Project: Custom Wall Mounted Tire Storage Rack

Overview

I recently bought winter wheels and tires for the project Miata. That way, I could easily swap between summer and winter wheelsets without having to visit a tire shop to have tires removed and installed.

I also normally have 2 drift wheel/tire combos with cheap tires, and one spare wheel/tire. Unfortunately, storing these means having seven wheel/tire combos sitting in the garage at a time. While one or two spares wouldn’t be too bad, having seven tires sitting around is a big space commitment. Eventually, I grew tired of having a stack of tires take up space on the garage floor, so I decided to build a wall-mounted tire rack.

The rack would need to accommodate:

- 1 full set of four winter or summer tires — 205 mm or 195 mm wide, for a total max width of 820 mm

- 2 spare 195 mm wheel/tire combos (stock Miata wheels/tires), for a total width of 390 mm

- 1 spare aftermarket wheel with a 205 mm tire, for a total width of 205 mm

- 1 Miata OEM spare wheel/tire (115 mm)

Design

Adding all these measurements, we get a total width of 1530 mm (60.2"). Thus, the tire rack would need to accommodate at least 60.2 inches of tires.

With that in mind, I browsed the internet for a design I liked. I found a rack from Home Depot that I particularly liked, so I used it as inspiration. However, I had a few problems with it:

1. The horizontal tire support bar sits too close to the wall, which would make it easier for a tire to fall off accidentally.

2. The rack's overall width is only 48", meaning it wouldn’t fit all my tires.

3. It only has mounting points at either end, meaning the entire weight of the tires is supported by just two studs.





Considering these limitations, I made a sketch of my ideal rack. It would be 72" long, providing plenty of space for the side supports, a middle support, and some extra room in case I had more wheels/tires to store. To save money, I opted for angle bar on the upper and lower horizontal supports instead of square tubing. This offers similar lateral strength at a lower cost. Additionally, I chose flat bar for the upright supports against the wall, which is still strong while remaining affordable. I used 5/8" round tubing to support the tires. The upper and lower horizontal supports would have 3/16" holes every 16" for screws, allowing the rack to mount into each stud across the full 72" length for maximum strength and support.

With a final design ready, I bought metal from Home Depot. I first cut and welded the vertical wall-adjacent uprights to the horizontal angle, then added the perpendicular lower supports. After that, I cut and welded the diagonal upper supports, and finally the 5/8" horizontal tubing.

With everything welded, I mounted the rack to my garage wall studs using deck screws. I initially chose not to include a middle support unless it proved necessary, so I loaded up the rack for a stress test. With all the tires on the rack, the tubing began to bend outward. This wasn’t ideal, as it looked bad and raised safety concerns. To fix this, I welded in a 3/16" flat bar support 34" from the left side of the rack. This allowed me to place a full set of tires on the left side of the support and the remaining tires on the right. After this addition, the tubing no longer deflected under load.

Overall, I'm thrilled with how this project turned out, and I really like how it looks. The freed-up floor space is a huge plus!

What I Learned

• How to efficiently store spare wheels and tires
• How to modify existing designs to tailor to custom needs
• Optimizing support design after production to increase load