Safari Gard Tire Carrier Install

by Ben Bibb

We are very pleased with the Safari Gard Tire Carrier as it is installed on our station wagon. This carrier was originally marketed for the soft top, however Greg was willing to let us give it a try on the SW. The SG workmanship was excellent and I am sure it goes right on the ST. It was a real experience installing it on our SW. As it turns out in hindsight, the install is less than 8 hours IF YOU HAVE ALL THE PARTS and if you have a few installation secrets. Our contributions here are the secrets, the Parts List and the design of the top pivot bracket for the SW.  Everything else is straight forward.

On first inspection, besides the lack of Land Rover parts, the only problem appeared to be the upper pivot bracket and causing the center pivot bracket to fall on something structural. This turned out to be a correct assessment. 

I did not like the tiny doubler supplied by SG for the top pivot bracket (it's prolly a soft top part), so I designed a simple two piece welded combination doubler and mounting point.   That's the SG doubler on the bottom left, in the left hand photo below.

We used M12 fasteners (because the LR part was drilled) for the top bracket and the regular M10 stuff for the lower bracket and our SG bumperette. The outside two screw holes have M12 nuts welded to the 1/4" doubler plate, since you can't reach them behind the tube. The inside bolts get nylon lock nuts, as shown in the right photo above.. 

I just did not like the idea of 200 pounds or so of hardware hanging on aluminum skin members, even at a reinforced corner. The bottom hinge point is just fine, two M10 bolts hold it in place. LR drilled the top plate for M12 so since they fit, that chose the size. They probably intended M10's with some slop for alignment. OK so it is a bit of an overkill.

Here's the process:

Mount the lower hinge bracket first, square with the vehicle. Screw the two hime joints into the carrier and make the hole plane parallel with the lower tube. Have your helper hold the carrier in place and mark the upper mounting holes, drill to desired bolt clearance in the truck only.  

Cut the two pieces of 1/4" steel, one 5" by 6" and one 1.5" by 4". Hold the 5"x6" plate in place about 1/4" from the edges of the body and mark the approximate location of the vertical 1.5"x4" bar.  We removed the two pieces, gas welded a tiny tack at the ends of the 4" bar, and refitted it to check clearance.  DO NOT mark or drill the four mounting holes before the final MIG weld.  When welding the two pieces together, the MIG bead was run 1" on the top outside then 1" on the bottom inside then finished. That way our welder, John Vargas of Red Toyota fame, could guarantee the line was perfect - as usual.  

After MIG welding the two pieces together, refit the doubler tight against the vertical tube, and mark and drill the four holes for the top pivot bracket.  Then weld the two nuts over the outside holes.  Remove the paint for the weld on the vertical tube, and mount the doubler assembly flush with the vertical tube.

Slap some blue locktite™ on the bolts and mount the top pivot bracket for the last time. Then we had John run a MIG bead to stick the plate to the vertical tube and we had a top bracket as well as a new recovery point. Nothing moves except the whole truck body with almost 300 pounds of test load. 

The photographs explain this process much better than I can. If they do not make sense, do not try this at home.  The assembly sequence is critical to a successful job.   I am not providing dimensions because each truck is a bit different. The assembly procedure takes this into account and allows the doubler to be made to fit perfectly.

This is as good a place as any for the obligatory disclaimer.  This could be how we did it, and we think it worked out splendidly.   We make no guarantees, and recommend that anyone using this information as a guidline, fully understand the process before starting.

If you choose the same geometry as we did , the bottom two bolts for the center pivot bracket will fall just (3/8" ! !) above the horizontal steel stiffener in the door.  A one inch "L" bracket about 6" long drops right in and will catch the two M8 horizontal bolts. The top right bolt can catch the vertical stiffener. We used steel washers to take up the slack. We used sheet metal screws to fasten the "L" bracket to the door stiffener. Pop rivets could have been used to fasten the "L" bracket to the door.

NOTE: Before commiting the holes in the door for the center pivot bracket, assure that the pivot parts all line up when the door is fully open and fully closed.  Adjust the hime joint nuts for level.

We were concerned about the strength of the center pivot bracket attachment to the door, however it does not flex. An additional frame stop (besides the SG supplied bump stop at the bottom) is advised if tail stands are anticipated. I plan to improve the out-of-envelope performance of this area.

Placing the larger spacer for the hime joints at the bottom (see the photos above), and orienting the center pivot bracket so the pivot side of the bracket is to the right (shown at left), both contributed to the final location of the pivot bracket relative to the stiffeners in the door.  It IS possible to install this bracket where the mounting screws would be inaccessible behind a stiffener.

And here is the final product.

Land Rover Parts List 

Other miscellaneous parts:  

The above list is not complete, as it does not include a comprehensive list of all the ancillary hardware (screws, lock nuts, washers, etc).  Also, we have the SG Bumperettes installed.  The standard LR rear bumper may introduce other interesting conditions.  

NOTE: There is also a Male (PN ANR3117) and Female (PN ANR3118) Rubber Catch used on the factory ST, which we bought, but did not install.  There is a bracket welded on the SG Carrier to accommodate the Male Catch, but it is not useable.  We removed it.  Also the Bracket (PN ANR3100) which goes on the ST door and holds the Female Catch , is useless.    We may come up with  some place to mount these catches at a later time.