Adding support for wall mounted tire racks
 

I am trying to mount some wall mounted tire racks to get my extra tires off of the ground.
The section of wall I am looking at is 108 inches wide. From left to right, there is a stud and then about 8 inches there is another stud. After that, it is 16 inches with the last stud 22 inches from the wall. I checked and drill a small test hole and there is no stud.
My plan was to mount some wood into the studs and then bolt the tire racks to the wood get full use of the wall.

Any suggestions of wood and thickness? Or go with the standard Hacksaw Jim's 2x4's?

I didn't want to have to mount mine right where the studs were so I mounted horizontal 2x4s to all the studs and then mounted the tire rack to those with the supplied lag bolts. I would think that's stronger than mounting to the studs directly since there's no drywall between the rack and the wood so less stress on the lag bolts.

You could go with Farmer John's plywood instead. Lol

That's what I was thinking. Running horizontally mounted wood. I'll polly go with the 2x4's and run a diagonal lag screw into the cross wall to get that end some extra support.

Thanks.

I'd suggest 2x4's as well. Then hang off the rack, before putting your wheels on them, just to test it out.

Good point. My wife's snow tires are easily 50+ lbs each. 17 inch steelies and 225/65/17 tires.

Also keep an eye on what the rack is rated for. I just have car tires on mine but a buddy has 32" mud tires on one which is a lot more than what I saw mine were rated for (but so far his are holding up).

Mine are the Costco ones. Rated at 300 lbs.

Maybe I am not understanding your post accurately - is the issue that you basically don't have a stud that lines up with where you want to start/stop your rack? I have the Hyloft racks which I imagine are the same as all the others, but they are only bolted in on each end.

http://www.uhlmann.ca/wp-content/upl.../TireRacks.jpg

You can see here - I used plywood on the top one as I needed the end to be attached where there was no stud, the bottom straight through drywall onto studs at both ends.

The plywood is 1/2" I had lying around and practically speaking I can find no difference in strength in either.

-Mark

Thanks Mark.

The question is "Any suggestions of wood and thickness? Or go with the standard Hacksaw Jim's 2x4's?"

I was thinking of getting a sheet of plywood but am worried about strength. Since there isn't a huge difference in price, I will just get a few 2x4's and call it a day.

This is similar to what my friend did. He's hanging 4 x 19" wheels/tires from his 911 from there.

Edwen, Either way should work but I think I think there are a few disadvantages to using 2x4's. First off 2x4's are quite thick, so you'll need to use longer screws. There are multiple support points for the bracket (lowside's has 3 on each side) and so you'll need to put up mulitple pieces of 2x4s. Lastly, using thicker wood also means that your bracket will protrude further into your garage, so measure to make sure you have enough space.

I have 1 rack up already and the Rav4 snow tires are on them. But with the way the studs are spaced out, without adding the wood, the second rack would only be 32 inches and only able to hold 3 tires as well as a lot of unused space on the wall.
As far as jutting out, that should be fine as the rav4 fits under the rack and tires.
Biggest concern is that I will be using them up to their 300 lb max and want to make sure the wood I use will support that.

The plan is to use the full 108 inches over the 2 racks, or as much as I can.

Rack 1 will have the 4 wheels from the Rav4 (assuming 65 lbs x 4 = 260 lbs) plus 1 wheel.
The other rack will have 7 wheels, all 15 inch wheels with 23/25 inch tires (7x40 lbs = 280 lbs)