Detours Knucklebone Tire Carrier – Review

Have you been looking for a spare tire carrier for your 5th Gen 4Runner? Another generation? Another vehicle?

There are many options on the market for such an addition to your 4Runner, but one you may want to consider is the Detours Knucklebone Tire Carrier.

When I started taking off-roading more seriously with friends from OC Overland, I decided that it was time to remove the spare from underneath.

Some of the reasons included being worried the spare would be sliced on rocks when the rear drooped. And if I were in a situation where it was muddy, snowy, etc, it would be a pain to get the spare down from underneath.

Of course, I also liked the look of having the spare on the rear rather than underneath.

Tire Carrier Options

I looked around at various different versions I could find online at the time, most of which all led to Wilco. While Wilco is reputable and quality made, I hated the look of theirs, not to mention the price.

I found other small companies that I can’t remember who made them, but again, they just didn’t look so great.

This was well before the RIGd UltraSwing came out, and had that been released while in my search, it may have been a contender, although the price is still a little high compared to the DK.

At the time (about a year ago), I somehow ran across someone who was running the Detours Knucklebone.

I liked the way it looked. It had multiple options for tire size, swing out, or swing down, and was made by a small business owner here in the United States. Basically, everything checked out to what I wanted, including the price, which was just a fraction of the cost of the Wilco.

At the time, I paid $330 shipped for my tire to be carried. The owner was even nice enough to paint the carrier for me for free, as I caught him between moves when business was slower for him.

Detours Knucklebone Options

For my Detours Knucklebone, I chose the following options:

• No Swing out
• 70% Drop
• License Plate Kit

The 70% drop allows you to lower the tire carrier so you can get around easily in the rear hatch. Whether you put something in or take something out, you have more than enough room.

Additionally, if you have a rear cargo slider like mine, you can fully pull it out without any issues. I suppose if you were putting something large in the back, such as a dryer or washing machine, you could run into an issue with the tire, but daily life and off-road/camping will cause no issues.

Another reason I went with Detours is that I can choose how close or far away the tire sits from the rear of my vehicle. If you wanted it right on the hatch, you could do that. If you wanted a bit of room so it didn’t rub on the hatch, you could do that, too.

The carrier slides into the hitch of your 4Runner and is then tightened down using the hex tool that comes with the carrier. You will need an extension for your ratchet to tighten the wedge lock that the carrier uses to keep the carrier nice and firm.

Off-Road Tested & Approved

I have off-roaded on many trails, from your basic fire road to Black Diamond, and many people have said how well they liked not moving.

I really have nothing negative to say about the carrier. If I had to nitpick, though, it would be for two things.

First, the carrier is designed to be universal for all tire sizes (up to 40″) and wheels. It uses a pressure bolt-style system for the wheel holder. This means the bolt pushes against the “arm” of the carrier to keep it in place. Though extremely safe, I am paranoid, so all I could see was it somehow falling off while on the highway.

Because of this, I decided to mark and drill a hole the entire way through so the bolt would go through. I then had a friend weld the bolt in place, as well as the wheel holder to the “arm” of the carrier for extra security.

The second thing would be the bolts to hold the tire on. They come free, meaning if you were to get stuck in a deep area of sand unless you have someone holding the tire or watching, the bolts will drop and possibly be lost in the sand.

Because of this, I again had welding done on the bolts to the wheel holder, so whether I was putting the tire on or taking it off, the bolts would go nowhere.

Again, that is more nitpicking and shouldn’t be a complaint, as that’s done to ensure the carrier’s universality.

Final Thoughts

This is an awesome tire carrier. However, if you were to change tire size (larger or smaller), you may have a larger gap, or the tire could be rubbing against your hatch.

I have put roughly 20,000 miles on mine, 70% of which were off-roading—dirt roads, black diamonds, washboard roads. It has also been on a 5-day, 3,000-mile trip from the East to the West Coast. The carrier has also experienced everything from 110-degree weather to snow and ice.

It hasn’t budged, failed, or anything of that nature. I have had to tighten the carrier down three total times since the install. Once after the first 50 miles (per instructions), another for when someone tapped my bumper and it needed to be repaired, and lastly since the last 10,000 miles I put on.

If you are interested in a tire carrier but don’t want to pay the $1,000 price tag of a Wilco, consider Detours USA.