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Hammer Built Tire Support and Rotopax Bracket Accessory Review plus Pics

CyberOrangeBronco

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Ford Bronco Hammer Built Tire Support and Rotopax Bracket Accessory Review plus Pics 20220318_170222
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The attention to detail on this support is top notch, and evident throughout. The first thing you'll notice on the support is the exceptional powdercoating. This is a piece that you'll be proud to mount to your tailgate. A closer look reveals it's designed with a slight curve to fit over the hinge and behind the tire carrier. The support features 4 pulse welded threaded mounting points to add an accessory bracket (accessory bracket shown installed in pictures) which provides a mounting point to be used with Rotopax Containers and/or RotoTrax traction boards. The pulse welded threads allows the accesory bracket to be installed or removed without the need to remove the entire tire support bracket, and this add on bracket is adjustable to accommodate 35 and 37 inch spare tire sizes.

Anyone who does a decent amount of self installs knows the value of good hardware, and hpbuilt gets it. I'm happy to report that no shortcuts were made in this department from the conical delrin spacers to the zinc coated bolts with stainless washers, this is not a kit that is going to have you making trips to the hardware store looking to upgrade bolts. We discussed the black oxide allen head bolts used on the hinge and how that probably isn't going to cut it in this humid Houston climate and I have been informed that these carriers will be shipping out with 12 point stainless steel bolts. I'll update this review once those arrive but for now enjoying the look of the allen heads.

Since ordering this carrier I have had the privilege of talking to Tyson on the phone at least half a dozen times and this past weekend even decided to drive out to El Paso to do some product testing with the carrier as well as getting an opportunity to enjoy some off roading with him as a guide. We spent a good part of the trip discussing additional accesories that can be added to the support, and based on our real world testing of the tire support I'm confident in the whole systems ability to take on additional weight. Hammer Built has some very good ideas on additional accessories to be added to this support thqt will turn it into an invaluable offroading accessory, which I am now very confident in their ability to pull off.

Additional paragraphs below go into further detail about why I decided I needed a Tire Support bracket, and gives a little more detail about my overall experience dealing with Hammer Built.

Picked up our Badlands Bronco non SAS with optional beadlock wheels on Feb 19th, and upgraded tires to 35 inch Mickey Thompson Baja Boss M/Ts just little over a week after. Upon tire install I noticed a creaking coming from the tailgate area that I could recreate by pushing hard on the now nearly 100 pound wheel and tire spare tire combo. At first I was confused than starting seeing a few fb posts of Sasquatch owners mentioning they were experiencing the same thing on SAS wheels and tires. At this point I knew that these squeeks can happen with 35s and that I needed a spare tire reinforcement kit. Knowing that there are limited products out as everyone is still busy developing I was stuck, either wait for one that I liked to become available or order the RC kit and hope once installed and serving a purpose I'd learn to like it. As luck would have it, prior to ordering the RC one I saw a FB post by Hammer Performance and hpbuilt.shop showcasing their prototype version.​

The version they showed on the site was raw with a tough looking logo that drew me to it right away, to boot the post claimed add on accesories would be following soon. Once I saw the asking price I decided to go for it and went to place my order that evening. For whatever reason the process of checking out wasn't allowing me to ship the item, it was after 9pm so I sent the company an inquiry and expected to hear back the following day. Instead I receive a direct message from Tyson and have a personalized invoice emailed to me that evening. I mention in our late evening conversation that one of the reasons I'm ordering their version is the promise of future accesories to add to it and the next day receive a phone call from Tyson asking what my preferences would be. We discussed pros/cons regarding a few different options they could incorporate into the mount. In total we end up talking for about thirty minutes as he is answering all of my suspension questions before making personal recommendations for me based on what I'm telling him would be my preferences as far as ride quality goes. I found Tyson to be more interested in hearing what I had to say than just blindly suggesting that I buy more parts. When it comes to suspension upgrades this is exactly what you need, as easch choice is an exercise in compromise with no solution being a one size fits all. It's rare and incredibly refreshing to find a vendor like this, and will be my go to for all future mods.
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CyberOrangeBronco

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Love the idea that I could carry my Rotopax cans or traction boards on the back.
 
