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R50 Tire Carrier Mod: Let's settle this!


hawairish
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OK! So with the hard part finished next was relocating the plate, which was mercifully easy in comparison. I went straight with the hawairish method on this one because its simple, cheap, gets the truck legal, and my opinion looks really good. Since he doesn't have pictures of the wiring here's what I did:

 

20170928_122616_resized.jpg

 

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Just expose a segment of each wire, solder wires onto each segment, feed through the corner of the brake light housing, solder to the bracket light wires, then cover everything up. I plan on adding fuel storage to the carrier at some point in the distant future, in which case the license plate would be remounted on the jerry can bracket, so I made the wiring extra long to accommodate and just stored the excess in the brake light housing.

 

The tire carrier contacts the the "Pathfinder" logo trim as Hawairish and Towndawg have noted, and it was actually making it difficult to fully latch. I was having to pretty much slam it. For now I just removed it and am going to fill the holes with some rubber grommets.

 

20170928_142232_resized.jpg

 

You have to remove the hatch interior trim, (held on by ONLY plastic clips that we know love to break) and there are three nuts you have to undo as well as the plate light harness.

 

The carrier is still kind of difficult to latch due to the rubber bump stop on the bumper pushing it away. Presumably this is cuz of the aluminum reinforcement moving all of these brackets outwards. If it gets bothersome I might trim down the bump stop.

 

And that's it! Up next is getting a full sized spare (265/75/16), but first I need to fix this:

 

20170928_140114_resized.jpg

 

I already have the right sized bolt. Just need to grind off the old one and have a shop weld it in.

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Overall the carrier feels solid. When fully latched there is zero play at both the quarter panel and bumper assembly. When open about 2 feet or less, if I lift up on the carrier I can see slight movement of the quarter panel right above the tail light. Not really flexing, but more like movement between the metal pieces that join up at this location. In any case, this doesn't happen when fully open, and when I apply downward force (i.e. hang off it like a monkey), there is zero quarter panel movement across the entire swing arc.

 

The only time i can see it flex is at the lower right bracket when it's already open and I give it a little tug. The way the stopper is set up on the lower bracket for when it's open, it actually looks like the force is directed more to pulling on the left set of bolts as opposed to pushing on the right. So as long as its opened carefully and the latch bracket doesn't fail while driving, it shouldn't be a concern. For perspective, I can tend to be a worrier, and I've been sleeping like a baby the last couple nights haha.

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Great job!

 

The only thing I would recommend is using heat shrink over the wire solder connection. Since it is already together, electrical tape would work to keep the hot wire from contacting. Maybe you did this already but it's not in the picture.

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Great job!

 

The only thing I would recommend is using heat shrink over the wire solder connection. Since it is already together, electrical tape would work to keep the hot wire from contacting. Maybe you did this already but it's not in the picture.

 

 

Thanks! yeah it's e-taped for now. I've got some liquid e-tape at work that I'll put on later for better protection.

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Oh YEAH!!! Thanks jjonez. Your pix are very encouraging. I really like the extra support the fender washers give it. I might even think about some strapping or something to add just a little more support. Kyle (ferrariowner123) very graciously gave me his old swingate and now I'm just looking for the bumper latch plates (he had the guide) and the pull release mechanism!

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Nice, jjonez! I'm really glad this approach has become viable for others.

 

I tried something similar with the foam pads, instead using a neoprene sheet, but yeah, it needs to be thin and compressed like 1/16" rubber sheet (which, btw, is what was originally used...I tried to get the OE pieces but they are NLA). I ended up not using anything, but may revisit it at some point.

 

Glad the fender washers approach worked. And yes, if there's any concern for damage, it's if the carrier opens too quickly. Be very mindful of this. There's not really a good solution for this. In my case, since I'm using bolts and not the OE pins, I can tighten them up to slow down movement. I may reconsider the placement of the liftgate strut I also use to control opening.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Took care of the finishing touches for this project. First was covering and concealing the wires. They're not noticeable at all when the carrier is closed.

 

20171017_120038_1508278161752.jpg

 

I used some rubber grommets and a little silicone to cover the holes left from the pathfinder logo.

 

20171010_155643_1508278161876.jpg

 

I forgot to take some pictures but I ground off the broken bolt on the tire bracket and had a new one welded on. I found a matching allow wheel at the JY and went to a used tire shop for a 265/75. Unfortunately they only had highway tread, but better than a spare thats 3 inches too short!

 

And the best part, I got a generic vinyl tire cover from amazon and had a custom sticker made for it.

 

20171017_120241_1508278161332.jpg

 

I used the WD21 tire cover logo to give it some retro flair which I'm really digging. All said and done only $40 for the sticker and cover, plus time spent editing the graphic.

