Getting rid of the tire carrier

[73ny]

Eventually I'll be getting rid of the stock tire carrier for a protofab rear bumper, and I'd like to weld up the holes. I was wondering if I need to get the inside pieces out of the fenders too. Does anyone know if they'd rattle around inside because they aren't attached to the outside parts. I'd leave them if they don't make noise.......

 

[GraficO]

you can get them out through the bottom of the corners or through the little access plates behind the lights... you might have to unscrew your light buckets to slip the brackets out the bottom.

 

[regshawn]

I want to say I pulled mine out the tail light opening.

 

[TOFIC]

If you LOVE rattles leave them in, if not pull them out.
Usually can be droppped out the bottom of the fender but sometimes the thing must come through the taillight access panel.
TOFIC

 

[brewchief]

I took my carrier off years ago, there have been times I regret it, instead of welding up the holes why not just put a stainless button head bolt in there, would look fine and would be very easy to put the carrier back on for you or another owner if you ever sold it.


Brewchief;D

 

[thegreatjustino]

I want to say I pulled mine out the tail light opening.

That's what I did. I sold the complete tire carrier, so I needed to include the backing brackets. They were a piece of cake to get out.

 

[73ny]

I took my carrier off years ago, there have been times I regret it, instead of welding up the holes why not just put a stainless button head bolt in there, would look fine and would be very easy to put the carrier back on for you or another owner if you ever sold it.


Brewchief;D

I'd still have one with the protofab rear bumper and tire carrier.....forgot to add the tire carrier part....

 

[phred]

I kept the backing plates in mine. Added some rubber washers inside and out and installed nice bolts to fill the holes. The washers keep everything from rattling.

 

[Hal9000]

There's one other item to consider. If you decide to sell/trade the tire carrier, it'll probably be more desirable if it has all the hardware with it. I'd take the extra stuff out for just that reason. If you think you'll ever re-install it, just use some nice stainless carriage bolts like brewchief mentioned, or even leave the inner/outer mounting brackets on the truck and just remove the hinges and lift the carrier off.