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R50 Tire Carrier Mod: Let's settle this!


hawairish
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  • 11 months later...
  • 4 months later...

Hey all, the rivnut tool that is commonly recommended in these threads has been discontinued by the manufacturer. Anyone have one still lying around that they'd be willing to sell? Or is there another tool that has been used successfully? 

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14 hours ago, Rota said:

Hey all, the rivnut tool that is commonly recommended in these threads has been discontinued by the manufacturer. Anyone have one still lying around that they'd be willing to sell? Or is there another tool that has been used successfully? 

 

Any similar tool will do...tons of options on Amazon still varying from $30 and up.  Seeing a Beetro 14" unit that's at the low price range and has the essential metric sizes.  Most kits come with both SAE and metric sizes, which is a plus if you have other uses.  Mine still sees occasional use so I'm keeping it around. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/12/2022 at 12:09 AM, hawairish said:

 

Any similar tool will do...tons of options on Amazon still varying from $30 and up.  Seeing a Beetro 14" unit that's at the low price range and has the essential metric sizes.  Most kits come with both SAE and metric sizes, which is a plus if you have other uses.  Mine still sees occasional use so I'm keeping it around. 

 

Thanks! I've got one now and it seems to be pretty decent quality. Just need a step drill bit for the holes. I see you mentioned the ones from Harbor Freight. Did you use the one that's just a smooth cone that's essentially "stepless" or one with coarse steps to drill the holes in the body?

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18 minutes ago, Rota said:

 

Thanks! I've got one now and it seems to be pretty decent quality. Just need a step drill bit for the holes. I see you mentioned the ones from Harbor Freight. Did you use the one that's just a smooth cone that's essentially "stepless" or one with coarse steps to drill the holes in the body?


Coarse stepped ones. The two larger ones have sizes that are basically perfect for the rivnuts, though I rely on calipers to confirm the diameters. You want the hole to be the same size or a hair smaller; too large and the rivnut will likely spin. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Got lucky on Wednesday! felt like checking the junkyard inventory and there was a 97 pathfinder with a carrier that had been brought in the day before! swooped it for the Q yesterday, gonna go back tomorrow for the hole templates in bumper and for the hinges. I have been keeping my eye out for one of these for about 2 years lol. planning on getting it done up in the next few weeks! Thanks everyone in this thread who has posted their experiences and advice here as a resource.

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  • 6 months later...

Hey everyone, hopefully everyone is still around on this thread. I bought 01 silvas path from him and I'm having a bit trouble from the quarter panel warping. I know he has some support behind it but it seems like not strong enough. I have my old rig which has an oem carrier with the supports. So I cut that out this weekend and plan to try to make it work this coming weekend. I never worked with rivnuts so I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to attach the pem support to it. If anyone has any suggestions that'd be greatly appreciated.

Also the Oem support has welded nuts on the back which I'm trying to decide if I should cut those off. I attached some photos as a reference 7694e0f4d8e39be93ae3e6bb1b8248c8.jpg6db6fce08910f56c93bbece43d65ea8a.jpg5138659857b26395ab247710b7e9b9e1.jpg

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If you can fit the whole bracket in there, just use the nuts on the bracket instead of the riv nuts. The riv nuts are just a way to avoid having to deal with the brackets. Maybe you could remove the nuts and use the riv nuts to hold the brackets to the panel--but I would expect that to be a PITA to line up, and also weaker when you're done, and I don't know if there's enough length on the riv nuts to clamp through the bracket and still hold themselves in.

 

From what I remember (and can see in the picture), that truck has great big honking tires on it, so any strength you can add to the tire carrier mounts will be a good thing.

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Yep. Has a full size 35" spare tire on it right now.

I'm going to have to drill out the riv nuts and somehow thread in the bracket I just cut out of my old rig. Not going to be an easy task that's for sure..

I could also fab up another bracket , but again Im not sure how the riv nut will hold the bracket without me actually installing it in the piece I mock up, which is going to be more difficult I'd assume than trying to just fish this piece back there and thread the bolt a couple turns60f7d342f50e676a511ce9ed0ea1fbb8.jpg07e77e4de7e33ec90099729d886556c4.jpg

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That’s fantastic info to have, thanks for sharing that. I have a bunch of rust repair to do on the rear quarter panels so on the passenger side I‘ll make sure to weld some reinforcements on the inside of that area while I’m in there before I mount the carrier. 

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  • 2 years later...

