Installing Upgraded Tailgate Hinges by MoreRyde

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Mr. Bi-Polar

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With the addition of the larger 17'' wheels and 34'' tires, the spare tire carrier was showing some signs of strain. But we've elected to upgrade the tailgate hinges instead. Using the MoreRyde heavy duty hinges, this wasn't going to be a simple install. Most fellow might just remove the factory hinges and install the upgraded hinges. Not I. I wanted to make sure before I installed the hinges that there was enough paint under those hinges. Reports have shown then jeep deliberately left out painting under the hinges.

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Because the spare tire is so heavy, I elected to change one hinge at a time as I wasn't sure if the weather would hold up enough for me to do both hinges at once. Removing the snap in plastic covers, started to show some slight signs that there wasn't any pain under the factory hinges. Using another fellows images, shows that there wasn't enough paint under those hinges.

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Something else I notice about the bolts when removing the hinges is that jeep simply painted over the bolts at the time of the installation. So when you remove the bolts, the paint simply pops of the bolt and from around the bolt holes. I was a little disappointed in jeeps painting techniques.

I decided to remove the lower hinge first, sand then repaint. A few days before we drove to O'reillys in PA which took us 5 hours to do just to get one can of the pain and one can of the clear coat. Mind you I searched 100 miles within Maryland for this paint and no one had or could get it. So I was fortunate that I was bale to find it in the next state. Plus this gave us a short weekend road trip.

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Not only did I sand, prime, repaint and add a clear top coat, I added some of the blue loctite on the bolts. One thing I like about the Heavy duty hinges is that they have grease joints located within the hinge housing. Also, adding the hinge doesn't interfere with the say open door setup and installed by the factory. But one can tell that the door is heavy after adding the spare tire. One negative about the hinge is that Moreryde or Jeff Scherb thought to add a little rubber U channel to the one edge. But this later fell off and I wondered why it was even added as it made no contact with anything on the hinge of the bolts. We drove one week without mounting the top hinge on the jeep or until the weather started cooperating again. The second hinge when on without issues after repainting etc.

Tip: If you're wanting to do this but wait longer than we did. You encounter rusting bolts and you have to drill these bolts out and re-tap the floating plates within the tailgate and doors.

Having extra paint, I later move on to repainting the passenger rear door hinges as I was setting in new mounting brackets from something else I'm working which I'll post later. I always feared by removing the bolts, the draw tight plate inside these panels would fall or drop out. They didn't, but they do move around.

The hinge has been doing very well these last few months without any issues. The door seems stiffer and heavier when closing. I'm using these hinges as a temp mounting system for the jeep as I haven't decided if I want to add a heavier swing out tail gate. If you thinking of added 33'' or 34'' tires to the factory spare tire carrier, might be a good idea to also add the heavy duty hinges.
 
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My JK came with a aftermarket rear bumper and the carrier is mounted to it, I tend to like it better because all the weight is on the bumper. But the style like your doing is good for those who don't want to replace there rear bumper.

Just my opinion but even the stock spare should have the heavy duty carrier.
 
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