I have a 3500 hd and will be towing a 37 ft 5th wheel trailer. I am considering a front mount for the spare tire. my question is do any of you do this, will it block to much air flow to the radiator? Looking for any advice that you can help me with.
thanks Mike

 

I have a question or 2...
What are you trying to accomplish by moving the spare tire?
What is the mission?

 

I have the Cab/Chassis with a flatbed on it. the fuel tamk is in the rear between the frames. I do not have room on the flatbed, because of installed tool boxes on the flatbed, therefore I need some place to carry the spare. I could mount it to the headache rack, but would have to remove it eveytime I needed in the front tool box. There is room on the bed behind the 5th wheel, but again I would have to remove it to hook up to trailer and to unhook from trailer. Hope this makes a clearer picture of my question. and thanks agiain,
Mike

 

I put a front mount on my 03 to carry an extra spare on a trip to Alaska and it caused no problems at all over 10K trip. I have Ricksons aluminim on the truck and the spare was on a Rickson steel which is a very heavy wheel. The under bed spare on Rickson steel also is very hard to get to with the in bed camper mounted, not imposible but difficult. Since then I have taken several trips with the in bed camper and I always mount the front spare and have never had an air flow problem or any overheating. Hope this helps.

 

Much clearer now. Makes sense to me.
Can't really address the issue, but I did have an old gasser years ago. I didn't ever pull anything heavy with it, but it never gave me any problems either.
Good Luck. Post some pics if you go that route.

 

Have you thought about a mount on the head-ach rack that goes out over the cab? Some of the oilfields trucks in this area are running them they look pretty good and the only drawback I can see is the tire would be hard to get to if needed.
just a thought .

 

Why not lay it inside the trailer on the floor??

 

thanks all for your replies, I am leaning towards the headache rack mount over the cab, If anyone has a picture? Any more advice on the front mount?
thanks again Mike

 

If you mount it up front you will get lots of bug splatter on the rim. Hard to clean and will look like yuk. Mount it up on the headache rack and the tire tread will get the bug splatter. Easier to clean. It also leaves an easier access to the engine compartment. If you only use the truck for pulling the trailer you could use a spare wheel cable hoist and install it under the trailer either at the front or the rear. My last 5ver spare was that way, mounted up front even though it had an enclosed underbelly. It did hang down a little but was still plenty clear of everything.

 

How about building a mount on the front of the 5er hitch to use when you are towing and then you can lay in on the flatbed when not towing?