So I haven't posted because when I finished the carrier I mounted it up and it flexed. A lot. Not my carrier but the bumper as a whole. The rear bumper from MOVE wasn't designed as a winch bumper. My front bumper is 1/4" except for the wings so it's quite a bit stronger. The rear is 3/16" and not as boxed or braced.
I drove around for an afternoon and watched it. The flex was for and aft of the whole spare - maybe 1.5 - 2.5" at the top of the tire.
The cause is partly the bumper and partly the result of me building the carrier so tall to get the spare over the taillight. Flex is good if it's controlled - think of a planes wings or a bridge - because it's a way of distributing stress. It can also lead to failure.
I took the van to out pistol practice on Monday night and Scott and Ben looked at it and both were like, "Whoa. That's a lot of flex." Ben thought that if I just put foam behind it I'd be able to stop the bounce but I also heard through a few people on IG that they'd had carriers fail once they took the rig on trails and we're certainly not going to shy away from off road use.
I tried the foam and it worked but not well enough. I was pretty devastated that after all this work I'd basically failed.
Ben, always the sage of wisdom, said, "There's two ways to avoid failing; one is to not be ambitious and the other is to have a lot of experience." That encouraged me. Mostly because not being ambitious isn't possible for me and that this is just another experience I'd learn from. So I started doing a lot more research and thinking about what I could do turn this project around.
Since I didn't have as much experience I figured I'd look at who did or as Pablo Picasso famously said, "Good artists copy, great artists steal."
When I tried Ben's idea of putting foam behind the carrier it worked until the door skin flexed enough and the foam came out. I considered bracing the back of the door and piercing the skin but it would have been tricky and complicated. When I looked for places to tie off the door hinges struck me as the logical place as they used pretty hefty hardware and the door frame was braced. It was also where Aluminess tied off their spare carrier so I knew it was going to be strong enough. I'd steal that idea thank you.
With a pretty detailed drawing of the hinge I decided to build another plate that went on top and hugged the original.
I could have built this bracket out and over the original pivot so that they were in line but I didn't feel like there was any point in doing that. If I'm changing a spare or opening the carrier the van is stopped - there's no dynamic forces to withstand. Better to keep the brace close when closed.
Perhaps the hardest thing I've done was to weld this bracket on. The alignment is really close because the whole point is to brace the top weight of the carrier and tire - I don't want it to rattle. The weight is carried by the two points at the bottom but the flex is controlled by the bracket. Every weld pushed and pulled the alignment. The pin would slide through nicely, I'd weld and it would bind. I'd weld more in the opposite location and it would slide again - over and over, back and forth until it was done.
So when the carrier is stowed the 1/2" pin drops through the two parts and locks the carrier in place. Another friend told me he'd had those latches (the one I used on the bottom) open on the trail so I wanted a secondary method of securing the spare. This also meant I could relieve the lip I'd put on the bottom catch plate since it was no longer the main anchor point. That lets the carrier close easier - perhaps enough that the gas strut will do its job.
The pin I made from a scrap of 1/2" stainless and I welded a small cap on. I will probably put a small clip in the bottom to prevent the pin from bouncing out although I don't see that being possible.
In what is probably a foreboding move I decided to paint the thing without testing fitting the tire...
And to make it all seem of a piece I covered it in the bedliner again.
I cleaned up the bearings, greased them and installed them for what I was hoping was the last time.
There was a price for not test fitting the new setup. My brace just touches the tire when the tire is cinched down all the way. I suppose I could cut it back and plate it but given that I rotate the tires, including the spare, every 5,000 miles I don't think I'll be doing any damage to the tire.
I got up on top of the tire to test for any flex or movement and it's incredibly strong. You can bounce all your weight on top of it and there's no flex. It is officially strong enough for any use including severe off road.
And it doubles as Lucas' new favorite place to sit while I work in the garage.
I went from so low to so high with this one. Failing and then fixing the fail brings a great sense of accomplishment and restores my faith in myself. Something that everyone but me has lots of.
Next up I'll install the CB radio so Ben and I can keep in touch...
and I can have another reason to rewatch Smokey and the Bandit.
Gregor
