Rear Tire Carrier - Any Regrets in Daily Life?

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

Land Rover Joe

Full Access Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2011
Posts
214
Reaction score
29
Sorry -

Ronny Dahl​

Not Robert.​


And to answer the original question: I have no regrets for Daily life (but my wife does!)
 

Land Rover Joe

Full Access Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2011
Posts
214
Reaction score
29
Which is of course not the real reason why folks are actually buying these accessories (Function): we are buying them because they look cool. Dirt Lifestyle did a build on an DISCO 2 several years ago where he custom built a spare tire carrier. The whole truck looked great and drove really, really well for him. And he had (I think) 35" Mickey Thompson A/T tires mounted so he had to put the oversize spare tire on the back. But none of us are going to be running 35" tires anytime soon (if you are...you need to post that!) This would be the only case of truly requiring a tire carrier - to hold oversized tires. Thus, we are all using these spare tire carriers because they simply look tough (and for recovery purposes are indeed more practical). But that does make getting in the back a pain...which doesn't bother me at all but really annoys my wife who detests the whole thing.

But it's my truck.

One final note about all this. I bought my Kymar in 2015 and have been running with it since. It has performed really well but ultimately is just powder-coated steel. That coating was compromised long ago and now the corrosion is under the coating (flaking off in some places) and needs major cleaning up. As part of my ongoing major services / rebuild, I have had everything (bumper, frame sliders, and the one Tactical 4X4 steel gas tank plate) dismounted and they are all going into the body shop for being stripped, cleaned up, and then spray-painted (all the aluminum plates are being cleaned, polished, and then protective painted this time around to help prevent corrosion).

I mention this because the (rear) steel bumper is great protection for the truck but comes at the price of needing yet more episodic maintenance. The plastic stock bumpers will just keep on keeping on.

In conclusion: I really like my set up and don't regret a thing but admit that ultimately the whole truck is assembled for a certain look and feel instead of pure utility. So if you want a steel bumper with wheel carrier because it looks cool...then just get one!
 

Land Rover Joe

Full Access Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2011
Posts
214
Reaction score
29
And another correction - I just re-watched several of Nate's 4-part series on his DISCO 2 heavy bumper build on DIRT LIFESTYLE (here is episode 4):


So it was a 37" Goodrich T/S he was running (and needed the oversized wheel mount on the heavy bumper).

This tire was so heavy and high that this (4th episode) required additional steel reinforcements to keep the thing from vibrating and potentially falling off....
 

Land Rover Joe

Full Access Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2011
Posts
214
Reaction score
29
And yet another correction.

After a bit of internet searching, it appears there are indeed a couple of folks have fitted 35" tires. But only a couple - one to an LR3 (which would basically be the same as a 4 I imagine) and one to an LR4.

All that said - they did NOT also fit 35" tires to a spare carrier...but there would be NO way something that big would fit underneath.

Such an endeavor is not for the faint of heart and requires a lot of dedication. Plus...fitting such big wheels is likely to half the lifetime of one's bearings (and who knows what else to include significantly reducing power at the wheels such as torque) ~


 

MellonRover

Full Access Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2024
Posts
99
Reaction score
63
Location
Northeast USA
Just because it can be done, doesn't mean it should. The second one, which died an inglorious death via copart, has no flares due to the 35's ripping them off. The first one did do light offroading, but still rubbed. The wheel wells, and suspension don't leave us much room.
Over 32-33 you lose functionality. It becomes a British bro dozer.
 

bdd123

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2022
Posts
57
Reaction score
12
Location
USA
Chop off part of bumper to put on spare carrier compromises bumper. Taking out fridge, dog carrier and more seems like a royal pain if you have a flat. Tactical seems to have a monopoly. Sad. Cant imagine why anyone would "buy for looks"; vehicle looks awesome with no roof rails, lens protectors or bull bars. Tire on back is function not looks.
 
Last edited:

AdventureTim

Full Access Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2017
Posts
141
Reaction score
103
Location
Seattle, WA
I had the same experience with my Voyager. It had been powder coated without any priming/rust prevention, and it started to rust heavily after a couple of years. I ended up getting it re-powdercoated by a local firm and it's held up great.
 

Abram

Full Access Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2024
Posts
81
Reaction score
22
Location
Southern California
I regret not getting the tactical one. My terra firma is showing more and more rust. Almost like they used salt water based paint.
I have as of yet gone forward with getting one, though it would have been handy recently as I picked up multiple screws a couple weeks back and ruined one of my fairly new KO2s. It was replaced under warranty but I had to fish out my spare and I was immediately regretting NOT having the carrier! So it goes.

That being said, the more I research the matter, the more it seems like waiting to do something like the T44 setup makes more sense. The added plus is they're actually fairly local to me if/when the time comes.

So presently I'm of the mind that if I can do it in the future I will be going straight to the T44 solution for functional purposes over pure aesthetics. I don't see myself excepting a 32-33" tire ever on this truck (31.5" right now with the KO2) so major oversized tires and subsequent modifications will not be in the cards.
 

Latest posts

Members online

No members online now.

Forum statistics

Threads
36,750
Posts
223,109
Members
30,915
Latest member
Tumbler
Top