I thought I'd share my mount in case anyone else wanted to try it. If this copies someone else's idea it wasn't intentional, I just couldn't find a simple mount I liked.

After looking at all the options I decided to go with a spare tire mount. Looked like the simplest solution since a hood mount makes me nervous for my paint, a roll bar mount gets in my way (2DR), and the tailgate mounts didn't appeal to me.

So I took off the spare and measured the spacing of the top two lugs and their relation to the top of the carrier and drilled 1/2" holes in a piece of 2" angle iron. Then, after pondering where I wanted my mounting bolts to protrude through the rim I drilled those holes also. Then I filed the holes square and bolted in a pair of 1/2" x 6" carriage bolts.



Then I test fit everything on the spare and marked and drilled the bolts for cotter pins. Added a few scraps of !/2" hose and painted.



And as soon as it was dry threw it all together

 

Thought I'd add a picture without the jack so you could see how it mounts

 

I like it. Is the sidewall on the spare going to take a beating on a long, rough trail? I'm eager to hear about your first time out on the trails with it and hope it works out.

 

It is tightened up against the spare, so it doesn't move at all and the tire helps support the weight. I actually used this setup for a Colorado trip last year. After a week and a half of driving, 3500 miles, and a trip up Hermit pass, it held up very well. That being said, when I took it off there were pressure indentations in the sidewall but no damage and marks did go away. Since I added a rubber coupling over the end to help keep children from gashing there heads open on the jack in parking lots, I thought I'd slide a couple of them over the jack where it contacts the tire. I also recommend a cheap Walmart compression bag from the camping section to keep the dust and water out of the mechanism.

 

Cool, thanks for the info! I wonder if locking hitch pins would be long enough to attach the jack to the bracket...hmmmm

 

Curious what size hole you drilled for the cotter pins--

 

The Cotter pins I bought use a 1/8" hole

 

Thanks for the write-up. I had been looking for a good solution other than carrying the jack in the rear compartment. I made my mount just as you had explained but I wanted some way to lock the jack to deter theft. At first I tried to drill a hole through the 1/2" all-thread (I didn't use carriage bolts) but that removed way too much of the metal and it wouldn't have held. So I added a ring bolt along side one of the long bolts. I had a padlock that has a wide enough "mouth" to fit through the jack and the ring.



I had a tire cover so I just poked holes through it for the bolts. I also took the jack base off and stored it in the accessory bag under the front seat.

Thanks again for the good ideas.

 

Nice job! Good idea with the lock, I just ran a cable through the wheel and spare tire carrier and padlocked the jack. I like your eye-bolt better though.

 

Brilliant!