rear door wheel carrier

Hi There,
I have the standard ( I think) rear door wheel carier with the three rods to locate the wheel, however, there is also this looping bar that seems to do nothing that just seems to be in the middle of the spare wheel. what is this for?

I probably will kick myself.....
cheers

I have a bearmach item, and it has the same thing. Funnily enough I was playing with the carrier last night, since it was rattling. I tried taking the bolts which go behind the wheel off, so the wheel sat further back...but it still did not touch the handle. I thought perhaps the hole in the centre of the hub would sit on this, but there is no way.

I am as stumped as you.

Ime not sure if my problem is the same as your own, we might be talking about diff wheel carriers.

So just to let folks see what Ime talking about, if you click this link http://www.landyzone.co.uk/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1005&sort=1&cat=500&page=1 and have a squint at the rear wheel you can just see this U shaped rod just poking out from the middle of the spare.

cheers

Same thing, only mine is on a swing-away carrier. It looks as though yours helps locate your wheel onto the spokes...whereas my wheel is a good 3 inches from the handle.
Here is a rubbish picture of the one I have:

http://www.paddockspares.com/shop/pages/defender/accimages/ba132_2.jpg

yeah it looks like yours is a similar setup, and I think your right and the afore mentioned U bolt thingy is indeed a means of helping to locate/ take the load of the wheel, when lifting onto the spokes.

With this in mind I will be removing asap, I bought a rear wheel cover (the dico type that says LANDROVER) from ebay and could not get it on wheel because of our problem.
Sorted
cheers for your time....
james

No problem.
I have emailed Bearmach to ask what it is for, but I doubt I will get a reply. Since their kit did not include instructions or the correct bolts, I doubt they will bother to reply about my handle.