Well I went ahead and ordered the tire carrier from Tomken. Install was pretty straight forward. It includes a bracket to relocate the license plate since the tire would cover it. Carrier is heavily built just as the bumper is, and after driving around today I can say there are NO rattles.
Looks good Kim! That license plate relocation bracket it kinda interesting....
Question though, is the upright of the tire carrier (the part vertical) bolted onto the swing or welded?
Now you just need to come up with a mount for it for your new hi-lift!
The upright is bolted on the swing arm with 2-3/8-16 bolts.
I agree the relocation brkt. is different shall we say. But really other than drilling the tailgate, and maybe using nutserts, I can't say I would come up with anything different. It works, and there is a rubber pad on the back side that keeps it from banging against the tailgate. I'm going to hide the wire on the backside.
And yes, my Jeep IS dirty. I went down to Morgan Monroe State Forest on New Years Eve and drove around some. That deer thing. VERY muddy, had to cross 2 creeks on this road. One was deep enough to flow over my rock rails.
A Hi Lift mount is in the "idea" stage right now. Tomken makes on, but it requires the tire to stick out farther from the rear. Not something I want, so I'll make my own.
Looks good kim, can you get more pics of where it attaches
The two brackets, the latch, and the hinge both bolt through both sides of the bumper which is made from 2X6 rectangular steel. There are reinforcement plates on the back side of the bumper for both brackets. The latch bkt. uses 2 3/8-16 bolts, and the hinge bkt. uses 2 1/2-13 bolts, and a third 7/16" bolt to mount it.