Drill holes don't align with spare tire carrier!

OK, so my 73 already had the holes drilled on the side for the spare tire mount. I ordered what 4WD.com said was the Omix-Ada/OEM spare tire carrier. When I got it though, it didn't align with the holes already drilled on the side of my CJ. So, did the PO screw up the drilling or is there another carrier I need to get?

The carrier I have is 6/16ths shorter all the way around. 4''10/16ths on two sides and 4''3/16ths on the other two. What is the best way to securely attach the carrier? Do I just drill out larger holes to accommodate the 6/16 difference and use large washers?

Thanks for your help,
Jason

 

That's what I did.

Then I found out that my spare wouldn't mount on it. The OEM tires were fairly thin.

 

I'll head over to ACE hardware this weekend and see what my washer options are. My tires are 9.5 wide and look like they will fit, but I'll find out for sure once I get the carrier installed.

 

I'd put the spare on teh mount and hold it up to the body to make sure it will actually fit before you go to all the trouble of mounting it. Just a thought. I bet stock tires for that year were narrower than 9.50's.

 

9.5's are gonna be really tight, if you truly have the OEM type mounting bracket, used in a side mount.

Don't forget, you need to leave clearance for the rear wheel to move in its full travel. You may find that with a 9.5" wide tire on the jeep, and a 9.5" tire mounted on the side (if it will fit at all, it will depend on the mounting bracket) that you are really likely to rub the two, especially when the passenger side tire goes to full droop.

I would also recommend using at least very large fender washers (little hole/large diameter washer) at the very least inside the fender. Trust me, it's really easy to tear the spare off the side, mount and all. Even everything clears, you must be 100% aware of the sidespare, especially off road. I've almost torn the thing off the side more than once when distracted with a tight tricky trail...

 

Ok, finally got around to installing this with the help of some friends and am posting on the results. It turned out great. I was able to reuse two of the existing holes and drilled two new ones. Reusing the existing ones was critical as they were using supports that helped stabilize the carrier and provided needed support. I used washers to help spread the weight distribution. The 30x9.50R15 tire fit fine with a tiny bit of room to spare. If I was wheeling to the point where I needed full flex it might be a different story, but this is a restored piece of Jeep history not a hard core wheeler. It's my daily driver and it serves it's utilitarian purpose well, but it is not going to see any full flex action. Anyway, before and after pics are here:

http://www.ikoz.com/images/cj5/profile - passenger - no spare.jpg

http://www.ikoz.com/images/cj5/profile - passenger.jpg

http://www.ikoz.com/images/cj5/rear - drivers angle.jpg

 

Looks good.

Mine has wider tires so the mount went into the spare parts bin.

I'm currently thinking about building a rear spare hauler. I've found some really good ideas here.