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Teraflex HD Alpha tire carrier with reinforcement

ZeroTrev

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The instructions say to loosen all but the bottom right bolt and use it as a "hinge" for alignment. Have you tried that?
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rickinAZ

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Picture time! The bolts for the hi lift mount didn't go in all the way.

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Regarding picture #2, the standard practice is to show-off your Jeep and black out the license plate - not vice-versa.

I couldn't resist. :)
 

TxJeepers

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Got mine yesterday and installed today. I went through the loosen bolts, re-align, tighten, install tire, try again process like 10 times and I get the same exact results every time. My tailgate still sags under the weight of my spare and closes just as rough as it did prior to the reinforcement. šŸ˜”šŸ˜”šŸ˜”

Anyone else have similar results? Or is it just me?
Man this is why I am hesitant to get theirs. They say right in the directions how to raise the tailgate up for the sag. I have bad sag now and not sure this is going to resolve it. Leaning towards getting my heavy Nitto 37 off the tailgate altogether and getting a frame/bumper mount option.
 

Chrisdupe

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The instructions say to loosen all but the bottom right bolt and use it as a "hinge" for alignment. Have you tried that?
Yup. Followed the instructions exactly. Several times.

I will probably give it another go tomorrow. But I feel Iā€™m approaching the definition of insanity with it.
 

Chrisdupe

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Man this is why I am hesitant to get theirs. They say right in the directions how to raise the tailgate up for the sag. I have bad sag now and not sure this is going to resolve it. Leaning towards getting my heavy Nitto 37 off the tailgate altogether and getting a frame/bumper mount option.
Iā€™m wondering if Iā€™m having this problem because my tailgate was already sagging. Most likely the sag is due to warping the inner mounting points. If they are warped more than the allowed amount of compensation then there isnā€™t much to do about it. It would be nice if there was some sort of reinforcement for the mounting points of the hinges. All that weight is still on those 2 points on the passengers side.
 

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TxJeepers

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Iā€™m wondering if Iā€™m having this problem because my tailgate was already sagging. Most likely the sag is due to warping the inner mounting points. If they are warped more than the allowed amount of compensation then there isnā€™t much to do about it. It would be nice if there was some sort of reinforcement for the mounting points of the hinges. All that weight is still on those 2 points on the passengers side.
Which is why Rustys includes a reinforcement bracket but even with his Iā€™m not sure. I think maybe if you install one of these from day one of attaching a heavy spare you are probably ok but if youā€™ve been running a heavy spare for a couple years and already have a solid 1/4ā€-3/8ā€ sag the new part might not be able to compensate enough. I might sell everything Iā€™ve already invested and switch to the Poison Spyder setup.
 

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If you watch the YouTube videos for the motobilt carrier (the one Iā€™m leaning back towards now) they show the shim process with wood wedges. If you wanted to watch how itā€™s done Iā€™m sure the process is similar for the terraflex.
 

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Iā€™ve had a 37 mounted on the alpha carrier with no reinforcement for about 11-months and mine has sagged as well. It still works, but I got limited play when I loosened the bolts and had somebody lift up on the tailgate before torquing down. It doesnā€™t sound the best when closing but doesnā€™t sound much different than it did without the reinforcement.

Iā€™ve also noticed the back left parking sensor beeps while in reverse. The tire is up against the hinges as far as it can go.

Other than that the reinforcement is solid and looks good too!
 

Chrisdupe

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If you watch the YouTube videos for the motobilt carrier (the one Iā€™m leaning back towards now) they show the shim process with wood wedges. If you wanted to watch how itā€™s done Iā€™m sure the process is similar for the terraflex.
I didn't see any motobilt carrier install videos with wood shims but it was interesting that they include 3 metal shims with their kit which mount between the hinge bracket and the Jeep on the bottom hinge. This would push the drivers side up. Maybe i'll see if i can get ahold of some of those shims or just make something.
 

KarnaughMI

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Iā€™m wondering if Iā€™m having this problem because my tailgate was already sagging. Most likely the sag is due to warping the inner mounting points. If they are warped more than the allowed amount of compensation then there isnā€™t much to do about it. It would be nice if there was some sort of reinforcement for the mounting points of the hinges. All that weight is still on those 2 points on the passengers side.

