Spare carrier?

[EMD_DRIVER]

When I bought the 93, it didn't have a spare with it.. I finally got one, only there was no carrier under the truck. I took the one from my 87 and worked on it at the loco shop yesterday. Since I only had one of the carrier bolts left, I had to fab one for the other side. The carrier bar didn't have the center bolt that secures the wheel to it, so some more fabrication work was in order.

Once I secured the wheel to the bar, I wrestled it into place. NOT an easy task! It took me 30 minutes, to get the thing in place and get the one bolt in the speed nut. This is not something I look forward to having to ever do again.

Is there a mod that can be done to install the crank and cable system, that seems to be the norm now?

 

[Ironman03R]

I was gonna take that off my dads 99 when he totaled it but the carier is riveted to the frame and made of some thick crossmembers, I dont think it could be done easily without alot of fab work, unless you dont have a rear tank.

 

[GenLightening]

Hey Gary, you might check out a Chevy, mine has a hook and lever style that makes it a little easier. You still have to lift and balance things to get it hooked. Or, my '08 Chevy work van has a cable type lift in it. Think anyone would know it's gone when I turn it in next?

 

[gandalf]

Both of my trucks, the '86 and the '92, have carriers that are attached at one side and drop the other side down to remove or load the spare. It's a royal pain, hard at the best of times.

I had it actually fall down once- hit a bump at an intersection. The carrier jumped off the hook holding it up. Guess it wasn't tightened up quite enough.

But, to make matters worse, I carry a cabover camper which sticks out a couple extra feet to the rear. If I ever need to get the spare out, I'll be flat on the ground, back or belly, trying to wrestle the tire around. The add insult to injury, I'll be right under the holding tanks, thinking, "If that tank should happen to let go right now, I'll be in a world of ****."

This is one of the reasons I have AAA.

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

There are about as many underneath-spare solutions as there are spare-tires.

I have seen boat-trailer winches, winches retrofitted from wrecked vehicles that did come with them; my own old 1978 K-20 Chevy has a slide-the-spare-in "holster" if you will that I just slide the tire into just under the bumper and secure it with a simple chain/snap/ring, very much like the ones you see underneath flat-bed semi-trailers; I have even seen them devised from those in-expensive 12-volt hoists.


At the tire-shop, where I get to see it all, when dealing with the old style break-your-back hangers, we employ the floor-jack to do the lifting.

Once you get the hang of this, you laying beside the hanger on a creeper, the spare-tire laying on the hanger, the hanger resting on the business end of the floor-jack, you just guide the spare/hanger into place with one hand, while operating the jack with the other.

 

[Mat J]

how do you guys have room, do you only have one tank, in my 91 I dont see a place where I could even fit a spare. I just keep mine in the bed under my tool box.

 

[91f2504x4]

The spare carrier holds it against the bottom of the rear tank.

I took mine out because I couldn't get the tire loose from there anyway. I had to cut the long bolts to even get it down, and then I threw it in the corner of the garage.

 

[The Warden]

how do you guys have room, do you only have one tank, in my 91 I dont see a place where I could even fit a spare. I just keep mine in the bed under my tool box.

The spare goes under the rear fuel tank. It reduces your ground clearance behind the axle, and if someone's swapped a high-capacity tank (i.e. a 33 gallon tank out of a Bronco), I think the spare won't fit at all.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's any way to get one of those winches off a modern truck into one of ours with the rear fuel tank in place. I suppose you could weld some bars under the tank to mount the winch to, but after doing that, my guess is that it would move the spare tire so low that you'd have too little ground clearance. It's a shame; I would LOVE to do something like that...the factory system is a serious PITA. I keep the spare there only because I need the bed space.

 

[Mat J]

If anyone has a change can you post a picture of the stock set up under the rear tank. neither of my trucks have brackets or anything there. I could make and weld up something I just need something to work off of.

 

[Sycostang67]

I removed my spare from under the truck and just put it in the bed under the tool box. I have an eye hook bolted to the box that the tire is secured to so it doesn't slide into my exhuast. The last thing I want to do if I have to change a tire is lay under the truck, especially if the weather is less than agreeable.

 

[The Warden]

If anyone has a change can you post a picture of the stock set up under the rear tank. neither of my trucks have brackets or anything there. I could make and weld up something I just need something to work off of.

Hope this helps

 

[GenLightening]

Unfortunately, I don't think there's any way to get one of those winches off a modern truck into one of ours with the rear fuel tank in place. I suppose you could weld some bars under the tank to mount the winch to, but after doing that, my guess is that it would move the spare tire so low that you'd have too little ground clearance. It's a shame; I would LOVE to do something like that...the factory system is a serious PITA. I keep the spare there only because I need the bed space.

I forgot that the Fords have that rear tank. I like my saddle tanks for that reason, just not when filling them!

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

If anyone has a change can you post a picture of the stock set up under the rear tank. neither of my trucks have brackets or anything there. I could make and weld up something I just need something to work off of.

Don't even look at the pictures or even imagine how the factory hanger would look, as you are about better off to not even have a spare, as to have to ever fight that hanger.

Unless your rear bumper has something low in the center that can't easily be removed when the spare is needed, if you really want the spare under there, do like I did on the old Chevy and build a "drawer" for want of a better description.

At least that way, you can simply slide the tire in there, without having to ever actually get under the truck.

One BIG down-fall of the under-bed carriers is that the only way to check or add air to the spare is to take it down; it is such a hassle that no one ever does, so when the spare is needed, it is probably flat also.

I forgot that the Fords have that rear tank. I like my saddle tanks for that reason, just not when filling them!

I used to make my living with a dual-tank Chevy and I well remember the aggravation of short fuel-hoses, crowded stations, and those opposite-sided tanks, always with a big trailer.

The usual drill was to fill one tank, shut off the pump and go pay, then re-locate the truck to fill the other tank, then go pay again.

Always when trying to re-locate for the second tank, some idiot in a ricer would cut me off after having see-sawed the truck/trailer into that just-right position, and I would then have to wait for them to finish.


Of course, with a diesel, you just pull between the smart-pump and the dummy-pump, stick the smart-pump hose in the left tank and turn the pump ON, walk around and stick the dummy-pump hose in the right tank, when the right tank is FULL, hang up the dummy hose, and finish filling the left side with the smart hose.

 

[Mat J]

ok thanks for the info.

 

[NJGearhead666]

my spare carrier was so rusted up i had to torch it off to get the spare down. I just cut the whole thing out from under the truck and keep the spare in the bed mounted on the pass side behind the cab