I'm thinking about having my wife's family steel fabrication shop work up a custom rear bumper - but 1 thing I notice is that most of you with custom rear bumpers with tire carriers have the spare tire on the right hand side. Why is this? Wouldn't it be less of a visual obstruction in the rear window if it was behind you on the drivers side?

I know when I pile boxes into the rear of the 4Runner I stack them higher behind me than in the passenger side of the cargo area - I feel like I'm not losing as much visually as when I have them piled higher or blocking more of the passenger side of the rear window.

Am I missing something as to why it shouldn't be on the Drivers side? The only thing I can guess is a weight issue with the gas tank also being on the driverside.

John

I believe I read someone posted that the tire has to open opposite of oncomming traffic <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="images/icons/confused.gif" />

Yeah, the reasons I have seen stated have to do with it opening out into the traffic if you are on the side of the road. If I had one built I would get it constructed as you pointed out. I look out the rear view mirror a whole lot more frequently than I have flats on the side of the road. I would prefer to have the spare tire blind spot on the left side of the vehicle. I may not be the brightest around but I think I could keep the carrier from swinging out into the road in the event of a flat.

May be completely unrelated, but there is already a bunch of weight on the driver's side since the gas tank is on that side.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by FattyCBR:
<strong>May be completely unrelated, but there is already a bunch of weight on the driver's side since the gas tank is on that side.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Not on anything with a 22r/re or 3vz. Those trucks have the exhaust on the drivers side and the fuel tank on the passanger side.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by EClayton08:
<strong>I believe I read someone posted that the tire has to open opposite of oncomming traffic <img border="0" title="" alt="[Confused]" src="images/icons/confused.gif" /> </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Yup, that's the reason that I saw posted years ago and I've repeated the same saying. I believed that rumor because when I was getting mine built, I also noticed that every vehicle that I saw that was sold in the U.S. with a stock rear spare tire rack opens with the hinge on the right. I have been unsuccessful in trying to find the actual law or SAE standard that says that, though. I've looked some, but I'd have to look a lot deeper to really know for sure either way.

Interesting that Japanese vehicles continue to follow the U.S. standard in Japan with having the hinge on the right even though they drive on the opposite side of the road.

I agree that it would be smarter to have the left side view obstructed, since that would more likely be the view of traffic going the other direction, not the person you just passed.

Roger Brown has also made the excellent point previously that he intentionally put the hinge on the left side so that he could park on the side of a road and be able to load/unload stuff from the curb.

One minor advantage to having the hinge on the right is that you'll often walk past the latch mechanism on the left as you're walking to/from your truck so you can more easily see if someone tampered with it, etc.

Oh yeah - it's assumed to make the hinge on the same side as the tire, and hopefully you can put the latch low enough that your rack is only part of the width of the bumper.

<small>[ June 19, 2003, 10:19 PM: Message edited by: Jeff the marmot ]</small>

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by Maj:
<strong>I may not be the brightest around but I think I could keep the carrier from swinging out into the road in the event of a flat.</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Even if you wisely add some sort of spring-loaded pin to lock it 90 degrees out, you still should plan a little bit for what happens when a weld or the latch fails as you're driving down the road.

Don't let Bob know any of this, I loved the e-mails telling me my spare tire was on the wrong side <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" /> <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="images/icons/grin.gif" />

Mine's hinged on the left side for all the reasons jeff said. I still need to figure out a way to limit the swing though, I'm thinking I'll limit it with a cable or something.

Steve

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by Jeff the marmot:
<strong>I believed that rumor because when I was getting mine built, I also noticed that every vehicle that I saw that was sold in the U.S. with a stock rear spare tire rack opens with the hinge on the right.
</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Funny you mention that you can't find one that opens to the left since you affiliate with so many Zu's. The 1st gen Rodeo has the tire open to the left. I can see the advantages either way.
Of course if you really take it off road, you want the tire a little higher up to avoid those ledges when going down(trust me I know from experience) So with the tire higher up in the rear window, it slowly becomes more of a visual impairment on either side.
When I get mine built, I think I want it to open to the left due to loading and unloading from the curb then again there is the extra weight I put on the driver's side already <img border="0" title="" alt="[Roll Eyes]" src="images/icons/rolleyes.gif" />

Just my $.02
Steve

<small>[ June 20, 2003, 11:12 AM: Message edited by: Jonesy ]</small>