I just finished installing mine yesterday. I can say this much ... what a giant PITA it became. I may also have had some existing sag (have had 37s on it for a couple two years with my Alpha Carrier) which may have led to the problem. I had to channel the dormant engineer and mechanic in me.

After following the directions without any success (my tailgate dropped a TON! when I first went to adjust it and would not come up enough), I ended up stripping the tape off and going old school. It took a bit of playing around with the hinge mounting points (as far up and as far out as it could go with a slight bump in at the bottom). It was then playing with the tailgate and getting the gaps where I was comfortable with them.

It does drop a *little* when you open it up (enough that if I ever get a bug up my ass I will get shims and play with it again ... but overall, it's good). But I have to see if I can source those shims from somewhere that motobilt has in their directions (https://motobilt.com/products/jeep-jl-tire-carrier-18-wrangler-jl-up-to-40-inch-tire#).

Or maybe Teraflex will get enough feedback that they might start including them.

Overall, the tailgate does close SO much smoother and it is more stable. On my drive in to work this morning, I didn't hear the typical rattle or such going over tracks or purposefully hitting some ruts/bumps.

-Tom
 

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ZeroTrev

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Regarding picture #2, the standard practice is to show-off your Jeep and black out the license plate - not vice-versa.

I couldn't resist. :)
Lol,nstalk me if you want! I need friends... :P
 

rickinAZ

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Am I reading this thread correctly? People are mounting 37s, without reinforcement, and then getting tailgate sagging? Seems like that sagging should be the expected outcome.
 

Chrisdupe

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Am I reading this thread correctly? People are mounting 37s, without reinforcement, and then getting tailgate sagging? Seems like that sagging should be the expected outcome.

I ran mine for a while but ended up taking it off as soon as it seemed like my tailgate was getting messed up.

The more i think about it i don't think there is damage that is causing my alignment issues. Because when i first installed the reinforcement everything lined up perfectly and the tailgate closed smooth as butter. It's only after i added the spare that things went downhill. So i think that the mounting points just can't handle the weight enough to keep it straight. The amount of adjustment you have with everything loosened up just isn't enough to compensate. When looking for info on shimming i saw that both EVO and Motobilt include shims to place between the hinge mount and the mounting surface on the bottom bracket. This is exactly along the lines of what i was thinking i need to do. I've contacted Teraflex about this and they want to see photos. I'll take some and see what they say. In the meantime i'm going to see if i can't get my hands on some of those shims and try that.
 

KarnaughMI

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Am I reading this thread correctly? People are mounting 37s, without reinforcement, and then getting tailgate sagging? Seems like that sagging should be the expected outcome.
Factory tailgate, no reinforcement, and with Teraflex Alpha Carrier ... I had my tailgate adjusted to where it closed beautifully with the wheel mounted, and when I pulled the wheel off the tailgate it ran high (expected without a 100# wheel). I expected that the Teraflex HD tailgate reinforcement would be a (relatively) simple plug-and-play since everything was working beautifully without. The problem appears to come from how by tying the upper and lower hinges the way Teraflex does (and I am sure many others designs), the sag, which was not as noticeable, gets magnified and becomes a factor. Dunno.

-Tom
 

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@Chrisdupe i attempted to install mine tonight and I am having similar issues. I just cannot get it aligned properly. And this is with a stock 33 (Iā€™m installing it now in preparation of my 37s that are on order).

I followed the directions and I noticed that as soon as I unbolted the factory hinges, the tailgate dropped. It wasnt much, but Enough to put some creases in the tape. So as I was installing the Teraflex system, I lifted the tailgate back up enough to where my guidelines were even again. As soon as I put the spare on, cut the tape and opened the tailgate, it dropped a ton. And no matter what I do, I canā€™t get it to go up high enough to compensate for the drop. I had to call it quits tonight bc I was losing my patience, but I got it to where itā€™s only dropping about 1/4ā€. I would be ok with that if it was a 37s, but with the stock wheel I shouldnā€™t be having this issue. I didnā€™t have wood shims, so that is going to be what I try tomorrow. Hopefully that works. But really, I think this kit needs shims for where the lower hinge mounts to the tub. Just like most of the other kits.
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