I design the spare tire carrier for my '97 Explorer. You can see it in my gallery. If you want technical descriptions, feel free to send me a message.
A.

 

Excellant..that is exactly what I have been looking for....I see it's connected to the bumper...what support/fab other than drilling a hole was required to add the support to the bolt when you have it swung open? It's hard to see where the unit fastens in the closed position. Do you have any closeups of this? Do you have any drawings you could supply, or a parts list? Do you have a finished product for sale?

Thanks, and again, this is EXACTLY what I am looking for...I even went so far as looking at the Hummer rear bumper to use (after cutting it down to fit), but noted that the latch on the bumper would interfere with the door operation.

 

Thanks. There is no need to drill a hole in a bumper. I'll enclose closeups soon.
A.

 

I'm puzzled. did the 97 come stock with tail lights in the bumper and the off center license plate on the rear door? Looks different from anything I've seen stateside.

 

Artur,

I too am curious about the bumper and the offset license plate on the rear hatch.

 

The taillights on the bumper IIRC are required in some countries...

 

GerFor,

I am thankful you will be able to provide the closeups. Thanks again.

 

The offset licsenseplate is the european version since our plates are longer. They usually dont fit in the american plateholder. In sweden we can order plates in US size. The lights inthe bumper are rear foglights

 

Rear foglights? So you can see through the fog while backing up?
Sounds like "conspicuous consumption" to me.

 

Here you are in my gallery close-ups with description.
A.

PS. Discussion concerning rear foglights is very funny. In Europe we have fog all around the car ) No kidding- that's one of our traffic rules

 

Guess we are lucky in the US where we only get fog in front of the vehicle.
Unfortuantley, while we can be trusted with firearms in this country, I think that rear fog lights would present a whole host of problems if we were to have them. It wouldn't take long for soemone to swap them out for a set of flamethrowers to be used the next time Mr. someone gets cut off in traffic at night.

 

A.

 

Or, more importantly, to keep someone from rear-ending you in the pea soup fog that some countries over there get. I would love to have them for the heavy snow days around here... when the lake effect is in full force it is very hard to see the normal tail lights on the cars infront of me.

 

Itīs perfect in the heavy snowfall we get in northern sweden. You donīt see anything but white and cars ahead cant be seen until you are 2 ft behind. Another benefit is that the lamps get warmer and melts the snow that gathers on the rear. Normally the ordinary taillamps arenīt visible att all due to snow

 

Now I know why my family came over here from Sweden 100 years ago.