Auto news on Youtube Nov 27 2018

The SkyJacker Tailgate Saver Spare Tire Support is for those of you to have a 2007 to 2018

JK that has the SkyJacker spare tire relocation bracket installed on it or another spare tire

relocation bracket that does roughly the same thing, and that's to move the tire out and

up.

This is not going to work if you have a larger than factory spare tire in the factory spare

tire location.

But, if you are running that bracket or another one like it, this is going to solve the problem

of a heavier than factory spare tire breaking down your factory hinges on your tailgate,

the welds on the tailgate itself, or the spare tire carrier steel.

Those are the three main problems that you can have when you put a big, heavy spare in

the factory location, and this does help to solve those.

The other solutions are, of course, a bumper mounted tire carrier or a beefier tub mounted

tire carrier.

This is gonna be significantly less expensive and it allows you to run that factory rear

bumper if you would like to do that.

This install is going to be a two out of three wrenches, bolts directly in place, and I'll

show you how to do that in just a second.

So, again, if you have something that is already going to move your tire out and up from the

factory location, this here is just going to support the additional weight of that tire

so it's not bouncing and moving and twerking around which can cause the fatigue of metal

and the breakdown of your hinges.

So, this is going to be a very eloquent solution for those problems.

Now, is this going to do as nice of a job as a tub mounted or a bumper mounted tire

carrier?

Probably not, but is it a very simple and inexpensive solution, maybe as a stopgap for

you?

Yes, absolutely it is going to do that.

Now, a couple of things that I do like about this is that it is very easy to install.

Whether you have a factory hitch installed or not, this is going to bolt directly onto

the crossmember.

Again, very, very easy installation.

I like the fact that all these holes are slotted and you can actually install this in a variety

of different ways.

It's a total of three different brackets and depending on how you overlap them, you can

make adjustments for different backspacing and different tire sizes.

So, this is very flexible in that way and this does come with some stainless hardware

on it, which is always a nice feature.

This is something that is going to be outside, exposed to the elements.

You're not going to have nearly as much rust when you have stainless hardware like that.

So, again, a couple of things that I do like in the way that this was put together and

in the way that this was built.

The price tag on this comes in right around $70, which I do think is going to be pretty

fair, again, for the engineering, for the quality that you're getting here.

And especially when you consider that it's either this or a bumper mounted or tub mounted

tire carrier, which is going to be 10 times what this costs or more.

So, this is going to be a very inexpensive solution to a lot of different problems.

Now, I mentioned before, this is an easy install.

Let me show you how to get it done.

For this installation, you're going to need a 3/4-inch socket and a 3/4-inch wrench.

We also used a couple of different size 3/8-inch extensions, as well as a 3/8-inch universal,

all driven by a 3/8-inch impact.

You'll also need a 7/32 Allen head socket or an Allen key would work just fine.

And we used a 17-millimeter socket to remove our bumper bolts, but they're not factory

bumper bolts.

Your size may be a little bit different.

We're not actually going to completely remove the rear bumper from the Jeep, but we are

going to need a little bit more space to work when getting the first bracket installed.

So, what we are going to do is remove the two bolts that hold the bumper to the frame

on the driver's side here, and that will give us a little bit of additional play to get

everything bolted up.

So, we'll go ahead and do that now.

So, that's really all the disassembly we're going to have to do on our Jeep.

Now, we can go ahead and get the first of three brackets bolted together here.

However, if you have a factory or even a factory style hitch on your Jeep, you're gonna have

to loosen up some of the hardware that holds that in place.

That's going to be the same hardware that's included in the kit.

So, again, if you have a hitch, you'll loosen up the hardware.

You're not gonna be using these bolts or really any of these washers or nuts that come in

the kit, but if you're like us and you don't, you're gonna use all of this hardware to attach

this bracket onto the rear crossmember.

Now, we'll get our bracket installed.

This is always going to be a lot easier if you have a creeper, you can just roll under

the Jeep, get all your hardware bolted up.

After bolting up that bracket, you can reinstall the factory bumper bolts.

The rest of the installation is as straightforward as the first half, but there are a few decisions

to be made.

This can get bolted up in a variety of different ways.

These two brackets to this piece here, you can put this bracket on top and this one on

top of that, this one underneath and this one underneath of that, or any combination

of those.

And what you're going to be using and how you're going to bolt everything up really

depends on your tire size and the backspacing of your wheels, so how far out from the body

you want this final bracket to sit and then how far up or down.

Now, the bracket we already installed, that has slotted bolt holes, as do, obviously,

this one and this one here, so you do have a good bit of adjustability, but you also

want to play with things a little bit and make sure that you're going to be able to

get everything adjusted where you needed to be.

Again, just figuring out which way these brackets are going to get installed and what goes on

top.

So, what I'm gonna do is close the tailgate, get under there, and play with these a little

bit to figure out what order everything is going to go in.

Then we'll open up the tailgate again and get everything bolted up for the last time.

Now, that we've determined the order that these brackets are gonna get bolted up in,

we can go ahead and bolt them on.

So, if you are looking for an inexpensive solution to a heavier than factory spare tire,

I would recommend this tire support from SkyJacker, and you can find it right here at extremeterrain.com.