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https://m.ebay.com/itm/Spare-Wheel-Tire-Cover-Series-Nissan-Pathfinder-Tire-Cover-Heavy-Denim-Vinyl-/302405573916?fits=Make%3ANissan&hash=item4668c6dd1c%3Ag%3AX5IAAOSw-YVXlfTc&_trkparms=pageci%253Af192d964-b3a8-11e7-bb1b-74dbd180c7b4%257Cparentrq%253A2d3b579115f0a9c555cbd1fbfffc3335%257Ciid%253A18

 

I really like this one. If I could only find it a little bigger and not shipped from China.

 

At one point I checked with Fluerys to see if he would make a NPORA tire cover, but it was a no go. Logistics of sourcing the blank tire cover in Canada made the end product too expensive, if I remember correctly.

 

I have seen the same tire cover you have on Amazon for around $45. Might be an option for others.

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Glad y'all like it!

 

 

I like the option of personalizing the vinyl tire cover with a sticker. Might use something Pacific Northwesty!

 

Yea you can really do whatever you feel like with a sticker which is really nice. And you can always change it up if you feel like it, this one cost me $20 which I think is a steal for a single custom sticker of this size. I was also considering something like this since I was having trouble getting enough resolution with the WD21 logo:

nissan-motor-vector-logo.png

 

https://m.ebay.com/itm/Spare-Wheel-Tire-Cover-Series-Nissan-Pathfinder-Tire-Cover-Heavy-Denim-Vinyl-/302405573916?fits=Make%3ANissan&hash=item4668c6dd1c%3Ag%3AX5IAAOSw-YVXlfTc&_trkparms=pageci%253Af192d964-b3a8-11e7-bb1b-74dbd180c7b4%257Cparentrq%253A2d3b579115f0a9c555cbd1fbfffc3335%257Ciid%253A18

I really like this one. If I could only find it a little bigger and not shipped from China.

At one point I checked with Fluerys to see if he would make a NPORA tire cover, but it was a no go. Logistics of sourcing the blank tire cover in Canada made the end product too expensive, if I remember correctly.

I have seen the same tire cover you have on Amazon for around $45. Might be an option for others.

 

That's a cool one. It's totally possible to make this into a sticker as well to put on a larger cover. It will just take more care getting the color in there.

 

Is this the amazon cover you mentioned? I saw it but it only is good for a 30" spare. The cover I got was this blank one.

 

I took a picture of the logo on my '87 and messed with it in an online photo editor to go from this:

image.jpg

To something like this:

image.png

 

Not perfect, but close enough for me. Then i just used that to order a die-cut vinyl sticker from carstickers.com

Edited by jjonez
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That's awesome. I don't have the patience to mess with photo editing, so it is always impressive to me when someone does.

 

Yes, that is the Amazon one, didn't realize it was so small.

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I plan on making a rear bumper with a carrier. In preparation, I bought a factory license plate holder off a truck that had a carrier. It mounts on the drivers side edge of the rear hatch. BUT it doesn't look like it will fit my truck. The mount is from a 1997 and mine is a 1999. It seems the mount wants a flat rear hatch. Was there a flat rear hatch?

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I plan on making a rear bumper with a carrier. In preparation, I bought a factory license plate holder off a truck that had a carrier. It mounts on the drivers side edge of the rear hatch. BUT it doesn't look like it will fit my truck. The mount is from a 1997 and mine is a 1999. It seems the mount wants a flat rear hatch. Was there a flat rear hatch?

 

I don't think they changed the rear door until the face-lift (if they did at all, despite having a 96 and on 03 side by side i still cant tell),

 

What seems to be the exact reason you see the mount not working?

 

-Kyle

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  • 1 month later...

Alright so I havent been on this forum for a long time. I am glad I found this thread and found a local tire carrier im picking up Saturday for 25 bucks. I will be tearing apart the interior this weekend or maybe week if I have time at work to take a look.

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Alright so I havent been on this forum for a long time. I am glad I found this thread and found a local tire carrier im picking up Saturday for 25 bucks. I will be tearing apart the interior this weekend or maybe week if I have time at work to take a look.

 

We thought you died. Glad to see you hadn't....

 

-Kyle

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Not dead yet! But I have been busy. So I picked up the tire carrier today for 25 bucks! Got all the pieces for it. I'm going to start cleaning it up this weekend then borrowing a buddies rivnut tool to finish the job. Only issue I have seen so far is that the latch is kinda sticky and doesn't like to release easy. Anyone had to deal with that? What's a solution or an easy way to take it apart and re build? d32f9dbf43510949c7f21261359688b4.jpg

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Nice, that's a solid deal.

 

The latch housing is welded or riveted IIRC, so really the only thing you can do is spray it down liberally with some WD40 or silicone spray and work the latch with a screwdriver or the latch bracket, just constantly engaging it until things free up. I ended up doing that for both the carriers I installed.

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