JK Overlanding/Spare Carrier Hood?

[TrailBadger]

@Jeff I've been thinking about this for a while and it would seems because of how the jeep's hood is designed, the spare would alway be in my line of sign or even create a small blind spot in front of the jeep. But my question is, how much space is between the hood's surface an the engine? if there is some clearance, I'm wondering if the center of the hood can be dropped/modified as to allow the spare to rest lower on the hood within a cubbyhole.

For instance the power dome hood could be flipped upside down as to allow the spare to rest in a cubbyhole of sorts. Just seems all these after market hood companies are creating hood that go up or high rise.. why not design one that's inverted as to allow for something like the spare to be mounted on the hood by flipping the high rise upside down creating a pocket.

One may have to resort to using a thin / smaller sized tire (almost like a balloon tire) as indicated in the image above instead of the full size tire one has equipped on their jeep. Not only would this save space if both spares (rear tire carrier and hood mount) could be the smalled size tire, but saves the over all weight of having both spares (normal sized tire) on the jeep at all times. After all who actually uses the spare unless their rotating..

 

[jscherb]

Based on the comments I got in this thread mounting a spare on the hood didn't seem to be a very popular idea so I decided not to pursue it. I'll just keep doing what I've always done and carry my extra spare on the roof...

 

[TrailBadger]

I was trying to convince the wife that IF we get the Wrangler unlimited, I wasted to have a set of half doors as the second row doors but leave the full metal doors for the front row.. What I was hoping to accomplish was to mount a spare tire carrier on one of the half doors while the other half door could be used to access items stored behind the front row seats.. I was looking to create a Safari type truck with a full soft top cover extending from the windshield to the rear of the jeep. Then purchase these panels to create a flat surface on top of the cargo area..

The Aries design would be converted as to extend from the front row seats all the way back to the tailgate. Although the soft top would be used, the idea would be simular you your image here:

This would leave a space between the soft top and the hard flat surface Aries panels.. In this case 2 drop down storage trays would be installed on the sports bars and would be suspended within the blank or open air zone from the front row seats to the rear of the jeep. This would create a storage system which would be fully contained within the wrangler unlimited limited space, thus not having to mount any sort of roof rack and this would relocate the spare from the back of the jeep towards one of the half doors.

This would leave room for a spare tire to be mounted on one side or the other of the half doors.. Although one would have trouble actually opening the half door which has the spare mounted to it, the other side half door would allow one access to a hidden compartment located behind the front row seats.. The only issue one would face is how to create a semi enclosed cabin area either using fabric or a hard shell type wall placed right behind the front row seats..

 

[jscherb]

... This would leave room for a spare tire to be mounted on one side or the other of the half doors..

The factory doors probably aren't strong enough for the stress of carrying a heavy spare, so reinforcing them would have to be part of your plan.

There was supposed to be a rear door delete kit on the market, but I don't know if it it would have been be any stronger than the factory doors. Supposedly it also was to come with new longer side panels for the soft top. The web site says "Please contact us to pre-order* your kit today!" and further down on the page "We anticipate shipping these kits mid summer 2015", so probably they never made it to market. http://expeditionconcepts.com/product/jku_rear_door_delete_kit/

Another product which I think did make it to market is the "Action Truck", a pickup kit with replacement rear doors with cargo hatches: http://www.actioncamper.info/details.php?ktid=1&artID=475. Maybe those doors are available separately.

I've often thought about making a JKU rear door delete kit in fiberglass; it wouldn't be very hard to do. Part of that kit could also be hardtop filler panels to replace the upper part of the rear doors, they'd have windows in them and perhaps be hinged to swing up as cargo hatches.

 

[TrailBadger]

Thanks for that. But after seeing these 2 products.. not sure that's the look I was going for.. besides.. I doubt I'm willing to put that kind of money into a jeep.. and wife said she would rather have a 2 door. After all it was a thought and I'm sure anyone here would like the idea of converting the Unlimited into a action truck.

 

[NEwhere]

Did you ever consider mounting the spare in the front of the jeep, vs. the hood. They make some 2" receivers for that purpose, although they would probably need to be slightly altered.

 

[jscherb]

Did you ever consider mounting the spare in the front of the jeep, vs. the hood. They make some 2" receivers for that purpose, although they would probably need to be slightly altered.

I have 2" receivers for the front of all of my Jeeps, and a week ago I posted the idea of putting a spare on the front... https://www.expeditionportal.com/fo...fit-this-custom-lj.46300/page-51#post-2536692

 

[Buliwyf]

Since you're just running AT's, why not consider a very skinny wheel and tire for the extra spare? I can understand MT's all needing to be the same capability, but not so needed with AT type travels.

I carried a rear spare, and then had a skinny spare inside, bolted high and right rear of the roll cage. Didn't eat up much space there. (yj)

 

[jscherb]

Since you're just running AT's, why not consider a very skinny wheel and tire for the extra spare? I can understand MT's all needing to be the same capability, but not so needed with AT type travels.

I carried a rear spare, and then had a skinny spare inside, bolted high and right rear of the roll cage. Didn't eat up much space there. (yj)

When I'm not carrying the RTT, I carry a second spare on the roof rack. When I am carrying the RTT, usually I have the back seat out so I put the spare on the floor where the back seat was.

I was thinking about building a custom hood like a Land Rover to carry a spare, but there was a lot of negativity about the idea early in this thread so I dropped the idea.

 

[Bobzdar]

When I'm not carrying the RTT, I carry a second spare on the roof rack. When I am carrying the RTT, usually I have the back seat out so I put the spare on the floor where the back seat was.

I was thinking about building a custom hood like a Land Rover to carry a spare, but there was a lot of negativity about the idea early in this thread so I dropped the idea.

I think this is a great idea (owning both a land rover with a spare on the hood and a Wrangler). How much room is there between the engine and the hood? I think the idea of mounting the spare to the top of the engine and then cutting a hole in the hood (or doming the hood over it) is a good one if you're worried about sight line intrusion. Honestly though, it's not a big deal on the land rover and I don't see it being one on the Jeep unless you run big tires (which you don't).

 

[jscherb]

I think this is a great idea (owning both a land rover with a spare on the hood and a Wrangler). How much room is there between the engine and the hood? I think the idea of mounting the spare to the top of the engine and then cutting a hole in the hood (or doming the hood over it) is a good one if you're worried about sight line intrusion. Honestly though, it's not a big deal on the land rover and I don't see it being one on the Jeep unless you run big tires (which you don't).

The top of the JK engine is pretty close to the inside of the hood, but there's still a little room for the hood to have a shallow recess for the spare like some early series Land Rovers had.

 

[NEwhere]

I was just thinking I (unfortunately) have a 3" body lift which would mean I could sink a 10.5" 33 in the hood maybe 5"s that leaves a "skinny tire" left over....of course I want to remove the 3bl and go back with a 1 when I replace my shocks and springs with a 2" kit. .... I installed either 1.5" or 1" aluminum blocks under my front seats back in 2004, to get that 2004 Land Rover Discovery driver side feel (that was the other option back in 04' all thought I might have had to get a used one back then), I'm 6'1" and I still feel like my seat could be taller, what's the deal with the driver side feeling in those Land Rovers though? How is it accomplished and what is the driving difference?