Neilage Inc. Tire Carrier

[janesy86]

Well its in!! Neil made me a folding spare tire carrier that mounts to the reciever. Very nice workmanship like his other pieces he's done.

No pics of it on yet... those will follow soon tho.

And as a few of you may remember, it was a little different in pics I showed before, but Neil made it more how I pictured it once I figure out exactly how to tell him what I wanted.

Thanks again Neil!






The shackle mount in welded on and part of the carrier which is built on top...

[Trail X]

Cool, but pardon my ignorance... what is the jog for?

[Saxis]

of the spare and carrier on the TB!

[janesy86]

Cool, but pardon my ignorance... what is the jog for?

I have no idea... Thats just how he made it.

And I just mounted it, but took it off because it wobbled way too much. Got to figure something out before I put it back on for good.

The tire also stick out too much for my liking, makes the length of my TB too long, so I need to drill a hole so I can slide it in further, and possibly have my friend cut down the upper most tube (that the lug plate that the tire bolts to) a bit and maybe angle it slightly so the tire isn't straight up and down.

Right now the glass opens with a lot of space in between the tire, so I have a lot of room to work with.

So I will get some pics later of how it is now but then take it back off and try to figure something out. Just sucks I don't have the means to weld or do any serious work to this myself...

[Gordinho80]

Kind of defeats the purpose of having it custom made, no?

As far as keeping it from wobbling... do something like AlekG did with a hitch-coupling tightener...

[janesy86]

Yep. Good thing he made it at a good price since it took a lil while for him to make it...

Nice starting point tho as I can't do this fab on my own and my friend isn't readily available.

[fishsticks]

Sorry to hear it wasn't what you hoped for. I don't get the jog either...

Grab a couple 1/2" x 1.5" Grade 8 bolts and corresponding nuts. Use them in place of a hitch pin, with the nuts on the inside of the tube. Works great for mine. My pin hole is drilled 1/2" though, not 5/8". Washers maybe?

[janesy86]

As far as keeping it from wobbling... do something like AlekG did with a hitch-coupling tightener...

Thanks, good idea on that, so it should be a quick fix then. And I'll just have my friend cut off the lug plate, then cut down the upper tube a little closer and at an angle and I should be good to go.


And thanks fish. I'll be drilling another hole so I can slide it closer so I'll make it 1/2" and use the bolts.

[janesy86]

Sorry to hear it wasn't what you hoped for. I don't get the jog either...

Grab a couple 1/2" x 1.5" Grade 8 bolts and corresponding nuts. Use them in place of a hitch pin, with the nuts on the inside of the tube. Works great for mine. My pin hole is drilled 1/2" though, not 5/8". Washers maybe?

Fish, what you mean by 'on the inside of the tube'? How you get them in there?

[fishsticks]

Put your tire carrier into the receiver.

Put some electrical tape around the outside of each nut.

Put nut into the open end of 3/4" wrench (nice tight fit with a little electrical tape).

Insert wrench into back of receiver. Line up nut with your pinhole.

Thread bolt through pinhole and into nut.

Leave wrench inside receiver tube while you tighten the bolt from the outside. An impact gun works good, but you don't need one.

Pop wrench off the nut and repeat for the other side.

The tension created holds the carrier firmly on the horizontal plane. The weight of the tire holds it down on the vertical plane.

A friend of mine cracked the radiator in her Subaru this morning, so I let her borrow my TB. Otherwise I'd go take a short video to illustrate.

[janesy86]

Thanks for the tip fish! I'll try that out.



Now on to some pics... but its gunna stay off til I can get it to how I want it before it stays for good.

[janesy86]

And I don't want to knock Neil or anything, as he said in a PM before he sent it, that this was his first run of the carrier and would do what he could to fix problems that I had with it. So I just wanted to clear that up, but think I'll just try to remedy this myself...

I can also say as for it folding down all the way, that is probably my fault for not specifying.

The wobbling will be easily fixed via tips from Fishsticks, which I imagined it would be a little wobbly anyway.

The only thing that I really am disappointed with is how far away it sits, as that was my major hang up with the ones I've seen and I mentioned that many times to him. And the length of time it took to make.

Otherwise its a quality product, he gave me a good price on it, and should have been a bit more descriptive and/or gave him exact dimensions to follow.

[tbangert]

i say to take some measurements and write down the changes you are going to make to it and talk to neil about what you are doing so that he can work around that. i think he said he doesnt have a tb to work off of so help him out too so he can continue to develop a quality product for us. dont shit on the little guy, help him out. just my .02

[janesy86]

Well I'm not really shitting on him. Its a great start, just the one thing I was actually asking for did not happen. Not as close as I wanted, I didn't even care about opening the window at all, just wanted the tire to be super close to the rear.

And I know he doesn't really have a TB to work with thats why I can be understanding. And I'll be happy to tell him what I change, but at the same time that doesn't really mean that the next guy is goin to want it exactly like mine, after all its a custom fab shop, not bulk manufactured, he can do whatever you ask.

So like I've said before its a great start, its his first and is still a nice piece and he gave me a good price for being the first. It just needs a little extra work in my eyes. But I'd be willing to have him make me something else as well.... Possibly that gas tank armor, should be easier for him w/o a TB since he's already made it.

[madmanvillain]

i think when i finally finish mine...im going to have the vertical tube on the outside....and the tire between the tube and the tb...i think that will help the problem with the length...have it up high enough to be above the bumper and youll be able to see it (i cant see mine the way it is right now)

[bartonmd]

FWIW, unless you want the tire to block your rear view mirror, he could really only get the tire about 3" closer to the TB, and then you'd be screwed if you wanted to run wider tires, like Kyle and a couple others do... You're limited by the tire being on the outside of the tube... With the tube right next to the bumper, and the tire right next to the tube, you're only gaining 3-4" (hard to tell scale in a pic)... The tire could either be at an angle, or it could be higher... That's about it...

Mike

[janesy86]

Yea. I'm going to put it at an angle, so the tire can be moved in a good amount. And right now you can barely see the tire in the rear view mirror, so there is even a little more room to go up as well.

I'm happy with the quality of the unit, just want to fix a couple minor issues I have.

I would be fine with it laying down flat if I didn't have to go into the rear of my TB a few times a day, and will be a quick fix. The wobbling will be easily fixed with some grade 8 bolts and I might also get the hitch-coupling tightener.

Just tucking in the tire at an angle is really the only major fix, but other than that it is a nice looking piece for sure.

Edit: If anything, in the future I'll be running a taller/skinnier tire... so that wouldn't be a problem.

[janesy86]

Update: Got some free time to meet up with my buddy so I could tweak the carrier just a bit more to my liking...

Cut out a cpl inches of the top tube at an angle so that the lug plate could move in a bit more to suck the tire a little closer to the rear. Then drilled a new hole in the male end of the receiver so I could push the whole unit another inch closer.

Also used the tip from Fishsticks, about using a 1/2"x1" grade 8 bolt on each side to eliminate the wobble, which is working perfectly.

Much better in my eyes! Just need to legalize my plate soon...








Compared to before:

[Gordinho80]

Looking good! Much better with the angle!

[fishsticks]

Looking good! Much better with the angle!