Gas Can Mounting

I mount my gas can on above the rear fender and strap it to the roll bar. The other side the same thing with my tool box. The ice box, rifle and camping stuff goes on the rear seat or behind and the scissor jack goes between the back seat and the tailgate. My spare 33 takes of most of the room on the outside. It is mounted to the rear by means of a vertical post that comes off a heavy duty rear bumper. I have no problems with this setup when my son and I go out for the day.

 

I put 2 on the tailgate http://stankittycat.com/binky/images/new_cans.jpg (old photo).

That tailgate is a very sturdy stainless steel tailgate. Not sure how sturdy original tailgates are as I never had one to begin with!

I removed the gas can holders recently as they were in the way and I rarely use them. I can bolt one or both of them back on if needed. I used BIG thick washers on the inside of the tailgate to distribute the weight and never had any problem with them. If I really needed them all the time I'd come up with some other solution.

Here's a photo of how it looks now (note: the washers you see in this photo are not the "big" ones referred to above):



I also removed 1 of my 2 backup lights so I could move the bumperettes up into a more conventional position on the rear cross member itself (they used to be attached to brackets lower down on the drawbar; they tended to be in the way and didn't look good mounted that low). These are mil-style bumperettes. Note that the mounting holes for these have to be drilled into the CJ rear cross member since the original hole configuration on that doesn't match up with the bumperettes at all. I didn't like drilling new holes in the cross member (I always try to avoid drilling new holes whenever I can which was why I had them on brackets on the drawbar for so long) but I wanted to provide at least some protection to the rear taillights.

And yes, they do cover the tow hooks but that's how most of the M38A1 photos online show them mounted as well:
https://www.kaiserwillys.com/media/catalog/product/auguria/interactiveimage/M38A1-Body-Rear-View.jpg

At any rate, they look a lot better this way.

 

That's because they were for lifting more than towing.




Your link to the M38A1 tub picture also shows that the non-opening tailgate area had a heavy reinforcing channel across it to support the jerry can and tire mounts.

The M38A1-C (as seen above) had the gas can on the side by the passenger seat but on mine the bolt holes were all torn.