The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Spare tire carrier under bed

A friend gave me a complete bead blasted primed and painted under the box spare tire carrier to hang off my 49 GMC 1/2 ton! Beautiful thing. How can ya go wrong? Well, hold on, maybe there's a way.
I installed the carrier okay, but the sliding part sticks out two or three inches beyond where the locking hook drops from the bed to hold it. I am really grateful my pal passed it along, but I don't think I should spend too much longer trying to force things into place.
What I need to know is, do those carriers come in one length for early model ADs and another for later models? And maybe I have the wrong year?
I don't know but I am beginning to suspect....

I do not know if they made different length ones, perhaps they did, I believe they used these before the AD years. But you may have gotten a reproduction one. Those are too long as you describe. Here is a way to tell: look under the end where the J hook enters. Is there an oblong collar welded in place? The originals would have one to utilize the lock for these things.

retread,
You dont say if the sliding part of the carrier is able to slide all the way forward to the extreme forward point of the rail. If so, and if the carrier is too long to allow the J bolt to align up correctly then I would agree that the carrier portion is too long.

My repro carrier was originally deemed as being too long based upon the size of the original spare. But now that I have bought a new spare which is (larger) the same size as my current running tires, it fits very tight.

I have compared an original 46 and an original 50 side by side and the carrier length is the same. The receivers differ at their forward mount. The response by Brian above is a good way to know if your carrier is a repo.

If it is true that a repro carrier is longer than an original, this this is about the only time you'll see me root for the repro family. As I said in an earlier post, while I had my backend torn apart I decided to replace my old spare with a new one which finally matches the size of my other 4 tires (6.50 - 17). If I had an original I don't think the new spare would fit.

Here's a shot of my repro with the original spare. Notice the space between the tire and carrier:

http://www.cmaynard.com/Truck/IMG_0665.JPG

Here's a newer shot with my new spare. Are we talking tight fit?

http://www.cmaynard.com/Truck/IMG_1458.JPG

I am almost certain that the carriers for Panels and Suburbans are longer. I have several of them but have never tried to force them to fit a pickup.