Decided to address making changing bigger tires a little easier. To lift them up and get the studs to align can sometimes be a pain so wanted to make it easier. Gojack makes one for wider tires and costs close to $400.00. I don't think it would work well anyway with the open lug tires I have so lets get something made from the scrap pile.
Album by Kevin Foust. Photos by Kevin Foust. 1 - 26 of 26 Total. 18826 Visits.
1 Gathered up some of the main pieces I'd thought I'd need. old style car jack, some hard solid wheels and some PVC pipe and some box tubing.
2 I'm going to use some old conveyer rollers to spin on the tire. Planning on slipping soem 2" ID PVC over them to bridge the open lugs a little more. These have bearings in them and will spin nice.
3 If you have premade castors you won't need to do this but I didn't so I'll make something. Just cutting box tubing up for it.
4 Drilled the holes and then freehand cut the rest with a cut off wheel.
5 Smoothed and deburred them all and will be plenty strong.
6 For the stud welding, I just use a collet and clamp it in the vise. Just leave it a little below the thickness of the bracket.
7 The collet keeps everything in line so the stud will be straight to the wheel. No bolt head allows the wheels to be lower.
8 Next is the jack. I cut off the hook side so it can stay low but will have to weld up the opening to make it strong again.
9 Made a filler plate and welded that in.
10 After cleaning that up I desided to weld a section of tubing on both ends. One will be for easier mounting of the outrigger.
11 I notched some box tubing to fit the other side of the jack and then welded it in.
12 That should be plenty strong now.
13 Once I figured out my height I wanted, I notched the square tubing outrigger. Wasn't sure of how wide I wanted it so I used a short scrap of box tubing and will cut the finish length later.
14 To hold the roller in I welded a tab with a hole for the center to slide in. I want to be able to take it off if need, so on the other end I needed to have a mounting surface. I cut up a 1/2" scrap and pushed it into the end of the tube.
15 I then welded it.
16 Smoothed it up so I can drill and tap it. I'll drill the bracket for this first with pilot holes. Drill one into the box and drill/tap the end. the bolt in and repeat. Will make it easier with no misaligned holes.
17 That ecrap was long too so I'll maek and cut it to size now. The other side will be the same process. I have the lengths I need now and looks like it will work out fine.
18 I'm going bigger than I need to cover other things.
19 Once it was all in place and checked, I finish welded everything up.
20 Smooth and cleaned it all up and gave it a rattle can make over. LOL
21 Here you can see the drilled and tapped holes on the end. 2 at an angle will keep it from being able to turn.
22 Only have 1 length of 2 inch PVC so when I scrounge another, I'll install that.
23 If I would have centered the Jack head I would have only needed to add box tubibg on one end. Something to remember if you want to make one.
24 This tire is 15 inches wide so you can see it still have more capacity.
25 Full open
26 Lifted up and it can spin. The release isn't as smooth as a Gojack but for $400.00 I'll seal with it. LOL
