The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Spare tire wheel and mount question?

I appears there may have been different mount methods used for the same year trucks. A local owner has a complete spare tire carrier with all the parts, including the lock, that he is certain are correct for a '46. I have photos of the parts. It bolts to the bed. Another nearby owner with a recently completed restoration, to factory delivered specs, has the same bed mounted carrier. His finished truck has been in his family since the late '40's. A thread in VCCA about a week ago, in the parts wanted section, showed a post reply with photos showing the same bed mounted top rail. It was on an unrestored model. On my '46 the entire spare tire carrier assembly was missing. There is no evidence that anything was secured to the frame rails at the points matching up to remnants of the swagged rivets on the carrier rail recently acquired. But, the holes in the frame are present.

In checking my '37 I did not find any frame rail holes that would match an angle iron and swagged rivets anchoring method. My '37 assembly was bolted on by previous owner, which is different yet from those described in this thread and I suspect was a shade tree solution? I'd never looked that critically at it before, since it worked without any problems.

I am puzzled, and can not state with certainty there was only one way of mounting these carriers.