Restless Off-Road Fabrication (ROF) Spare Tire Carrier Install

Alright, here we go...

I started out by removing the Southern Style Offroad (SSO) hitch mounted spare tire carrier. I knew there was some surface rust on it but it wasn't until I got it out of my hitch that I realized just how deep some of the rust was on one of the top corners of the receiver. Try as I might, I was never able to get "zero movement" out of it and i guess the vibration and movement took its toll. It's definitely salvagable but will need some work to clean back up. I will post it for sale in the marketplace when I get a chance to take better photos of everything it came with that I didn't use (backup camera housing in the wheel and license plate holder). I'm also planning on throwing in a FREE 4' x 8' hanging garage rack with it because i want both out of the garage. Here are pictures of the SSO hitch mount before removed so you can compare to the ROF after.

After removing the SSO carrier, I taped up the bumper cover to get ready to mark my cut dimensions.


Marking the cuts was tricky. I had already looked at the ROF install instructions and had seen they appeared to spend all of about 15 minutes throwing them together. As an engineer who has spent days or weeks putting together very detailed install instructions, I was very disappointed. Their photos lacked several critical dimensions which I had to guess on. I also fucked up because their instructions said "Start by
marking the 4 1/4 measurement, use the bumper line under the tail light as the starting point". I thought this meant start measuring from where the bumper cover meets the bottom of the tail light but could see from the photos this was off. What they meant was start measuring from the bumpout under the tail light, and I eventually ended up with markings that I felt comfortable matched the photos (making guesstimates where dimensions lacked).


I then used a 1/2" drill to pop a hole in each sharp corner of my cutout markings so I had a radius to later mold my door edge guard (bought from the bezos rainforest).


I then used a dremel tool to make my straight line cuts. I tried using the super thin wheels at first, which seemed to be working well, but then I quickly disintegrated 3 in quick succession so switched to the thicker metal cutoff wheel. I used my pocket knife to cut through and remove the Styrofoam bumper filler in the center before removing the bumper cover and wiping down the rear crossmember.



I then dry fit the bolt-on components (latch hook and swingout hinge) before packing my bearings per the ROF instructions. Their instructions still say there are 6 bolts for the swingout hinge but mine came with 4. Not sure if cost savings, maybe the GX swingout has 6 (mistake?), or if they realized it was overengineered but 4 feels just fine. Again, more detailed instructions would have been nice because multiple hardware was in the same bagging and I didn't see the split lock washer for the 4 swingout hinge bolts until I put the bumper cover back on and bolted on the arm. It was a PITA to pull the bumper cover back and take each bolt back out to put the lock washer on (they had lock nuts and a washer on the bottom so I didn't realize they had the splits for the top too).


I then packed the bearings and put them in the arm. Again, more detailed instructions of how all the pieces went together would have been nice. I elected to use anti-seize as grease because I didn't want to buy a tube of grease that goes in a grease gun. Word of caution, they will fall out of the swing arm when you put them in so every time I installed/de-installed/reinstalled the swing arm I had to hold them in place with a rag so I didn't get anti-seize all over my hands. With the swing arm installed for dry fit, I installed the latch hook and tightened everything down. Another word of caution, back down the nuts on the latch u-bolt as you tighten down the lock nuts on top to get the tight fit. I didn't realize I had reached the nut underneath and boogered up the threads as I tightened the lock nut on top to get the tight fit I wanted. Luckily I was able to save it. Also, the safety spring pin in front of the latch was super tight from the powder coating. I had to use a rubber mallet to knock it up and down many times to rub the powder coat off and let it freely move by hand. Hopefully it's stainless and won't rust - i will have to keep an eye on it. One last thing - when installing the stainless plate under the other spring pin that holds the arm in the open position, loosely screw on the stainless plate and open the arm until it pops through the opening before tightening it the rest of the way down. I didn't put the pate on until after I put the bumper cover on later and had alignment issues until I loosened it up and did the steps above.


