jscherb
Expedition Leader
No adjustment of the door straps is necessary, the cans mount far enough forward that they don't interfere with the doors. I've used both my full doors and my half doors with these mounts, no interference problems at all.
Side-mount Jerry can holders
- Thread starter jscherb
- Start date
PetitFrereArmada
Explorer
That looks nice. I like to see how people are sooo creative.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
I personally don't plan on going into the jerry can carrier business, but a number of my designs have been licensed by companies and become commercial products - and there is a company that has shown interest in this design but it's too early to tell if that will develop into something.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Nicely done!
This is something I had been wanting to do for quite awhile. Now that I've used them on a few trips it's something I wish I would have done long ago!
First, I'd like to comment on the safety issue that most people bring up, carrying fuel on the outside of your vehicle is a risk no matter where you put it, but if you look at the statistics, a rear end accident is by far the most common and no one seems to have much of an issue with them being on the back. Now I understand that some designs sit higher than others, but plenty of them still sit low enough to get hit. I also don't drive around with full gas cans just for the fun of it. I have always made a habit of filling up my main tank and any extra cans at the last gas station available before heading off road. I also always empty my gas cans into the jeep tank as soon as I have room, to get the weight off the outside and down low into the tank where it belongs. So as far as the gas cans causing my jeep to turn into a fireball, I see no difference in safety between mounting on the sides, and mounting on the rear so I'll take my chances.
Now onto the benefits, I used to have my gas cans on the rear. The weight of two full cans hanging off the back caused quite a difference in handling and made the rear suspension ride horribly, especially since my jeep is usually loaded down with camping gear when I'm off road. Moving the cans up front made a HUGE difference in the ride and was well worth the effort of building the mounts. They don't stick out nearly far enough to cause a problem on 99% of the type of trails I do, but if I was out for a day of rock crawling (rare for me) I obviously wouldn't have the cans on the side. The weight is lower more central and the cans are easier to load and unload when full.
One valid concern that some have, is a rock flying up off the tire and putting a hole in the can. To solve that issue I welded a 1/8" floor into the passenger side. For the drivers side I built a removable floor that flips over to become hi-lift jack base for soft ground. Speaking of removable, if I ever come to a section of tight trees, gnarly rocks or anything else on the trail that I think may hit the cans or cause a problem, it literally takes less than 30 seconds to remove both mounts with the cans still in them (yes, I timed it) and the same amount of time to put them back on on the other side. Mine are mounted in a vertical receiver that is welded onto my sliders, and then held in place by two pinch bolts. They have never even started to come loose and just like Jscherb, I climbed right up on them and bounced up and down to make sure they would hold, not a bit of movement. This is something I should have done a long time ago and for the type of wheeling I do, I see no downside. Keep up the awesome work Jeff, you're an inspiration to people like me to keep building more parts for my jeep!
First, I'd like to comment on the safety issue that most people bring up, carrying fuel on the outside of your vehicle is a risk no matter where you put it, but if you look at the statistics, a rear end accident is by far the most common and no one seems to have much of an issue with them being on the back. Now I understand that some designs sit higher than others, but plenty of them still sit low enough to get hit. I also don't drive around with full gas cans just for the fun of it. I have always made a habit of filling up my main tank and any extra cans at the last gas station available before heading off road. I also always empty my gas cans into the jeep tank as soon as I have room, to get the weight off the outside and down low into the tank where it belongs. So as far as the gas cans causing my jeep to turn into a fireball, I see no difference in safety between mounting on the sides, and mounting on the rear so I'll take my chances.
Now onto the benefits, I used to have my gas cans on the rear. The weight of two full cans hanging off the back caused quite a difference in handling and made the rear suspension ride horribly, especially since my jeep is usually loaded down with camping gear when I'm off road. Moving the cans up front made a HUGE difference in the ride and was well worth the effort of building the mounts. They don't stick out nearly far enough to cause a problem on 99% of the type of trails I do, but if I was out for a day of rock crawling (rare for me) I obviously wouldn't have the cans on the side. The weight is lower more central and the cans are easier to load and unload when full.
One valid concern that some have, is a rock flying up off the tire and putting a hole in the can. To solve that issue I welded a 1/8" floor into the passenger side. For the drivers side I built a removable floor that flips over to become hi-lift jack base for soft ground. Speaking of removable, if I ever come to a section of tight trees, gnarly rocks or anything else on the trail that I think may hit the cans or cause a problem, it literally takes less than 30 seconds to remove both mounts with the cans still in them (yes, I timed it) and the same amount of time to put them back on on the other side. Mine are mounted in a vertical receiver that is welded onto my sliders, and then held in place by two pinch bolts. They have never even started to come loose and just like Jscherb, I climbed right up on them and bounced up and down to make sure they would hold, not a bit of movement. This is something I should have done a long time ago and for the type of wheeling I do, I see no downside. Keep up the awesome work Jeff, you're an inspiration to people like me to keep building more parts for my jeep!
