Rear Tire Carrier - Any Regrets in Daily Life?

[Abram]

Get a flat with a full load of gear and you'll love having the tire carrier. Within my first week of ownership I was less than a quarter mile to my destination and the tpms light came on. Parked and heard a tire hissing, wheeled the floor jack under and went about swapping the old spare in. Pain in the backside to have to empty the back of the vehicle to get to the tire winch. I had the pleasure of doing this on a sunny day on a concrete driveway. I would hate to have to do that in the rain on the side of the road.

I've got the Terra Firma. I'm not blown away by the quality. It is only a year and a half old and show's a decent amount of rust. I've also had lot's of problems with the backup sensors. The tire was triggering the sensors and I eventually just hit some kind of error limit and it just doesn't work at all anymore. I welded a plate onto the carrier to store the tire a couple inches higher to try and fix it, but by the time I got around to that the system had already given up. I also added a zero fitting to the pivot point.

I got a Jerry can carrier from eTrailer that is meant for Heeps. This was all part of my plan because I have a piece of equipment that uses diesel and that stuff stinks.

If I were to do it again I'd probably just go to the steel bumper kind of setup.

Great feedback and that’s the logic I was thinking of too since it already sucks to have to empty the trunk, take out my rubber mat, flip the third row seats up and THEN winch the tire down (which is tight in there as it is).

I suppose I’m just torn, I see lots of pluses but I worry it will negatively impact the daily driver utility of it.

 

[CRYA]

You could get a safari guard hitch which raises the tongue up several inches and then do a rigd ultra swing.

 

[Abram]

You could get a safari guard hitch which raises the tongue up several inches and then do a rigd ultra swing.

Interesting I’ve not seen that (though I do already have an LR hitch which I recently stripped and rebuilt)

Edit: Just looked that up, that’s a neat thing! Wasn’t aware of those though I was familiar with Safari Gard as a company. I think that plus the hitch carrier would cost quite a bit though. FWIW, I am largely considering the Terrafirma because I have the opportunity to pick it up for half price. Which if I’m honest is the main reason I’m actually considering it, otherwise my intent was to get a roof mount solution and throw the tire up there for off roading trips and leave it underneath for the day to day.

 

[CRYA]

Interesting I’ve not seen that (though I do already have an LR hitch which I recently stripped and rebuilt)

Edit: Just looked that up, that’s a neat thing! Wasn’t aware of those though I was familiar with Safari Gard as a company. I think that plus the hitch carrier would cost quite a bit though. FWIW, I am largely considering the Terrafirma because I have the opportunity to pick it up for half price. Which if I’m honest is the main reason I’m actually considering it, otherwise my intent was to get a roof mount solution and throw the tire up there for off roading trips and leave it underneath for the day to day.

Well for half price, can’t really go wrong! And def beats throwing all that weight up on your roof.

 

[powershift]

I'd like to replace the spare with a 25+ gallon water tank and then fill it using a pump and the water vending machines. It would save a lot of space inside the cargo area because I have three 6 gal. containers, then 5 gal diesel and two 5 gal nato fuel cans inside. But the inconvenience of the carrier wouldn't be worth it because I'm using the hatch and tailgate a LOT. It would be cool to line the whole bumper with 4-5 nato cans.

Today at a dirt bike off-road park, I needed to stop on an incline to enter the cargo area and just getting in and out of the cab was a PITA, let alone moving the spare and then keeping it locked open so it doesn't swing and break my legs lol.

The roof seems like a good place too, but with the inclines I was on today driving sideways my butt cheeks were puckered already. Nfw would I try the same sideways incline and declines while turning with a spare on top.

 

[Abram]

Seems to me that the nays have overtaken the yays

I think the only drawback I can think of is the rear cargo access and that is enough of a consideration that I’m hesitating.

It does make the temporary solutions sound appealing with the hitch mount but my advantage here was getting a barely used Terrafirma one for half price and have my shop install it for me too. The full bumper solution is appealing but I don’t see myself replacing the bumpers tbh.

 

[CPalacay]

I have the Terrafirma tire carrier on mine. It’s it a hassle compared to not having it on, yes. We use our LR4 multiple times daily for commuting, errands, and kids sports so we’re always accessing the load space and tailgate. Initially we had regrets but we just got use to it and it accepted that it’s another step if we want to open the tailgate.

You’re also running oversized tires like me. I tried storing my spare it in the cargo but that took up so much space. The factory spare location isn’t an option for my setup. I rotate all 5 wheels so having the carrier makes it a breeze. Overall, I can’t without it now. It does look good with it mounted.

 

[Abram]

Yeah I run a 265/65/18 so only “slightly” upsized and I did get it to fit in the original spare location without the heat shield and fully deflated. But even that was a struggle.

Your use case mirrors what mine will be, but we also have a second vehicle too. I just definitely use the “utility” portion of this vehicle and don’t want to ruin that.

 

[scapistron]

Some of the corrosion I'm talking about. The strut is pretty strong and I've never fought gravity.

 

[CRYA]

If that truly pops off with the bolt removal, and @Abram is getting it cheap, just go for it. Only downside is cutting up the bumper cover to install.