After dry fitting everything and tightening it down, I then dry fit the bumper cover to see how good my guesstimates were on the cut dimensions. I had issues with the Styrofoam fitment now that the swingout hinge was bolted to the bumper. I cut off the bump down on the Styrofoam that fit up against the crossemember since the plate was in the way and then cut holes through the Styrofoam so the bolt heads would stick through. After that, I was able to use the stock Styrofoam as opposed to cutting the passenger side off and buying some obscure foam per the instructions (have i mentioned their instructions suck?).


Once I dry fit and confirmed my cutouts were good nuff, I pulled it back to put the door edge guard around my cutouts, which made it look exponentially better. Here's a closeup of the edge guard around my new baby dinosaur penis.


I had to drill holes for my license plate holder - thought it came with predrilled holes even though I ordered without license plate holder but I was wrong. After drilling holes through some very thick tube wall, I realized that my screws were not going to self-tap (surprise surprise). So I zip tied the holder into place to make a home depot run for a metric tap set and some new screws.


After the home depot run I was able to properly secure the frame to the arm. Here are the final pics to compare to the SSO at the beginning.



Overall, I like the ROF. The tire sits higher than the SSO, which i dont like, but knew that when I bought it. Also had to cut holes in the bumper cover but I dont care about that. It's very solid (I could never get the SSO to be fully immobile like this one - just a consequence of having a hitch mount). It swings open like buttuh, which i could also never get with the SSO (curious if @Saker has a smooth swing or has to put some ass into it). I got my departure clearance back. It sits very tight to the rear door, just like the SSO (which is why i hated all other hitch mounts that stick out for miles). I now only have the little dinosaur penis sticking out the back so hopefully easier to load/unload cargo vs a hitch mount. It was a PITA to install but a good permanent solution for me since I didn't want the weight of a full bumper.

 

Wow. Very nice.

 

Nice write up. Thanks for posting!

 

Nice job brother. Be proud. Looks fantastic

 

I never have to put much into opening mine. My wife has no issues either.
I have all bolt points on my carrier tight.
No wiggle with my carrier.

That may have contributed to your opening issue, it’ll change that pivot point angle.

 

Nice job and nice write up too. How is the vibration on the highway. I have driven two different versions of these tire carriers and there seems to be a little bit of a vibration at over 50mph.

 

Very nice! I was thinking about installing one once I go to 35s.

 

Yeah, im curious if I fucked something up during install - specifically maybe damaged the brass sleeve when trying to get the two arms together. I greased it when I installed and it wasn't too difficult to open/close in the beginning but I never needed to adjust the tension of the top nut to keep it from free swinging, it was never that loose. Seems to tighten up due to lack of use. When that happens I hit it with some WD40 and open/close many times until it loosens back up.

 

I haven't seen or heard any vibration with the ROF carrier. I've been watching it in the mirror as I go over bumps and I dont see it move at all.

With the SSO, I could see slight movement while driving over bumps but didn't seem to be that big of an issue - it wasn't going anywhere but I obviously caused some PC wear on it from the movement (which resulted in rust). I installed both on my own - I probably should have had another hand while tightening down the SSO because I didn't get it right

 

This looks great. I've been looking at bumpers with a swingout but have been hesitant to pull the trigger due to weight and cost. This might be the perfect compromise. Does it work with the back-up camera?

 

excellent work be very proud. My only concern is how is the license plate being illuminated now. That is a ticket waiting to happen

 

No, when you put the tire on the back with any carrier (that I've seen) it will block your camera so you have to relocate it if you want to keep it. The SSO tire carrier came with brackets to fit it inside the wheel but I didn't want it off-center. I ended up installing an Anytime front/rear camera kit at the same time I installed the RIGd Supply camera relocation kit (pricey and a pain to install but has been worth it). I used the bracket to attach the camera to the SSO with the double sided sticky that came with it but i found it was about to fall off when I did this install. Now I've screwed it to the bumper cover.

The SSO came with a license plate bracket but no light so I bought a lighted bracket that plugs into the hitch plug, also from RIGd Supply

 

Probably something very minor.