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CyberOrangeBronco

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Ford Bronco Hammer Built Tire Support and Rotopax Bracket Accessory Review plus Pics Screenshot_20220322-190133_Chrome


Here is a picture of the preproduction model with a Rotopax attached. Note the production model now holds the container closer to the body of the vehicle and will fit snugger against the tire than shown here, but this gives you a good idea.
 

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slohatch

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Does the brace itself just rest against the paint. Will it look real bad when removed later.
 
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CyberOrangeBronco

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Does the brace itself just rest against the paint. Will it look real bad when removed later.
So there are delrin spacers between the plate and the hinges so the hinges don't make contact with the support. I'll attach a picture showing that. As well as the curvature of the support. Behind the spare tire carrier the support mounts up just as the carrier does, so this will be no worse than stock as far as contacting the paint behind the tire.

imagejpeg_0.jpg
 

acmepa

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So there are delrin spacers between the plate and the hinges so the hinges don't make contact with the support. I'll attach a picture showing that. As well as the curvature of the support. Behind the spare tire carrier the support mounts up just as the carrier does, so this will be no worse than stock as far as contacting the paint behind the tire.

imagejpeg_0.jpg
Thanks for the contact info! Was able to reach out and Tyson was not only very informative but as you noted open to getting feedback. I opted for the non modular version as it will serve my function of reinforcement, although for those who overland and make use of accessories that can be attached to the accessory arm then I could see that being a great addition if you see that as a future use. The bracket itself looks great from photos I seen as the powder coating is top notch. The derlin spaces on the hinges are also a nice touch! Cancelled my RC bracket order in lieu of this.
 

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Mad Martigan

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Watching this thread interested in the modular. I wonder if the OEM SAS tire wheel combo and one rotopax is too much for the OEM hinges? I’m not sure what the hinge limit is?
 

Outbound Exploration

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Man this thing looks great. Is the modular version available? I’d love to be able to mount my traction boards easily when I’m heading off road.

Agreed! Second this question, will definitely be orderingđź‘Ť
 
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CyberOrangeBronco

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Watching this thread interested in the modular. I wonder if the OEM SAS tire wheel combo and one rotopax is too much for the OEM hinges? I’m not sure what the hinge limit is?
I got to go out field testing with Tyson using the modular mount plus a filled 3 gallon rotopax container and watched first hand how the tailgate handled 40 plus mph Baja bursts plus brief crawling scenarios in this configuration on his Wildtrax 2 door tailgate. It performed great in real world testing and below I'll get into a little bit of the nitty griddy.

Important note, numbers below are being quoted from memory so they may be off by just a smidgen as I don't have time right now to verify everything.

So I've seen it listed that Ford has the rear tailgate rated for 130lbs (maybe it was 133lbs but this is close enough), the Sasquatch wheel and tire is reportedly 91 lbs. That than leaves you with roughly 42 lbs to add.

Now we add the brace, which obviously adds weight, but also increases rigidity. Just how much that rigidity adds to weight capacity isn't yet a known value, but I think it's at least enough of an improvement to cover the weight of the brace plus some.

As for your question though we don't need to concern ourselves with that as the roughly 42lbs of known leeway gives us ample weight to cover the 24lbs of fuel and an extra 18 lbs to account for the support bracket, rotopax 3 gallon container and rotopax mount. This should be ample allowance.

One thing I'm interested to find out is what Ford lists as the weight capacity of the Bronco Raptor Tailgate as it looks to me like they maybe using a similar styled rear tire support under a plastic trim cover with the same hinges that we have on our Broncos.
 
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CyberOrangeBronco

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Here is the image that leads me to believe that Ford has chosen to do something similar with the Raptor.

Screenshot_20220325-092853_Samsung Internet.jpg
 

Mad Martigan

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Here is the image that leads me to believe that Ford has chosen to do something similar with the Raptor.

Ford Bronco Hammer Built Tire Support and Rotopax Bracket Accessory Review plus Pics Screenshot_20220325-092853_Samsung Internet
Agree on the tire support for the Braptor. Also saw that as well but had not seen the 130-133lb weight rating. I don’t have plans to change the my SAS tire weight unless some has a gravel friendly 35” tire. So the OEM SAS weight of 91 lbs gives me said wiggle room.
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