Another GU rear bar build

First up - I'm a brand new poster so I'm not fully around all the forum etiquette. Feel feel to give me a kick in the arse and point me in the right direction if I'm to far left of field.

On to business.

Mid 2015 after nearly 10 years behind the wheel of a cruiser I made the switch to Nissan a brought a 2003 4.2 GU3 Patrol. Couldn't be happier with the choice. After some research (forums mostly) on common problems, people pointed out that the rear door carrying the tyre has a tendency to crack from the weight of the spare wheel. I decided I wanted a rear bar but was too cheap to pay the thousand something dollars for a pre-built one.

I found a thread on here, liked what I saw and went from there. Credit to Fletcha for the inspiration and good work, thanks mate!
http://www.nissanpatrol.com.au/forum...h-Tyre-Carrier

I took a whole bunch of pictures throughout the build and would be happy to continue the thread step by step as I built it if people are keen to see it.

Either way here's a few pictures before/mid/after some abuse/use. Let me know what you think/how you could have done it better ;)
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Thought I'd dredge up my first post!.. sorry to those rolling their eyes.

2 reasons. Thought I'd chuck up a few of the old build pics as it came together and also thought I'd give an update on how it's been fairing.. especially after 2 or 3 years in and around Coober Pedy and some of the worst roads I've ever been on. I'll try to keep it short.

The build.

Planning, fit up and mounting brackets.
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Profiling and working out where I wanted my swing away/s.
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Filling and shaping the wings.
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Lights in and pretty well done the bulk of it.
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Lessons learnt;
Make sure you do the swing away bearings up tight as you can so the bar still swings. Much tighter than your normal bearings. Smashed my first bearing to bits on a rough road.

Fixes I've done;
Rejigged the standoff where the wheel mounted to the upright (not sure where the pics went for this). Was initially just butt welded but it started to break the wall out of the tube. Cut it all out and ran it through the middle.

Added an extra brace on the inside right. Braces the wheel carrier mounting point and the right wing to the chassis mount with a bit of H/I beam. Don't know if it needed this but it made me feel better.

Not sure if I'd do it again, but I'm still pretty happy with it now.

Oh, and apart from reversing into/over my old solar panel one day and scratching some paint off it's otherwise holding up really well. No signs of failure to date.

Found em!

Few extras of the swing away. (Not much of a welder, pretty handy on a grinder though ha)

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Hats off to you mate. Anyone who has the guts to make something like this is great in my eyes.

Great work ,,love it ,
did you ever think of welding two recovery points in line with the chassis
that went down and under the 100mm rhs, just a thought

Looks great, and good to have it detailed for others thinking of doing the same. I am curious to see if you have dented the rear door yeat from the upright moving back and forth on heavy rutted tracks. I have walloped my rear door with a home built jobbie and I reckon I have 50mm clearance - those wheels are pretty heavy - food for thought. I have not done anything to mine since as the door is already dented - cant say for sure which trip I did it on, so now I actually run a triangulated brace up to the roofrack and this works really well - have not noticed any roofrack movement or deflection either but everything is braced.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by threedogs

Great work ,,love it ,
did you ever think of welding two recovery points in line with the chassis
that went down and under the 100mm rhs, just a thought

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I didn't actually give that much thought. I've not really ever been in a spot where the recovery tounge in the tow hitch hasn't been a suitable recovery point. I did consider adding some specific jacking points (think high lift) but decided against that. For one I've never actually owned a high lift and don't plan on it and 2 I went for overall strength instead and avoided cutting holes in anything that didn't need it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PeeBee

Looks great, and good to have it detailed for others thinking of doing the same. I am curious to see if you have dented the rear door yeat from the upright moving back and forth on heavy rutted tracks. I have walloped my rear door with a home built jobbie and I reckon I have 50mm clearance - those wheels are pretty heavy - food for thought. I have not done anything to mine since as the door is already dented - cant say for sure which trip I did it on, so now I actually run a triangulated brace up to the roofrack and this works really well - have not noticed any roofrack movement or deflection either but everything is braced.

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Nope, it's never had that much wobble. It had a little bit in it when I first built it but I added the support brace on the inside where the carrier mounts to the bar. The mounting point is also the full height of the bar itself, ie 25mm x 25mm solid bar welded inside the tube that extends to mount the wheel carrier. Bit hard to explain, but I can take another picture or 2 to explain if you're interested. I've been on roads rough enough to start braking the wall out of the tube but the carrier has never contacted the door. (not including my mate trying to open the rear door without opening the wheel carrier first.. ffs) that only resulted in a little dent down the bottom.

For some reason I have 3 x hi lift jacks , no good now with plastic 4x4s.
Ones a genuine trewalla, then a original Hi-lift and a TJM OX, just packed away
for a 4x4 museum of the future lol lol

Hey buddy! Could you please share the dimensions of the bar with us? Thanks!

Yo Bro?
Hey Buddy?
G’day Mate [emoji106][emoji106]


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by bogdanhh

Hey buddy! Could you please share the dimensions of the bar with us? Thanks!

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Hey mate, you'll need to pop over and post an introduction.

Unfortunately I'll only be able to post approximate sizes, I built it basically by eye and didn't write any of it down.. I can't measure it anymore because someone ran into the back of me a couple of months ago and the insurance mob replaced it with a kaymar bar.

If you do go down the road of building your own I'll be able to tell you how I worked out each measurement as you go.. I pretty much built it on the car so it looked right.