upper and lower hinge. mount near the middle on the galvinized trim piece . I think the defenders have 3 hinges..

[busboy]

For 2 to 3 years I carried my spare on the rear door but the rest of the time it was on the hood. I am currently using a larger tire and find that it restricts the vision out the front a little. I only have 2 hinges on the rear door and it was never a problem. On the hood the spare must be bolted down, for a couple of years I just had it on the lock pin until one day in a quick stop the spare rotated forward on the pin and gave me a scare. To bolt down a larger tire it is necessary to use a spacer under the one end of the clamps, I used a 2 inch long piece of 2 inch X .125 wall square tubing for a 30"x9.5" tire.

[SafeAirOne]

...for a couple of years I just had it on the lock pin until one day in a quick stop the spare rotated forward on the pin and gave me a scare.

You must have some smooth roads up there!

I had driven around with my factory 16" wheel with a 750 x 16 tire and didn't have any problems, though I'd probably add a 3rd hinge if I was going to put a 235-85-16 mounted on a wolf wheel back there (if it'll even fit the factory door mount).

[I Leak Oil]

My original rear door had the tire mount and the steel inner frame was definitely stressed and in a couple areas, cracked. I moved the mount up a little and reinforced the frame work. I never got around to adding the third hinge but had no issues. I'm not a fan of it on the rear door or behind the seat. On the bonnet as the Rover Gods intended is my first choice.

[busboy]

[QUOTE=SafeAirOne;91922]You must have some smooth roads up there!/QUOTE]

I did have a padlock on the lock pin but it just used to rattle around and couldn't really go anywhere but it's much safer bolted down.

[Wolf323i]

My door is shredded from the weight and bouncing of the tire over bumps.

[I Leak Oil]

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My door is shredded from the weight and bouncing of the tire over bumps.

That's exactly why the inner frame needs to be reinforced and the tire carrier needs to be mounted to that in a manner that spreads the load out. You can see that someone moved the mount from the original lower location. They probably did nothing other than move it up and that's exactly what will happen.

[artpeck]

Thanks much. Exactly what I needed. I was worried about metal fatigue on the door and the picture clears shows it. Wow. I have bigger bfg tires and one on the bonnet. I think I will keep it there. Anyone done anything creative with the rear mount without a tire?

[stomper]

I'm hoping to use the holes and parts of the bracket to make a Jerry can mount for mine this summer.

[Boston]

In my rebuild that's currently underway I removed the existing rear door carrier in favor of a Mantec unit.

[Revtor]

My thought is that if you want a rear mounted spare, you should fab/buy a swing away spare mount. Tie it in to the rear crossmember That would be the best way. One big trailer axle as the hinge welded to a mount on the rear crossmember. Something like this, but put it on a rover crossmember instead of the bumper pictured.

http://www.central4wd.com/_files/_images/65563_XJSWING1.jpg

Or take your rear door apart and add some bracing to the frame. At least you could make a bigger mounting plate to spread the load around a bit. Alternately, if you had some rubber bumpers mounted to the door so when you put the spare on the mount, it tightened against the rubbers a bit, it would eliminate alot of bouncing and shaking, limiting the fatigue of the alum. . ?

All options are a PITA, but we should learn from the pic above so we don't end up with a door like wolf323's.!

~Steve

[tmckeon88]

I have mine mounted inside the truck behind the front seats, where that bracket is. It reduces the inside space a little bit, but I rarely ever have to totally fill up the inside of the truck. This way it's out of the sun and weather and won't be a dirty, corroded mess if I ever have to use it. Knock on wood, the BFGs I've been running have never gone flat, although I don't do much off roading.

I agree the rear door is flimsy for a good size spare wheel, even with the 3rd hinge, which I have. The bonnet mount restricts vision and means you have a 90-lb overhead press to do every time you want to raise the hood to check the oil or whatever. You might be able to rig up an inside mount on top of one of the wheel wells on the side, just sacrifice visibility out the right hand rear windows, which isn't too much. I have a plain old Series IIA 88".

Tom

[busboy]

I have mine mounted inside the truck behind the front seats, where that bracket is. It reduces the inside space a little bit, Tom

I have tried mine there but there isn't room to fold down the rear seats.

[mearstrae]

Other uses for the rear mounts? There used to be tool mounts available for the rear door, these mounted a pick and shovel and I've also seen ones that included an axe. I have the "Official" Land Rover pick, shovel and axe, but I haven't located the tool bracketing to put them on my SIII. Also my rear door has been reenforced with an overlay of aluminum checker plate, so no worries there.

'95 RRC Lwb
'76 Series III Hybrid
'70 Rover 3500S