Recently I asked showboat to make me some jerry can brackets so I can relocate my jerry cans from the rear of my M416 trailer to the front sides. I found a plan online and he made them. Unfortunately, my cans were slightly taller than average and those mounts were too short. He asked if I wanted him to remake some new ones and I expressed my true desire. I wanted jerry can mounts on my Rancho rockGEAR tire carrier. With the carrier installed, it left a large space between my tailgate and the tire carrier.





Others have mounted RotoPax on the tailgate and it looks good. However, the mounts are expensive, the Rotopax fuel containers are expensive and it would only limit me to two 2-gallon containers. I even went so far as to contact Desert Snake Fab to make me up a custom Rotopax plate.



I already have 4 5-gallon traditional CARB compliant containers and several Specter water containers. I REALLY wanted to put these to use. The problem was that the integrated Hi-Lift mount got in the way. If I were to use actual jerry can mounts, they were too deep.

showboat came up with a neat solution and custom fabricated me up a set of mounts. Pretty freakin awesome! After taking some measurements I dropped off my tire carrier at his shop and he went to work on it. As he progressed, he sent me snapshots and got me all worked up.

He traced out both of the cans (fuel and water) and made a template. Made his cuts, then wrapped them.





Added some loops for my ratchet straps.



He cut some rectangular tubes and tacked them to the tire carrier, along with the new can holders.





Yeah, these pics got me all worked up. I stopped by a few days later for a test fit. Everything lined up well, but I noticed that the tabs were not in the best place. They needed to be on width side of the can holders to properly secure the jerry cans. Easy fix. Once the dry fit was done, he added supports, relocated the loops and finished the welding.

Geoff was good enough to drop it off at my house tonight so my dad and I got started on the painting project. I took some more "before" pics. The one he sent me was from his camera phone and the RES was a little lacking. I really wanted to show off his work. Great job, Geoff!







O'Reilly's Auto Parts sold the VHT Roll Bar & Chassis paint. It's an epoxy paint and a one-step deal. No priming. It comes in matte black and is suppose to match up with matte powder coating. Easy enough! Just scuff the surface, degrease and clean it, then apply several coats with 10min dry time in between coats. Not a bad deal for $8.00.





Although it looks a bit shiny now, so did my bumper/swing-out tire carrier when I got it. In time, the AZ sun will do it's thing and fade it to a dull finish and it should all match up. I'm going to give it a day or so before installing it back on my Jeep and take some final photos.

Geoff, amazing job buddy!

Great build, you two

Fantastic! Geoff is smart like that. :-)

Yup. Geoff's the man! The mounts fit perfectly! I have about 1" of space between the tailgate and the strap loops.




I'm using ratchet straps to secure the jerry cans in place. These will not be the ones that I will eventually use. Just for this mock up.




Very stealthy!



Once the cans are in place, I can still wing out my tire carrier completely and the tailgate opens all the way, too!



Geoff, thanks for the creative solution and the fine build. I'm sure I'm gonna be happy for a long time with this!

No problem. Glad your happy.