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After a couple of trips carrying the spare tire around in a garbage bag, I decided that I needed a new tire rack. Every place I looked either didn't have one or wanted an insane amount of money for something that (if previous history is anything to go by) is going to fall off in a season or two...

I found out that Cdn Tire sells steel! I bought a 4 foot piece of 1/8 thick by 1.5 inch wide strip of galvanized steel for $8.50. I also made a template of what I wanted out of cardboard, then transferred the measurements to the steel with a pencil. I cut it into pieces with an ordinary hacksaw, and then used my drill press to drill the holes. I started each with a 1/8 inch bit and progressed by 8th inch increments until I had what I wanted. Then I clamped it in the bench vice and hammered the shit out of it. Very therapeutic! At one point, I tried using some heat but I found that it didn't make any difference so I just went back to the hammering.

Then, I attached the two pieces together using rubber core nut, bolt with a square (locking) flange, and lock washer. I had to file my hole square to accept the flange but it was worth it as now that thing will not turn in the hole. Then I had the bright idea to use the tap and die to thread the holes for the bolts that accept the wheel. My little set comes with good instructions, and in no time I had my three bolts nicely threaded through the steel.

As you can see from the picture taken before, the back of the trailer looked terrible with the five old holes, the rust marks from the last rack that fell off and all that silicone and miscellaneous all over it, so I cleaned it all off, smoothed off the rough edges around each hole and filled them with water-weld (a kind of cold fake steel) Then at Home Hardware I found a can of rust paint in "RV White"! which is the same colour beige as my trailer, or at least close enough.

So I painted the back all nice and then painted the rack a nice gloss back with the left-over paint from painting the bumper and then, since I had all my painting gear out, I also wire-brushed and painted the rim (gloss-white) of the spare I am going to be putting on the rack. And with a few large wingnuts from Home Hardware, that tire is never coming off the rack unless I want it to.

As for how I mounted it on the trailer. I settled on new holes in (hopefully) better wood. I used those butterfly bolts left and right and then a little lag bolt for the bottom. Those butterfly bolts were a royal pain. One side would spring open and the other wouldn't. I had to cut them shorter with a hacksaw. I won't use those again, but I guess now that they are in, they really hang on. By my estimation there have been at least two previous racks that have fallen off, but this thing will never fall off unless the whole back wall falls off.

I'm pretty proud of this! Cost me less than $10 to make (and would have cost a whole lot more to buy some used rusty thing) and for my first steel project, I was really pleased the way it turned out.

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