Spare, What Spare?
 

How do you hold up your spare tire if you even have a spare? I just read an old issue of TDR and one of the members back in '96 has a good idea using a small boat trailer winch. None of the spare tire rack is left under my truck except the frame cross member.

The front passengers bed floor holds mine up.

There was a pretty lengthy discussion about this some months back.

I may even have started that thread, don't remember.

The idea was to use the spare-tire winch from later model junk-yard finds.

Over on the Oilburners, many of the Ford guys have found the winches from Ford Windstar vans to be easiest to find and make work.

There shouldn't be much difference mounting one on a Dodge, as both use the same bolt-pattern wheel.

If you have never had occassion to use one, these winches are light-years ahead of the old way of doing it.:cool:


https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...d.php?t=128881


Here you go, I went ahead and dug it out of my archives.:cool:

Having no parts underneath was my problem too. Out hear in the desert the temps get to 117 degrees so I could only imagine how hot the pavement gets...thats why I built my bumper to hold it...

I welded ( 2 ) 3/4" x 8" bolts unto original spot.

I've got a bed for a reason[laugh]. Mine sits in there, but tends to slide around a little[duhhh]. That winch type deal sounds pretty good, worked well on my dakota, I'll have to try and rig one up sometime.

With the original bracket, of course.

mine fits nicely between the bed floor, and the bottom of my toolbox. now that you bring it up, i have several of those winchs in my shed and might try to get one hooked up





1 more thing to add to the list

Mine also resides in the stock location. It usually rides around inthe bed for a few months after having to use it, cause I hate sticking it back up there. And with my luck, its usually within a week of putting it back that I get a flat. So far its been there for a good 2years this time (is there a knock on wood smiley? :D)

I have a spare tire and rim matching my dual rear wheels, same rims and tires up front of course. If I'm heading out for a road trip of any length, I throw it up on te bed and strap it down. Rest of the time it lives in the barn.

But, I think it was Wanna who said so eloquently in the last thread on this topic, "I have two spares riding on the road in the rear."[coffee]

Bob