For a long time now I've been driving around with a spare strapped to the roof rack of my Pilot (compact spare was mounted under the rear and the cable reel seized, plus it was rusted and flat). I got sick of the wasted cargo space so I looked around for a rear spare carrier that mounted in the receiver hitch, but the few universal ones available were expensive and didn't look like they'd fit right. Instead I bought a handful of hardware and rounded up some scrap 2x2" stainless tubing and plate steel so I could make my own. Didn't really take any in-process photos but here's the end result. The whole thing hinges down so I can still access the lift gate and the light for my new license location is wired to plug into the trailer harness. In all, it turned out pretty decent. Welds are ugly and none of it is exactly square but it's solid and functional. Not bad for fabbing it up in the driveway with hand tools and not really measuring anything, basically just made it up as I went along.
Lol right, about as much as a mall-crawler soccer shuttle can I suppose. Also picked up some small LED lights to go in the rear bumper since I partially blocked off the reverse lamps, planning to install those this weekend along with a curved 42" LED bar up above the windshield (trying to not mod this tired old thing with anything that isn't functional but I came across a good deal on Amazon and thought it might be kinda cool).
