I have mostly completed the installation of my new OR-Fab tire carrier, but I am still struggling with the alignment of the tail gate and the carrier itself.

The carrier itself is still just a little too far down on the latch side (with no tire currently on it yet). From what I've read, this looks like the "pre-load" that I need to set

The tail gate itself swings freely, but when I go to shut it, it has to be slamed shut to close fully. It looks like the tail gate is a little too close to the latch side and maybe a fraction of an inch too high.

I know I can loosen the size bolts on the hinge side and re-work the alignment on all of this... however... this has really been a PITA. I am actually shocked I got it as close as I have. Once I loosen those bolts are there any tips for getting this all lined up correctly? I've loosened and tighten those bolts more times than I can to think about, and still am fighting alignment issues

I honestly am getting very frustrated at the tire carrier, and I haven't even mount my spare tire yet

 

Bump......

 

Call the guys at OR-Fab, and they'll help walk you through the adjustments.

From reading your posts, first I would loosen all 4 bolts on the hinges that are attached to the door. Get that part alligned so that it closes smoothly. Then, adjust the preload by either moving the main bracket, or pulling and re-stacking the washers and spacers on the hinge.

It's a PITA, but once installed, it's a rock solid piece of awesome.

 

PM me your contact info and we'll get you set up.

Yates

 

I just helped my brother install one of these yesterday. We were able to get his gate to work much better than it did coming from the factory. From the factory, his was too tight to the latch as well and was very difficult to close without slamming it. We centered it all up by keeping the gate closed, loosening the hinge bolts on the gate side, and then we simply shifted the gate to the passenger side by about an 1/8 to a 1/4 of an inch. We also made sure to line up the ridge in the top of the tub to the ridge going across the tailgate (I hope that makes sense). We used two strips of 1x2 lumber as kind of a lever under the passenger side of the gate to lift it to the perfect height to match the body lines.

I'm sure he will do some minor adjustments to get the preload dialed in but, I have to say, I was very impressed with the strength and operation of the carrier. It looks and functions flawlessly.

 

Thanks everyone, and a big thanks to Steve @ OR-Fab for calling me. I resolved my issue last night and have now completed the carrier install.



The gate closes much better. I could still adjust it some more, but that just me being compulsive about it... and at least now I know how to adjust it.

For anyone reading this after the fact...

The big thing for me was understanding which bolts adjust what, and the order to adjust things in.

First thing... Adjust your pre-load first. This will have an effect on your tail gate alignement, so might as well not have to do that twice. The pre-load is fully set using the six bolts on the tub side. For my 35" tire you want (thanks Steve for this tip) to make sure that without any weight it sits about 1/4" too high for the landing block. Once you add weight it should sag down to the correct height.

Second thing... Adjust you tail gate. For the most part, you tailgate is fully adjusted with the four gate side bolts. Assuming you gate lines up enough to close, close your tailgate and loosen the bolts. Once loosened what I had to do was grab the gate handle and yank to the passenger side and down... the tailgate shifted. I then tightened up the four bolts, and the gate seemed much better.

Thanks again to everyone, I wouldn't have been able to understand it so well without your help