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Mantec vs. Bearmach wheel carriers


Guest diesel_jim

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Guest diesel_jim

I'm going to get myself a new wheelcarrier for the 110.

It's a toss up between the Mantec 2-SA50-02/7 (for the 2002 onwards defenders) coming in at £235

p13m.jpg

Or the Bearmach BA132C carrier, weighing in at... um... :unsure: ...no price on their website.. i'll have to ring Cardiff as the Swindon shop is shut,

but i suspect it'll be 2 arms and a left leg cheaper than Mantec (can't get an image to upload, but it looks more or less the same as the Mantec jobbie, with slightly different hinge mountings)

There's also the Paddocks PM976 carrier:

pm132.jpg

But by the looks of this, it'll mount right where my over sized NAS lights are... :(

Sooo... million dollar question is, which is best? everyone says "you get what you pay for", but is there really much difference in the two? the only "bad" thing, i'm thinking, is that the Bearmach hinges could be made of cheese, whereas the Mantec ones obviously are unobtanium due to the price.

They both seem to mount in the same place (which is ideal, as above, the NAS lights will be in the way for mounting on the far RH side of the truck)

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JSG and I bought a Mantec one each at Billing and got them for £210 each as a joint purchase.

I wouldn't have felt as happy buying any other wheel carrier, to be honest.

Haven't fitted either of them yet, so can't comment on using them.

However, if they're good enough for the G4 vehicles...

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I'm only worth a 0.5 :P

I've recently fitted the Bearmach one. I got it at my local specialist with club discount for a little over £100. I'm more than happy with it, though the destructions were a little on the iffy side as they were a copy of a copy of a copy so it wasn't clear what bracket went where, and meant the bracket destined for the back door got mounted for a short time on the bodywork :lol: .

Apart from that, I like it, and I could justify to myself spending over £200 on one...

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Guest diesel_jim
Apart from that, I like it, and I could justify to myself spending over £200 on one...

is that you could? or a typo and you couldn't?

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Somebody I know here reckons the BM ones are better because they are fully greasable but in fairness that is probably more of an issue here where the things are coated in half an inch of sh** for six months of the year.

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Guest diesel_jim
Somebody I know here reckons the BM ones are better because they are fully greasable but in fairness that is probably more of an issue here where the things are coated in half an inch of sh** for six months of the year.

I suppose there's nothing to stop one from drilling the outer part of the hinge (after first removing the pin) and fitting a grease nipple?

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Have you thought about http://www.safari-equip.co.uk

I've had quite a bit of stuff off them for customers, including wheel carriers - and have always been impressed. And they clear the new type foglights, so a full NAS setup should be fine. They have greaseable joints and you can have a galvanised one if needed (bare or powdercoated). If you drop me a pm/text I can probably sort you one out with a bit of discount ;)

Ian

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I have the bearmach one. Bought from Paddocks when they had them on offer about 4 years ago for £80 odd.

I can honestly say that I am well chuffed with it. Everything is greaseable, it came with all the hardware and a decent set of instructions, was easy to fit, doesn't rattle and has taken no small amount of abuse - I regularly stand on the spare to access the rear of the rack....

Other plus point for me is that it's offset slightly to the drivers side - meaning that I have plenty of clearance for the NATO hitch on the rear x-member.

Matt

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Jamie,

My mate and I both bought a Mantec wheelcarrier for our (pre-2002) 110s at the LRO Show at Peterboghorror in 2002.

We had a fitting session round at his garage a couple of weeks later and they were a piece-of-p155 to fit.

The instructions were easy enough to follow and 6 years later neither of them are showing any wear or corrosion.

We did have to make up some flat spacer plates so that we could re-fit our Military Bumperettes over the lower mounting bracket, but we had already suss'ed that out before we bought them and made sure we had some steel flat of the right thickness and width.

We had looked at the Bearmach carrier, and it does look to be of reasonable quality, BUT - neither of us liked the way the wheel ended up too far over to the right of the vehicle.

The Bearmach lower mount uses the tub mounting tab holes on the crossmember (in the middle of the Bumperettes), the Mantec lower mount uses the inner 2 holes for the R/H Grab Handle and the upper R/H hole for the Military Bumperettes, pics show it clearer -

Bearmach

refuel_lepuy.jpg

My Mantec one

post-148-1218575723_thumb.jpg post-148-1218575735_thumb.jpg post-148-1218575752_thumb.jpg

post-148-1218575767_thumb.jpg post-148-1218575778_thumb.jpg post-148-1218575787_thumb.jpg

As you can see from the pics, both types will interfere with fitting a row of NAS lights at the bottom, the Bearmach one less so.

However, the picture you've posted of the Mantec Carrier, isn't the latest type.

ozzie1989 posted up pictures of his Mantec install, here -

Mantec Swing Away Wheel Carrier with NAS Rear Bumper

and this is what the lower mounting looks like -

DSCF3665.jpg

plenty of room for NAS lights, but harder to fit Bumperettes.

Paul.

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Was just about to post... so thanks to paul for digging out the photos for me ;)

Another vote for Mantec, top piece of kit! It now carries a 265/75R16 BFG AT on the same alloy wheel. It would easily carry bigger wheels!

Just take the 3 rear spacing nuts off your old wheel carrier (if you have one) and you can fiddle about with how far the wheel sticks out to suit you then!

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think its the bearmach one i have and overall its an excellent thing. only issues are that theres no grease nipples so as somebody else earlier suggested i wonder if its ok to drill/tap hinges for grease nipples? what do you all think.

The powder type coating is peeling badly on brackets so i think they will be coming off and getting shotblasted/painted properly (lots of hammerite) sometime when i get round to it.

will check invoice to se where i got mine from but 99% sure bearmach

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I have a mantec one, had it 6 or so years and it has been good, the coating is pealing slightly now but thats to be expected. It is good, but the down falls i found are, when a nato hook is fitted and 33" tyre, the nato had to be rotated or the door will not shut. With a nato hook on the back, I had a really good departure angle which means when going down a very steep bank the spare grounded out bending the wheel carrier, but to show how well is is built, it still works really well and the back door glass didnt pop out, so i haven't bothered straighting it incase i do pop the glass out. Would probably buy another if i needed to, but would seriously look at bearmach too.

Jon

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I have a mantec one, had it 6 or so years and it has been good, the coating is pealing slightly now but thats to be expected. It is good, but the down falls i found are, when a nato hook is fitted and 33" tyre, the nato had to be rotated or the door will not shut. With a nato hook on the back, I had a really good departure angle which means when going down a very steep bank the spare grounded out bending the wheel carrier, but to show how well is is built, it still works really well and the back door glass didnt pop out, so i haven't bothered straighting it incase i do pop the glass out. Would probably buy another if i needed to, but would seriously look at bearmach too.

Jon

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That's about 1000,000:1 to mantec. :lol::lol:

Mantec it is. thanks all.

You will not be disappointed, I haven't been with mine. As said before its dead easy to fit. The old saying 'You get what you pay for' is certainly true, as I've found to my cost with certain Britpart items (Track Rod ends).

Ade.

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AHHHH!!!!! Just to thro a spanner in the works, take a look at the simmonites website, defender external accories. To me it look the same as the earlier mantec one. This is called african spec!, I like this 'cause it opens with the door-on the same plane as the door (like mantec) I mean the pivots are in line with the hinges. Others are pivoted at the other edge of the rear panel, this needs a complex double hinge pivot type thing, as the carrier and the door operate thro different arcs. More hinge points and more to wear out and rattle. take a look.............. Oh and its £157+vat.

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