Tailgate organizer worries
After two months of using the Bestop RoughRider Black Diamond Tailgate Organizer that I wrote about in an earlier post, I have to say I’m a little worried. It’s starting to wear a bit faster than expected. It’s designed so the bags are removable by undoing a little loop and sliding them off a plastic rail. The loop that holds the bags on isn’t doing a great job. It’s sagging just a little. It also has bent up my rubber floor mat, though I’m not super worried about the mat being bent. I have even lightened them further. They have only very lightweight things in the bags like toilet paper, first aid kits, and other emergency items.
Rear tire carrier upgrade
In that earlier post, I mentioned I had installed a high lift jack mount and an antenna mount on the tailgate along with my bike rack. After reading some horror stories about bent hinges and popped welds, I learned that the tailgate of the Jeep is not supposed to hold more than 50 pounds. This includes the spare tire. The spare tire that comes with a Rubicon is a bit over that by itself. I think it’s probably fine on the road, but as much as I’m hitting the trails now, I wanted something a bit sturdier.
I didn’t want to replace my bumper as I quite like its aesthetic. After researching a variety of tailgate tire carriers, I settled on the Maximus 3 tire carrier for a few reasons. Before I get into that, I want to explain why I didn’t get one that attaches to my bumper’s swing point. There are only a few options that work with it and they are either incredibly expensive or they are poorly built and would be pretty unreliable. The Maximus 3 had great reviews and moves the weight from the tailgate to the frame while also opening with the tailgate rather than separate from it. The site says it will hold a 40″ tire and I found out, after chatting with them on the phone, it will handle 300 pounds. Frick yes. It also has two antenna mounts, has an option to carry a high lift jack, an option for a shovel mount (attaches to the high lift jack so not really a tire carrier specific thing, and an option to carry a small pax gas can (or water). I think there may even be more options, but those were the only ones I’m interested in.
I might cover the install in a future post so I won’t get into it. It went fairly smoothly even though the instructions were cryptic at times. Here it is installed and some photos of it in the wild!
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