spare wheel carrier for 5th wheel hitch

[LCAM-01XA]

Since I hardly ever use my 5th wheel hitch but it is in my truck all the time I thought it could double-up as a carrier for a spare wheel, well here's pics of the carrier-bracket-thingie that makes this possible, been meaning to build it for a while now but it was only this past weekend that I found both the time to do it and the spare wheel to hang on it:

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And yes I know the wheel is dirty and the hitch needs repainting, lol

 

[Agnem]

Very nice! I once made a similar rig that fit in my reciever hitch, but the wife didn't like the way it made the Moose Truck look, and I valued her opionion so it got sold at a rally.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Mel, thank you! I was contemplating building a carrier that would fit in my receiver as well, but then I'd run into the same issue as I did when I had a spare on the tailgate - it would get in the way all the time when I decide to drop the gate. I guess I could have made it with a hinge so it drops down when needed (was that how you built yours?) but I'm running outta square tubing and heavy plates that I'd need to build something that stout. This thing I have now is made of a Chevy lugnuts ring adapter, a piece of 5/16" plate that I had laying around, and some angle iron and steel pipe that I also found in my steel leftovers pile.

On a different note, does anyone know what that hitch is rated at? I can't find any markings on it, but its the type that normally only rides on the bed crossmembers...

 

[Agnem]

They come in different classes... I think III through IV. So without a marking it would be tough to tell. Looks like one of the lighter duty ones to me though. Yes, mine dropped down too. I did a really nice job on it, then I was like ... crap....

 

[smokin69]

I wanted to build one for a while for my gooseneck hitch hole

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Mel, thought it could be a lighter duty, the jaws are monsters but the whole way it attaches to just the bed just didn't sit right with me... so I went on a welding spree, and those diagonal bars that you see under the thing are double-wall gas pipe that goes to some rather beastly brackets welded to the frame, now most of the vertical load is handle by those. I will be running some nice thick-wall square tubing under there as well across the frame for the fore-aft bars to bolt down to, then the thing will be rather stout, if anything just as an extra piece of mind.

 

[OLDBULL8]

Had a hitch just like that, the over the fender rails were bolted to the frame, but mine had an angle brace that bolted to the bed side, you could get to the nuts down thru the stake pocket. I towed a "79" 35 ft heavy 5er with it. No problem. Was wondering what the angle braces were down to the bed, until I read your third post. I'm guessing, but I think the 5er weighed 12500.

Edit: Re-reading your third post, if you can't bolt directly to the frame, you should use 90* angle iron bolted to the frame then the rails bolted to them with 2 bolts. Use nothing but grade 8 bolts.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

The hitch rails are way too far apart to use 90* angle iron to attach them to the frame, the frame rails are just inboard of where those angle braces hit the bed floor so about half a foot off where yours were. The brackets I put under the bed to attach those angle braces to are not simply 90* angle iron, but actually seriously gusseted brackets for installing a class III hitch on the front of a '74-'80 Chevrolet pickup truck - they are welded to the frame on the front, rear, and bottom edges, and there is also a plug weld right in the middle of theme where there was a hole for a bolt on the Chevy frame horn. Because the hitch rails that go over the fenders are so far apart I'm going with 1/4"-wall square tubing across the frame rail wide enough to reach the hitch rails. I actually built my front bumper out of the same tubing, I lift the whole front of the truck by that bumper so I can attest to the tubing's strength when used in across-frame configuration. As for the braces that go to the take pockets, I have something very similar, only mine bolt on top of the fender and to reach the nuts I have to reach in the wheel well - this is also why I made them angles braces angled, so they can handle not only vertical loading but also to triangulate the side-to-side loads as the truck-trailer combination negotiates corners. Bolts and nuts and washers are all Grade 8, I have eight 1/2" ones for the over-the-fender reail (two on each end, 3" or so apart from each other), and 9/16" for the angled braces to the truck frame. Bolts that retain the hitch head from coming off the over-the-fender rails are also 1/2" Grade 8...