Chris Hansen
One of the hardest things about owning a Jeep is that there are always new ways to improve your Wrangler. I found that I needed to invest into a tire carrier that could check all the boxes. Enter in the Teraflex HD Hinged Carrier w/ Adjustable Tire Mount! I ended up ordering this product from ExtremeTerrain.com and was extremely satisfied with the delivery time and communication around shipping.
The product comes in two boxes, one for the one-piece hinged bracket and the other box for the adjustable tire mount. Both boxes were well packaged and really couldn’t have been damaged during shipping as you can see below.
In regards to the install, this product is very straightforward. The key to this install is to brace your tailgate with some wood or something before removing the factory hinges. Once those braces are in place, remove the plastic covers to the factory hinges by removing the smaller pieces first. Then slide the larger plastic pieces off by lifting the right side and sliding left. Once removed, you can remove the 4 bolts from the tailgate and then the torque screws from the hinge attached to the body of the Jeep.
After removing the factory hinges I removed our Jeep tramp stamp, since our third brake light was already removed. Once completed, I recommend you clean the tailgate before adding the new Teraflex HD Hinged Carrier. Overall, the instructions provided in the package does a great job of detailing the install process. There wasn’t any gotcha’s or surprising twists in the install outside of that it really only took about 45 minutes to install.
Overall, I was immediately impressed with the swing smoothness and stability of the tailgate seemed to have without installing the 35″ tire. This anticipated event did bring a sense of concern that the weight of the tire would change the swing motion. That concern was quickly thrown away when the spare was installed and tested the tailgate swing motion. Even with the tire installed the tailgate opened flawlessly, smooth and felt even lighter than before. This is definitely a must buy for your factory tire carrier replacement.