In hopes of reigniting an old discussion, are there any Australians with R50 Pathfinders who know where I could find an OEM wheel carrier? I've heard these are hard to find in the US, so I'm wondering what the chances are of locating one in Australia. I started my search back in 2013 and have been looking on and off ever since, but I still haven't found one. I did see someone in New Zealand who managed to put an OEM carrier on their R50 Pathfinder, but having one shipped from the US would likely be quite expensive I have thought about making my own rear wheel carriers which is turning out to be the only option i do have a welder so how hard could it be As I laughed nervously to myself.

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8 hours ago, pathy200086 said:

In hopes of reigniting an old discussion, are there any Australians with R50 Pathfinders who know where I could find an OEM wheel carrier? I've heard these are hard to find in the US, so I'm wondering what the chances are of locating one in Australia. I started my search back in 2013 and have been looking on and off ever since, but I still haven't found one. I did see someone in New Zealand who managed to put an OEM carrier on their R50 Pathfinder, but having one shipped from the US would likely be quite expensive I have thought about making my own rear wheel carriers which is turning out to be the only option i do have a welder so how hard could it be As I laughed nervously to myself.

 

I have a spare aluminum carrier but unfortunately it is located in the western US. Why not make something that attaches to the tow hitch?

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14 hours ago, R50JR said:

 

I have a spare aluminum carrier but unfortunately it is located in the western US. Why not make something that attaches to the tow hitch?

wish I lived in the US I would have brought that carrier if it was for sale. do you know how much it weights is it the whole unit ?

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I did find this place which seems to be in the US and Australia https://www.coastaloffroadbumpers.com.au/shop/r50-nissan-pathfinder-high-clearance-rear-bumper-kit-1710#attr=1153,1159,1160,1162,3563,1168,8249 It comes as a kit that you have to weld together yourself. When you add everything up, it totals $3,016.28 Australian dollars, which is more than the value of my Pathfinder. I’m pretty sure that price doesn’t include shipping. I think the most realistic and cost-effective option would be to make my own carrier, unless I can find one for a bargain from the States.

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9 hours ago, pathy200086 said:

wish I lived in the US I would have brought that carrier if it was for sale. do you know how much it weights is it the whole unit ?

it weighs 38lbs for the carrier alone and maybe another 2-3 lbs for the latch hardware

 

 

7 hours ago, pathy200086 said:

I did find this place which seems to be in the US and Australia https://www.coastaloffroadbumpers.com.au/shop/r50-nissan-pathfinder-high-clearance-rear-bumper-kit-1710#attr=1153,1159,1160,1162,3563,1168,8249 It comes as a kit that you have to weld together yourself. When you add everything up, it totals $3,016.28 Australian dollars, which is more than the value of my Pathfinder. I’m pretty sure that price doesn’t include shipping. I think the most realistic and cost-effective option would be to make my own carrier, unless I can find one for a bargain from the States.

I paid around $3000 USD to ship a bull bar from Australia to California. I am sure you will find someone willing to ship to you but it won't be cheap. I would imagine $1000-1500 USD for shipping.

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Any chance of importing one from Japan? I haven't looked into it, don't know if the JDM R50s had carriers either, but it might be cheaper than shipping one from the US, if your heart's set on an OE carrier.

 

Agreed that it would be cheaper and easier to make something yourself, though. I'll bet you could make something similar to the Coastal bumper for cheaper than you could import the OE carrier, and have a much more solid setup in the end--assuming that's what you're after.

 

Might be worth seeing if there's a similar kit available in your area, either for the R50, or for a platform of similar (or larger) width that you could adapt to fit. Or you could find a used bumper/carrier setup from something else that you could modify to fit rather than building from scratch.

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On 7/2/2025 at 10:44 AM, Slartibartfast said:

Any chance of importing one from Japan? I haven't looked into it, don't know if the JDM R50s had carriers either, but it might be cheaper than shipping one from the US, if your heart's set on an OE carrier.

 

Agreed that it would be cheaper and easier to make something yourself, though. I'll bet you could make something similar to the Coastal bumper for cheaper than you could import the OE carrier, and have a much more solid setup in the end--assuming that's what you're after.

 

Might be worth seeing if there's a similar kit available in your area, either for the R50, or for a platform of similar (or larger) width that you could adapt to fit. Or you could find a used bumper/carrier setup from something else that you could modify to fit rather than building from scratch.

that's actually are really good idea something like a Mitsubishi pajero or Toyota 4 runner of the same era might be similar in size all I would have have to make  is a mount to fit the carrier to the pathfinder.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Since my 4WD system is back in action, I am now focusing on making my own rear wheel carrier. Getting an OEM one in Australia is nearly impossible, and I’ve wanted to create one for several years. During that time, I came across a CAD drawing someone made for a rear wheel carrier for the R50 Pathfinder. Does anyone know if that drawing is still available? I’ve searched online but can't seem to find it. Any help would be greatly appreciated! 

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