Morris Minor Owners Club

I've finally got around to making an under-bonnet spare wheel carrier for Lintilla. Here are some pictures that show how I did it:

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All parts except the screws were junk I found lying around the garage.

The only modification to the bonnet is the four holes in the cross bar for the hinge screws. I've put a piece of wood inside the channel that they screw into.

The front bracket that the bolt goes into attaches via the existing bonnet latch bolts. It's made from 1.5mm galvanised steel. IIRC the centre of the bolt hole is 80mm from the bend in the bracket. It needs to be as high as possible otherwise the bolt hits the radiator cap when you try to close the bonnet (guess who discovered that the hard way and had to make a new bracket with the hole higher up? ).

The rubber dome thingy is crucial: it fits into the wheel's centre hole and prevents the wheel sliding around. It's actually half of the head of a rubber mallet previously used for banging tent pegs into the ground. I held it on with Araldite Rapid and four long screws.

The spring on the bolt is there to make sure it can't vibrate loose. The bolt itself is bigger than it needs to be but it's just what I happened to have lying around. I slathered plenty of grease onto it to stop it rusting and seizing up.

I know it looks a bit 'scrapyard challenge' now, but it will be prettier once I get around to giving it a lick of paint.

I'm not intending to use the carrier every day - it's meant for when I'm going on a road trip with a passenger and really need that extra luggage space under the boot floor. I'm hoping I'll now be able to fit my tent, air bed, tools, spares, etc. under there!

Excellent work and pictures!! If I could find a way of re-fixing the cross member to my bonnet without damaging the outside paint then I would do that as well!!

Fantastic!
Sooo ingenious.
Do you think a 165 tyre would fit in there?

Peetee wrote:Fantastic!
Sooo ingenious.
Do you think a 165 tyre would fit in there?

Thanks.

I'm not sure if a wider tyre would fit but I think there's a good chance it would. Assuming it fits above the cross-bar at all, the main thing to watch out for is whether you'll be able to lift the front of the carrier up high enough so that it doesn't foul on the radiator cap. If you used a smaller bolt and put it off to one side that would give you a little more room.

The high centre portion of the bonnet with the cross-bar located where it is seem almost purpose-designed to hold a wheel. It makes me wonder if Issigonis had that possibility in mind when he designed it.

How heavy is the bonnet to lift?

If I could find a way of re-fixing the cross member to my bonnet

I pop rivetted my cross member to the bonnet. It doesn't really show especially with a blob of paint on the rivet heads.

mike.perry wrote:How heavy is the bonnet to lift?

Not bad. Way lighter than a Land Rover bonnet with spare wheel attached. The bonnet catch spring is still strong enough to lift the bonnet when you pull the release handle (though it doesn't *thunk* open with the same force as before).

A bit of green paint or varnish would finish it off nicely.
Do you find having the spare there cuts down on engine noise?
You could offer up a 165 to see if it will fit. I seem to remember that a 155 was a pretty tight fit though.

You must be very confident of the strength in the bonnet cross brace Alex. I'd have thought that the weight of the wheel and poor road surfaces would soon pull the spot weld and braze. More so the bonnet hinges are not really designed to cayyr the extra weight of a wheel/tyre.
Hope to be proven wrong, but meantime I'll stay with the conventional position.

I'll stay with the conventional position

Me too. I use a roof rack if I need extra luggage space - a lot less trouble

jonathon wrote:You must be very confident of the strength in the bonnet cross brace Alex. I'd have thought that the weight of the wheel and poor road surfaces would soon pull the spot weld and braze. More so the bonnet hinges are not really designed to cayyr the extra weight of a wheel/tyre.
Hope to be proven wrong, but meantime I'll stay with the conventional position.

I'm not the first to have done this mod - I studied photos of three others before coming up with my own design. I think it will be OK strength-wise. If not, it isn't the end of the world.

LouiseM wrote:Me too. I use a roof rack if I need extra luggage space - a lot less trouble

I've used roof-racks in the past and I don't like them. They're noisy, they reduce fuel consumption, and I don't like the hassle of getting stuff up there and tying it on securely. Then there's the risk of things blowing off on the motorway, getting soaked in the rain, or being stolen. Finally, if you put anything heavy up there it doesn't do your centre of gravity any good.

I'm aware of previous attempts at this type of mod, but have still yet to be convinced of its suitability. I would have thought that an errant wheel floating around the engine bay after a failure of the welds, might be the cause for some degree of caution.
I'd use bolts instead of screws on the locking pin assembly and beef up/gusset the mount where its bent to allow fitting to the bonnet pin mount.

I've yet to see a roof rack that can "reduce fuel consumption" - but perhaps if it was cleverly streamlined to reduce overall drag on the car ?? Problem with Traveller is - the aluminium gutters are not designed to carry any weight - a roof rack could soon make a real mess of the roof and gutters !
Good design Alex - although I too would caution the strength of the hinges and the brace fixings. May be better idea to use a space-saver wheel which would be much lighter. But there's plenty of room up there for more than just a wheel - cylinderhead/alternator/carb/fuel pump etc etc - you could make the support timber much wider and mount all the parts in clips alongside the wheel ?

Maybe I could fit a spare set of rear springs under my bonnet, ready for the next failure

Regarding the bonnet hinge strain, I would put some of those nifty moulded thread rubbers in the channel to bear the downward weight. In the right position they would take the strain off that cross member too. It can't be beyond the wit of man to avoid side stresses on the hinges by some buffering arrangement as well, though with my glassfibre wings the bonnet wedges quite tight at the rear anyway!

I have thought about this previously, and it seems logical to bear the weight on the bonnet/wing channels rather than rely on that poor old crosspiece!

I don't like roof racks either. I tow a trailer if I need the space. Trouble is all the toll bridges charge double.
We've been there before.

bmcecosse wrote: But there's plenty of room up there for more than just a wheel - cylinderhead/alternator/carb/fuel pump etc etc - you could make the support timber much wider and mount all the parts in clips alongside the wheel ?

Add a few store cupboard essentials and you've got yourself a mobile shop

roof racks - useful for short journeys but a poor idea for carrying weight and/or going long distances IMHO.

Underbonnet spare carrying has been done by the likes of Renault as well as hundreds of Minor owners. The bonnet cross brace is likely to be the weakest link but the failure mode is not dangerous and therefore nothing to loose.

I extended the bootlid on my 54 and mounted a spare with very heavy off road tyre and crossed the worst terrain I can imagine for a Minor, and didn't manage to break the boot hinges - even when carrying passengers sitting on the spare wheel on the boot!!

Toll bridges ?? Not in Scotland!

Not in Scotland!

not yet?

All done away with!! Tolls that is- not the bridges !!!!