Spare Tire

[Crosstrekfisher]

Hello Team

Quick question. Does anyone have an external solution for the spare tire?

I don't want to haul it inside the Trailer and I don't want it in my truck.

Any ideas...

[hinkle_e]

Bal Hide-a-spare works for me.
https://balrvproducts.com/products/c...-a-spare.shtml

[DennisSchneider]

Glad I found this! I recently bought a Cherokee 22RR and need a place to put my spare. Glad there's options!

[vhmike73]

I found a guy on YouTube with a 22RR who put a folding spare tire carrier on his rear bumper that folds down under the ramp door; I copied his work and it's worked okay for me. He also did another video of some mods he made and how they're standing up after 5 years, and he seems to be happy with the way the spare carrier is working for him.

I did the mod, and while it's a great idea, the actual carrier seems a tad flimsy. BUT....it's also not expensive, so if I decide the carrier could stand to be replaced, it's about $40. The key to making it work is to mount the base plate upside down: The carrier is only designed to fold partially, so if you mount the base plate as the instructions tell you, it won't fold down to the ground. I also grabbed some 5/16" carriage bolts, nylock nuts and washers from Lowes to do the install. I also ordered up an inexpensive spare tire cover from Amazon, and it's working out well for me.

His video showing some of the details of his install:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQAfgqppnIQ&t=6s

I've attached a few pics of the carrier installed on my 2016 22RR. I have NO clue why they're sideways; they weren't TAKEN that way, nor are they saved to my PC that way!

[mikeyk101]

Originally Posted by vhmike73

I found a guy on YouTube with a 22RR who put a folding spare tire carrier on his rear bumper that folds down under the ramp door; I copied his work and it's worked okay for me. He also did another video of some mods he made and how they're standing up after 5 years, and he seems to be happy with the way the spare carrier is working for him.

I did the mod, and while it's a great idea, the actual carrier seems a tad flimsy. BUT....it's also not expensive, so if I decide the carrier could stand to be replaced, it's about $40. The key to making it work is to mount the base plate upside down: The carrier is only designed to fold partially, so if you mount the base plate as the instructions tell you, it won't fold down to the ground. I also grabbed some 5/16" carriage bolts, nylock nuts and washers from Lowes to do the install. I also ordered up an inexpensive spare tire cover from Amazon, and it's working out well for me.

His video showing some of the details of his install:

I've attached a few pics of the carrier installed on my 2016 22RR. I have NO clue why they're sideways; they weren't TAKEN that way, nor are they saved to my PC that way!

I'm getting ready to try this on my 190RT but don't really like the mounting bolt arrangement and think that might be why it seems a bit flimsy. Im going to try something a bit different. I bought that spare tire holder already and it seems pretty solid. I cut the lip off the mount so it can sit flush. Im also buying a 2"x6"x12" block of HDPE that I'm going to cut in half so it will be 2"x6"x6". The mounting base is 6"x6" so that should be perfect. I measured the springs width for ramp and looks to be about 1.5" so 2" width on the HDPE block should give me a little wiggle room. I haven't decided if I'm just going to drill through the HDPE block and then the bumper for mounting or maybe drill the holes a bit wider and tap in some steel sleeves for a bit more strength. Once it's all mounted and bolted up, I think this will be a bit more solid that what I saw in the YouTube video.What are your thoughts on this idea?

[vhmike73]

Originally Posted by mikeyk101

I'm getting ready to try this on my 190RT but don't really like the mounting bolt arrangement and think that might be why it seems a bit flimsy. Im going to try something a bit different. I bought that spare tire holder already and it seems pretty solid. I cut the lip off the mount so it can sit flush. Im also buying a 2"x6"x12" block of HDPE that I'm going to cut in half so it will be 2"x6"x6". The mounting base is 6"x6" so that should be perfect. I measured the springs width for ramp and looks to be about 1.5" so 2" width on the HDPE block should give me a little wiggle room. I haven't decided if I'm just going to drill through the HDPE block and then the bumper for mounting or maybe drill the holes a bit wider and tap in some steel sleeves for a bit more strength. Once it's all mounted and bolted up, I think this will be a bit more solid that what I saw in the YouTube video.What are your thoughts on this idea?

I forgot to mention that to give me the standoff, I used some stainless steel spacers behind the mount plate of the carrier, as opposed to using a couple nuts to create the standoff like the video shows. Here's the list of hardware I used, and how I installed the carrier: sixteen 3/8" washers, four 3/8"x4" hex bolts and four 3/8"x16 nylon insert nuts along with the four 3/8" ID x 1/2" OD x 1" long seamless spacers. I put a washer on the bolt, fed that through the mount plate with another washer, spacer, washer and finally one more washer then the nut in the hole I drilled through the bumper. I don't think any of my pics shows that arrangement, but it works pretty well- the carrier is quite stable as far as the mount to the trailer. The arm itself is a little shaky, but I use this safety coupler pin to help with the slack that the pin that came with the carrier allowed.

[mikeyk101]

Thank you for the list of parts you used. That is helpful. I think I am still going to give the block of HDPE a try first. I had originally considered bolts and those steel sleeve spacers to get enough standoff from the bumper and springs but kind of like the idea of the solid block of HDPE as it will create a full mounting platform for the base of the spare tire carrier. It seems like I might even be able to get away using the u brackets that come with the carrier, if... I can drill all the holes straight. That will be the challenge.

[mikeyk101]

Well I got it done and turned out pretty good. I bought a 2x6x12 block of black HDPE off of ebay for about $32 shipped. I also bought a 3/8 brad point drill bit. I used my table saw to cut down the block of HDPE. It was a bit wider than 6" so I made the cut a bit wider than 6" as well. This made the block just a bit wider than the spare tire mounting base. I carefully drilled the holes through the block and tried to make them as straight as I could. They were off by only a smidge so I went back through the holes with a 1/2" drill bit. I checked the ubolt brackets that came with the spare tire carrier and the holes lined up perfectly. I then drilled the needed holes in the bumper using the 1/2" drill bit. I had to wiggle the ubolts a bit in the rear of bumper to get them in as there was a frame cross brace just behind the bumper but they went in. I put the HDPE block on other side, put the spare tire base on other side and then used nuts and lock washers to finish securing everything. The base couldn't have been more solid. I then attached the arm for spare tire and finally the spare tire. Very happy with how it turned out.

I had heard horror stories about cutting and drilling HDPE and heard that if you went too fast, it would start to melt and create a mess. It couldn't have been easier to work with. The table saw cut right through it easily but did create a huge mess of plastic shavings. The Brad point bit was a little slow going through to make the holes but still did it without an issue. The 1/2" bit made the holes a bit wider very quickly.

[GPs37FLH]

Originally Posted by vhmike73

I've attached a few pics of the carrier installed on my 2016 22RR. I have NO clue why they're sideways; they weren't TAKEN that way, nor are they saved to my PC that way!

It's not you, it's the website. To fix this problem, open the pictures in Microsoft Paint. In Paint, they'll look correct, but you need to either rotate the pictures 90 degrees to the right or to the left, then back again. Save the pictures, then upload them into your picture album on this website. They'll now display in your posts in the correct orientation once you've done this.

I know.....stupid