what's the best wheel carrier hold open mechanism

Hi GN,

Take a look at the large door of a GU Patrol. It has a mechanism that holds the door open to the correct angle, but if you give the guide a "push" in, it locks the door open - great when parked on a slope. And to close the door, simple has giving a "pull" on the guide to unlock. Bound to be able to source something from a wrecker (not too sure if GQ patrols had the same).

Cheers

Captain

Im hoping you get a responce because Im doing the same thing and was getting on EO to see whats out there LOL!!!

Regards and good luck J.B.

Hi GN,

Had an OL dual wheel carrier on the troopy and it had a bit of bent metal to support the open carrier. Failed on first use. Replaced it wwith a short piece of 20/25mm tube fashioned to fit on the same mount and it worked a treat. It held the wheel carrier out after the gas strut opened it easily.

My experience.

Cheers
Ian@Mt Dare

This works ok - but u have to be sure to open the locking lug BEFORE trying to close the wheel carrier otherwise it gets bent - rather like it is in the pic - :-)

GN
I have the Kaymar back-end and have 2 problems with the little bent bolt thingy to keep the wheel open.
Often, the bent bit does not fall down into the keep-it-open position when you open the wheel. This means you can let the wheel go and it falls back onto you (or the tail gate) if on a side-slope.
Secondly, as there is a bit of movement in the wheel swing before it hits the bent thingy, it is easy to forget to flick it up and you swing the weight of the wheel against it, straightening the bend and eventually breaking it. I have replaced one so far. The fact that my 4WD shop stocks the bent thingy suggests breakages are common.
One day I'll weld an extra tab on, drill a hole and have a pin to slide in.
Cheers

This is what K&N looks like

Site Link

Note to "outandabout david" your email address failed cob!

The swing arm on the surf (a factory toyota jobby) just uses a basic pin. It works well and has never let me down.

Basically the pin looks a bit like an allen key in that it is just a bit of metal with a 90 degree bend in it. When it's not being used is clips into a clip but also has some string attached to it so that you can't drop it.

It sounds crude but it's quite need and as simple as you can get.

All you do when you open the swing arm and are on a hill or somthing (most times you don't need to use it as the swing arm just leans against the tailgate) then you just unclip the pin and slide it through the hole.

Gday
I put a gas strut on mine. Works well

Hi GN,

Have tried a couple of set-ups now.

Fitted home made gas strut to over bumper style Kaymar, which worked well, only has two positions though as you mentioned... opened or closed. Had to do this due to always bending locking style bolt that they come with!

New ARB rear bumper worked pretty well, with gas strut and two locking positions for swing arm, don't have car know unfortunately (so can't take pics for you), but some ARB dealers have this system on display if you would like to check it out.

Strut didn't work as well as my set-up on steep side-on hills though, tended to over power the strut. I used a rubber 'buffer to stop my strut set-up bouncing the swing arm at max open position.

Seeing as your making your own carrier you could have the best of both worlds, decent strength gas strut with multi position locking tab.

Ross.

I've got the (gas strut) Opposite Lock carrier. It has the flipover bent metal thingy like KiwiAngler posted. Actually, the guys who fitted it forgot to install it, so I've got the bits sitting in the garage ready to bolt on.

You are right about the swing arms not staying open when on an incline (at least on mine that is the case). Mind you, the bent metal "lock" seems pretty flimsy and tacky to me too.

A friend has just got a strong-arm carrier. It had a locking mechanism somewhat like the one in the link posted by Doug T. The only thing to watch with those ones is if it isn't latched up when you open/close it, it will scratch the bar (if you care about that sort of stuff). But the latch looked like it would at least do the job. You could easily drill a couple of extra holes if you wanted additional opening angles.

-geoff