Also, I built my own can holders instead of using pre made ones because in addition to normal jerry cans, I also have a plastic Blitz can and a Scepter water can, both of witch are slightly bigger than a steel jerry can and won't fit in a standard mount. I built my can holders to fit the biggest of the three types I have and figured that the rest can fit inside. I use one strap around each can and haven't had any problems with movement.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Xbcasey - very nicely done!
As far as I'm concerned, mounting the cans on the side is far preferable to hanging all that weight off the rear of the Jeep, for all the reasons you mentioned.
I'm about to take mine on a 9000-mile round trip from NY to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska - the "haul road" up to Prudhoe is one place where you definitely want to carry extra gas, so my mounts will get a good workout the month of July.
I've been working with a company that's interested in bringing these can mounts and several of my other designs to market. They've been working on the production engineering, implementing my designs in their CAD production environment - I got some preproduction samples from them a few weeks ago (they don't want me to show any photos yet), so hopefully later this year they'll be available on the market. They may be interested in having some people test the preproduction units, if they decide to look for volunteers I'll post that here.
As far as I'm concerned, mounting the cans on the side is far preferable to hanging all that weight off the rear of the Jeep, for all the reasons you mentioned.
I'm about to take mine on a 9000-mile round trip from NY to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska - the "haul road" up to Prudhoe is one place where you definitely want to carry extra gas, so my mounts will get a good workout the month of July.
I've been working with a company that's interested in bringing these can mounts and several of my other designs to market. They've been working on the production engineering, implementing my designs in their CAD production environment - I got some preproduction samples from them a few weeks ago (they don't want me to show any photos yet), so hopefully later this year they'll be available on the market. They may be interested in having some people test the preproduction units, if they decide to look for volunteers I'll post that here.
Hopefully that works out, this is a great design and as you said, far preferable to hanging them off the back! The receivers add a huge amount of possibilities as well, I think I'm going to make a chainsaw mount for the drivers side of mine. We get a lot of downed trees on the trails around here and it would be nice to get out and have the chainsaw right there. Great work on all your designs and keep it up!
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NMBruce
Adventurer
Have a great trip, maybe we will pass each other. I will be leaving SW Colorado around July 17, to do the Alcan and just site see.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
My plan has me leaving Fairbanks to start back to the lower 48 on July 22, so yes there's a good chance we will pass.
Can you post a pic that shows the post cup without the carrier attached standing back a bit for an overall view. Trying to get an idea of what this would look like for normal around town driving without the carriers installed.
Also, would this work on a JK? I'm not sure if there is as much room between the front fender and the door hinges.
Thanks.
jscherb
Expedition Leader
Yes, there is less room on a JK, but the idea will still work, you just have to mount the can a little higher.
I know you asked Xbcasey to post a photo of his, which will look different than mine because his receiver is mounted vertically so we'll have to wait for him to post a pic... but here's how it looks when it's frame-mounted - you have to look closely in this picture, the receiver is just ahead of the side step. Barely noticeable:
From a lower angle it's more visible
:
Here you go...
Mine are just welded on top of the slider bar, so they do stick up some. It wouldn't be hard to tuck them in between the slider bar and the body if you wanted them to be more stealthy. Also, with the way I did mine, I could have used a smaller size square tube for the receiver and still had plenty of strength. Mine are mounted vertical and the the piece that goes into the receiver and up to the bottom of the can holder is straight and only 6" long, so it doesn't get a lot of leverage on it.
I usually build things for function first and looks last, the reason I mounted mine on top of the slider instead of to the inside and closer to the body, is so that the post that mounts to them is more centered to the bottom of the jerry can mount. Again, with the size tubing I used and the relatively little weight that will be on it, the leverage of the mount being off to one side wouldn't be an issue and would hide them a lot better. The look of them doesn't bother me at all and most people don't even notice that they are there. If stealth is what your looking for though, Jeff's design is the way to go.
Mine are just welded on top of the slider bar, so they do stick up some. It wouldn't be hard to tuck them in between the slider bar and the body if you wanted them to be more stealthy. Also, with the way I did mine, I could have used a smaller size square tube for the receiver and still had plenty of strength. Mine are mounted vertical and the the piece that goes into the receiver and up to the bottom of the can holder is straight and only 6" long, so it doesn't get a lot of leverage on it.
I usually build things for function first and looks last, the reason I mounted mine on top of the slider instead of to the inside and closer to the body, is so that the post that mounts to them is more centered to the bottom of the jerry can mount. Again, with the size tubing I used and the relatively little weight that will be on it, the leverage of the mount being off to one side wouldn't be an issue and would hide them a lot better. The look of them doesn't bother me at all and most people don't even notice that they are there. If stealth is what your looking for though, Jeff's design is the way to go.