In stock form the Range Rover Classic locates the spare tire on the driver side of the cargo area.  It sits upright perpendicular to the rear tailgate between the wheel well arch and the tailgate.  If a large tire is employed, it no longer fits into this stock location and needs to be located elsewhere.  As this vehicle will be used for extended camping/trail runs the cargo area is needed for gear.  The tire will need to moved to either the roofrack or a swingout attached to the rear bumper.  The rear bumper swingout seemd like the ideal choice for this vehicle as I’d like to keep the weight low and add a jerry can bracket.

Todd Eliason and Brett Curry each donated a tire swingout arm/carrier.  The one Todd donated was made by Tony and looked like a good option.  It only needed a spindle, so I did some research and bought a 1,750lb rated spindle from Comp 4x4.  Why such a burly spindle?  I want the option to add dual jerry cans to the carrier and simply want to know that no matter how much abuse it takes on the trail it’s still going to be nice and solid.  Mike picked up a length of 1.5x3 for the arm, and we were ready to give it a go.

The rough plan is to mount the spindle, mount the arm/latch, and then design the tire/jerry can mount system.  Last Friday we managed to get the spindle mounted, and tacked the arm in place.

Mounting the Spindle

The ARB bumper for the RRC has a step up in it.  Here, Mike is notching it out so the spindle can be mounted lower.  The lower mount will allow the arm to sit lower, just about the main portion of the bumper, and allow it to swing open when lowering the tailgate.  The section that was removed was saved and will be re-used to cap off the lower

The ARB bumper attaches to the RRC frame with 4 bolts on the rear cross member, and 2 bolts to the factory tow hitch attachment points.   Underneath each end cap, there is 1.5” round tube that runs back to the main structure of the bumper.  Plenty strong to support a swingout with a tire on it.

The spindle came with a sleeve that the spindle slides into.  This allows the fabricator to get it positioned correctly, without having to worry about the arm, and insures the spindle isn’t damaged from the heat generated during welding.  The sleeve was notched on the bottom to match the curvature of the 1.5” tube in the ARB bumper, trimmed to be flush with the top of the main bumper, positioned, and tacked in place.

The Z axis is fully supported by the 1.5” tube.  The X axis is supported by the main bumper on one side (left in this picture) and a gusset was added to support it on the other side.  Another gusset was created to support the Y axis (hidden behind cap and X axis gusset).  Everything was welded on both sides.  Finally, the original piece that was removed from the end cap, was re-used as a cover.  The following photo is mid-way through this process.  Not everything has been welded at this point.

A piece was added to fill in the “step” cut into the bumper cap, and another small piece to finish out the cover.  A little more welding/grinding and it’s taking shape.  It still needs finish work but at this point, I had to get home to celebrate my wife’s birthday.  We hit it with a really quick coat of primer and covered the spindle with masking tape.  We’ll finish it up another day.