spare wheel carrier for soft top - advice pls

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shanks

New Member
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30
Hi Guys,

Can anyone recomend where i can get hold of a spare wheel carrier for a soft top?

The other option is to fit it on the bonnet...any recomendation either way?!

...and any advice on how to fit?!!

Cheers fellas.
 
My dad's 90 soft top has had the standard tailgate modified with side hinges and a back door latch, meaning that is swings open just like a station wagon back door, he's got a mantec rear wheel carrier that opens with the door on it. This set up seems to work very well and unless you are on a very steep incline, the ram has enough strength to keep the carrier open

His carrier is this one: Mantec | Quality Land Rover Accessories

You can also buy spare wheel carriers that open seperatley of the tailgate, using an anti-luce catch to hold it shut such as this Land Rover Defender Swing Away Spare Wheel Carrier on eBay (end time 10-Feb-11 12:13:07 GMT)

Bonnet mounts are good also but big tyres mean you can't see the front end of the vehicle and the bonnet is a bugger to open/remove

Harry
 
Boris - nice one...would be great to see your Dad's set up, dont suppose you have any pics do you?! Apologies for being hard of thinking.... so the arm opens with the tailgate right?

The ones that open separately were what i'd been looking for but your Dad's set up sounds much better if thats the case...i'd just need to change the hinges too!

I wasn't expecting them to be 170 squid tho! I expect the other is even more...

I'd guessed that would be the case on the bonnet.

Thanks - sound advice.
 
Correct, the spare wheel carrier is identical to one available for van/station wagon types with a full rear door. It mounts on the chassis which takes most of the weight and also on the rear tub, the gas strut is connected to the rear door, meaning that it is easy to open/shut the door but it can also hold itself open.

The tailgate simply has a hinge on the top and bottom, like the lower two on a full door and finally a normal rear door latch but I have seen people use 2 antiluce catches -top and bottom.

I'm at uni at the moment so the pictures I have are not of the spare wheel specifically but hopefully they can be of some help to you. :D

Harry
 

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You can have a swingaway wheel carrier that is independant of the tailgate (either side-hinged or drop-down) or if you have a side-hinged tailgate then you can fit any of the side-hinged carriers that fit safari rear doors. Personally I would steer clear of mounting one directly on the tailgate as a safari door struggles over time and that has the added advantage of a high hinge to relieve the stress whereas a tailgate doesn't.

The Pivlock made by Bullivant is a good piece of kit, I fitted one nearly 25-years ago and it gave me great service carrying a heavy 9.00x16 spare on steel rim. These are still available brand new and are well worth considering as they fit either side-hinged or drop-down tailgates.
I have a WH side-hinged carrier now and that is connected to my side-hinged tailgate, I have had it for 10-years and it is still working fine. Unfortunately WH have since changed their name and I don't know what it is however the design is fairly standard and incorporates grease nipples on the pivot points and rubber buffers to prevent clunking.
 
Guys - thanks a lot for the advice and feedback...

Boris - the pics really help thanks, and i'm very keen to get it set up like that! Was it all fitted when he bought it or did he change the tail gate to side hinges?

I'm also very interested in his rear seats! Currently i have no seats in the back and a roll bar that looks like it's in roughly the same place. I'd assumed there wasn't enough room because of it to have seats on the sides...how well does that set up work for him? Do they fold up? I'd also thought about a seat widthways facing backwards but dont know where to look for something like that...

Thanks Litch - i'm sold on converting to side hinges and a carrier that opens with the tail gate...but not mounted on it.
 
Guys - thanks a lot for the advice and feedback...

Boris - the pics really help thanks, and i'm very keen to get it set up like that! Was it all fitted when he bought it or did he change the tail gate to side hinges?

I'm also very interested in his rear seats! Currently i have no seats in the back and a roll bar that looks like it's in roughly the same place. I'd assumed there wasn't enough room because of it to have seats on the sides...how well does that set up work for him? Do they fold up? I'd also thought about a seat widthways facing backwards but dont know where to look for something like that...

Thanks Litch - i'm sold on converting to side hinges and a carrier that opens with the tail gate...but not mounted on it.


Not a problem mate, most of it was like then when he bought it...thankfully it's not painted bright yellow anymore!:eek: The seats are just standard bench seats available from any landy place. The bases fold up but the backs are fixed.

He doesn't have hood sticks, instead its the back half of a NAS roll cage, the front-most hoop is basically a military spec roll bar then covered in moulded plastic with the hoop actually bolting to the chassis and bolting on the the rear part which is also covered in plastic. The diagonals you can see just bolt to the cappings so they don't interfere with the loadspace/mounting seats I will try and dig out some pictures of the inside when i get back to my own computer.
 
This is a photo showing my old WH carrier connected to my side-hinged tailgate, I fitted it 10-years ago and it still works perfectly.
LRREAR1.jpg
 
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