Rigid Armor Hitch Spare Tire Swing Out - Install and Product Review

Everyone wants to run a larger wheel and tire set up on their Tacoma. Whether it's for ground clearance or looks, it is one of the first things most Tacoma owners do to their trucks. There is however, one issue with upgrading your wheel and tire set up that many Tacoma owners are stuck trying to figure out. When upgrading to a 33 inch+ size tire you loose the ability to store it under the truck bed.

Rather than risk driving without a spare, Rigid Armor offers a spare tire rear swing out that mounts to the OEM hitch receiver. This is a great option for people not wanting to spend a fortune on a full rear bumper with a swing out, which involves cutting the rear of your truck and possibly welding on some models. It gives your truck a clean overland style look without the price and hassle of a full bumper swing out set up and can carry up to a 35 inch tire. We have been running this swing out on one of our trucks for about a month now and wanted to give our thoughts on this awesome product from Rigid Armor.

Design

The Rigid Armor Rear Swing Out comes out of the box in a simple two piece design which makes for an easy install but more on that later. The swing out itself is the perfect mod to mount your overloading essentials like your hi-lift jack and rotopax gas cans. You can even purchase your swing out with a fold down rear table which makes for a great platform for cooking or just when you need an extra place to set things while you're out on the trail. 

Another added benefit of a hitch mounted rear swing out is it gives you the ability to remove the set up whenever you would like. Just the other week we ran Hell's Revenge in Moab, Utah with the swing out on the truck. We decided to run the swing out on the trail but we could have easily removed it and left it at camp if we felt like we would need the extra clearance in the rear. It is also built to be incredibly strong. We have rallied it through Swing Arm City, scraped it on every rock at Hells Revenge and there isn't even a dent on the swing out.

Install

Installing the swing out on your Tacoma couldn't be any easier. The swing out ships in two boxes, one for the tire swing and one for the hitch mount.

First, you'll want to install the hitch mount into your factory tow hitch. Once you have done that you will  line it up with the holes for your hitch pin and then tighten the anti wobble lock until the hitch mount is firm.

Then you will take the tire swing and set it in the swing out portion of the hitch mount. There is a bolt that you will thread through the swing out and tighten with the nut provided in the package. This will be the hinge point that your tire will pivot on. From here all you will need to do is mount your tire onto the tire mounting plate and screw on the bolts provided until your tire is nice and snug. Once you have done these steps you have set up your Rigid Armor Swing Out!

Final Thoughts

The Rigid Armor Swing Out has been a fantastic product for us at Tacoma Lifestyle and something we would highly recommend if you are wanting to run a simple rear tire swing out. There is nothing on the market that can beat the convenience of this product and with the amount of mounting options for other overland products it just adds to the usefulness of the swing out. After a few months of running it on one of our trucks it is definitely something that has become a staple of the build and has taken any abuse we have thrown at it. You can find the Rigid Armor Swing Out on our website here, as well as many other Toyota Tacoma aftermarket accessories here.