Design must haves for rear swing gate.

[matt s]

I know, I know, another rear gate thread. I hope this one will be a little different.

I am designing a gate currently (in my head anyway) and hope to tackle it before spring. What I am looking for are design elements that you all would consider "must have" items.

In my head I have the following features in mind

Dual gates: I have many reasons for this, mostly to do with my specific vehicle and needs. The key ingredient for both gates is that they are removable via a pin or some other type of mechanism.

Tire Mount: right side gate

Fuel Can Mounts: Left side gate. Also wondering about what route to go here as someone just stole my blitz can (old conn ferr style mount using lip of can), I may as well consider other mounting options before purchasing new cans.

Recovery points: straight through to frame.

Aux backup lights: switchable too? Thinking they may be handy setting up camp.

Receiver mount: Already there and separate from the bumper

Hidden: Well not really hidden but I plan to skin the bumper with a stock bumper. This is purely cosmetic as the blazer is a classic and deserves to have a matching rear bumper. I intend to do this in such a way that it does not interfere with recovery options.

Highlift: Undecided, I don't currently carry one.

Alright what am I missing?

 

[Casper]

Sounds like you have a good start. I have gone with the duel swing myself and love it. One magor thing I would do different (and will change soon) would be to make sure that the swings had something to hold them open.

Also, if you plan to make them removable I would suggest making them as light as possible. Possibly aluminum.

Gas can holders, the ONLY one I would recommend are the ones from AT.

Heres what I did. (ignore the first pic)

Good luck, and of course make sure to post picks.

Cheers
Josh
&
Porthos
:smiley_drive:

 

[matt s]

Wow I really like the simplicity of your setup. Thanks for the tip about a way to hold them open. I will add that to my mental list.

EDIT: Looking at your setup, each of those gates cannot really weigh all that much (30 lbs??). It's the cargo that is heavy (tire, fuel cans). I really only plan on removing the fuel gate on a regular basis, and the tire gate when I need to haul material with the tailgate down. Still I am under no illusions that pulling the gate with the tire on it is going to be any fun at all.

 

[Casper]

Thanks for the compliments. I am very happy with the setup.

As for the wieght, the swing for the tire is not all that heavy (without the tire of course) The side with the fuel cans is not light. I think the fuel can holders wiegh in at 27ish lbs a piece, and as you can see I have to of them. I used to have a single gate with just the tire and would remove it if I towed the trailer. It would store on teh back of the trailer. It got real old real fast moving it from one vehicle to another. But that may just be me :Wow1:

Cheers,
Josh
&
Porthos
:smiley_drive:

 

[99wj]

hey casper... what kind of latch is that on your dual swing gate?

 

[ntsqd]

I would have a good look at the CUCV bumpers. While they may or may not work directly for you, I think they'll at least offer some ideas about the recovery points.

X2 on some sort of hold-open latch.

E-Z removal makes things tougher. Are the swingers going to come off the bumper individually, or is the whole swinger assembly going to come off as a unit, i.e. like some sort of socket receiver hitch mounted design?
If they come off too easy, then will theft be a problem?