The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Spare Tire Mount Ideas

I am trying to figure out where to mount a spare for Thor. I have 8R19.5's that are 33.5 inches tall. I have considered a standing mount in the bed but I'm concerned about taking up space. I would like to see what some of you have done.

A number of guys have used modern spare winches under the rear of the frame. Similar to what's on my F250, which has some pretty hefty wheels on it. The jack handle works the winch from a hole in the bumper to let the spare down, then drag it out from underneath. There's enough cable that you don't even need to get under the truck to access it. And you don't have to worry about tossing(?) that big ol wheel'/tire up onto the bed.

yeah if I were to have a wheel on the bed I would install one of those heavy duty truck bed cranes and use that to lift my spares cause my back is not worth the trouble of lifting it up all the way

I have a crane mounted on the bed corner. I was just wanting to see what others have done with their spare tire.

This is the carrier under my '57 2 ton, as far as I know it is all original mounting, the tire I have in it is a 235/80/22.5 for reference.

Hi TUTS 59, see the picture in the "general" forum, I have the original mount under the frame on my 2 ton.

buckshot, I moved your earlier reply here to Craig's post in Big Bolts as it really applies to his question and not the 1/2 ton truck thread in GTT.

Thanks for posting those neat pics as I hadn't previously seen the under-bed mount set up!

78buckshot, I have the front portion (nearest the axle) of the that mount. There is a draw bar style hitch welded over the top of that on my truck. The rear portion is missing as well.

OK, I didn't know if it would help much on the little trucks but figured someone could use it, wherever it fits is fine with me.

I made a steel strut out of angle iron, and used the crank up and down winch from underneath a '70s Toyota pickup. Although seemingly made for small tires, it uses a sturdy chain and with the other piece of angle iron and a bolt, holds my spare tire up underneath the bus. I drilled a hole in the bumper to insert the crank handle I made out of 1/2" pipe, which cranks the tire up and down easily. It's been holding that 20" tire up there for 29 years so far.

I'm working on an under bed side mount. The mount uses a portion of the original rack. I mounted the rack 17 inches above the ground for clearance. The tire slides into the rack and is supported against the bottom of the bed.

The plan from here is to add a cable assembly from a3500 or F250/350 to raise and lower the tire . I will add a length of threaded rod to secure it in place.

The spare on my F250 is held in place only by the cable winch. It's been up there for nearly 25 years without a problem. So the threaded rod you're talking about would just be another thing to fiddle with if you need to take the spare out. I think that the winch would work just fine without the extra threaded rod. You'd just need to mount the winch so that you could raise the wheel enough to tuck it into the pocket and then crank it up to land behind the side rail of the bed.

klhansen, The threaded rod is just a precaution. I ran over a spare once that came off.

You could always whip up a frame for the front bumper and have the tire bolted there. It might block a little bit of airflow to the radiator, but you also get a deer guard out of it!

I'm attaching a picture of my 9600 showing the rack on the bumper.

LOL! I understand, I ripped the spare out of my 72 K10 once out gathering firewood. That had the swing style bar under the back of the bed. Had to go back and throw the spare on top of the load.

@Puffie40, those front mount spares were all the rage back in the late '70's up here in Alaska. I refused to use one. A mild bumper tap would tear up the grille at a minimum, or even puncture the radiator from the rack bending as the tire took the hit.

I would be really concerned with cooling issues being here in the South. Kevin, the spare I ran over was on a M35, 2.5 ton military Truck. The cable had just rusted in two, it had lug nuts that also held it in place, if they weren't stripped. Made for an interesting Convoy, the Guy behind me didn't like it either.

That must have been exciting, given the size of a military tire and the rock hard suspension of the M35. Can you say speed bump?

I thought I would update all of you on my spare Tire mount. I used a cable reel from a 1 ton Chevy(wrecking yard part) and the original spare bracket form under the Truck. I added a steel angle support to mount the reel, this bolts to the bottom bed cross sills.

The cable reel works easily enough and the spare is held in place by the lower bracket. The set offers easy access and allows for plenty of ground clearance.

That looks good, and much easier than my set-up.