Thread: Puma Rear Wheel Carrier

As some of you may remember, I’ve had these spare wheel carriers on my drawing board for quite some time. One of the main hold ups was the need for a Puma in my workshop to do a pre-fitting so I could finalise the design and make any small adjustments if needed. Thankfully another member on AULRO generously made two trips down from Melbourne to my place near Geelong so I could finally see the end product on the back of a Defender. I’m happy with the result so far.

To give some sort of idea how much work is involved in getting to the finished item, there are approximately 163 individual components that go into a carrier. I wont bore you all with the details of the design process.




There are a number of things I wanted to achieve with the design……..
: Opens automatically with the door.
: Locks automatically in the open position.
: Easy to use.
: Robust and strong enough to handle all conditions.
: Minimum vibration and movement of the tyre/wheel/carrier.
: Use existing holes to mount the hardware where possible.
: Hopefully as good or better than commercially available products.
: Cheaper than comparable retail products (not hard to achieve that )
: Laser cut components for accuracy and professional appearance.
: Has to look good too .


It all mounts up to existing holes, except for two points……
One 12mm hole needs to be drilled in the bottom of the chassis (not pictured) for a brace to bolt to. This hole already exists on older models like County’s, but not on the Puma. As it’s out of sight, it’s not a big issue.
The only modification needed on the vehicle is to cut a slot in the steel trim under the door. Again, on older models, this trim isn’t there so a gap already exists. I think this trim might have been added to Defender models from 2002 when the one piece door was also introduced.
The slot is approximately 60mm x 10mm to allow a brace to go through to an angled section of the chassis and bolt to an existing hole. I’d prefer not to have to drill or cut anything, but the slot can be done neatly with a drill and a die grinder and really isn’t too noticeable. You could probably get away without the top brace if you only want to carry a standard spare, but I think it’s worth cutting the slot for the extra strength it adds. On my own carrier I have a steel wheel with a 33’ tyre, as well as a 20 litre jerry can of water, so that’s a fair bit of weight.

These pics show the slot, the bracket and the bracket in place…..








The backing plate for the main chassis mount assembly, I’ve made so it wraps around the back of the top and bottom of the chassis to make use of the strength of the horizontal plate, rather than just sandwiching the vertical faces.




Also, the chassis mount assembly is the full height of the chassis member. I’ve seen similar commercially built carriers that don’t cover the full height of the chassis, therefore making it more vulnerable to crushing or fatigue caused by ‘oil canning’ the vertical face of the chassis.




The main beam is welded to a machined hub and fitted with tapered wheel bearings, an oil/grease seal and a dust cap (not pictured).








The bottom locator which bears some of the weight in the closed position is bolted on the front of the tow bar face plate using the top two bolts. This Defender has the factory type tow bar.






The door plate replaces the original spare wheel mount and this allows the carrier to attach to the door with the pivot arm. The door plate is attached to the door using the original bolts. The pivot arm is fitted with nylon bushes…..no need for grease which would just attract dust.










In the closed position, the pivot arm presses firmly against a rubber buffer, as does the bottom locator (pictured above). This eliminates any unnecessary movement.



The tension of the pivot arm pressing on the rubber buffer can be adjusted by adding or removing washers.




To further reduce movement and vibration, the wheel mount is adjustable to allow the side wall of the tyre to rest firmly against the front of the carrier.






The lever for the locking pin is oval section aluminium and the pin is hardened steel. It’s spring loaded so it automatically locks in position when the door is open just over 90*.
The pin slides on a piece of bearing grade nylon which is riveted to the chassis mount with stainless steel rivets (pictured above).






This particular Defender just happened to have some ‘Mulgo’ bumperettes fitted. Luckily the chassis mount cleared the bumperette by a few millimetres.




The finished project. I’m happy to say, the carrier really suits the Puma. The satin black powder coat is a pretty close match to the chassis. Colour coding to the colour of the paint would also be an option.




I should point out that metal fabrication is just a hobby of mine that seems to have got a little out of control (since owning Landys ) With the sometimes over the top retail prices of accessories, I love being able to make my own.
Now that I have the finalised design (for the Puma anyway), I intend to go ahead and make some more carriers shortly. I don’t run a business and selling through the forum is not allowed, other than in the markets section, so anyone who wants more info other than general discussion on the thread, please PM me.

Cheers, Murray

Originally Posted by LowRanger

Hi Murray

I just went out and measured the plate on the rear of my 94 Tdi and the plate is the same as the plate in the photo above 190H x 270W.
The only reason I haven't replied earlier in this thread is that I thought that the Rear wheel carrier for the Tdi would be different to what you would be making at the moment.But if it looks like they will fit,Santa needs to leave me another present,so please keep me in mind.

Wayne

Thanks for that Wayne. That's interesting, I thought the Tdi's would have the smaller plate, but that's good because the more common components I have between models the easier it is to make them.

Cheers, Murray