so Ive been driving around for 2 years now with the spare tire chained up to my box...my tire carrier snapped...the internals are shredded....anyone ever fix this problem with a cheap universal part or some clever custom way?...i want my tire back under the truck

 

get the parts from the dealer. you don't want some aftermarket junk to fail and the tire falls out and kills somebody. the parts aren't that expensive.

 

I was driving down I45 in Downtown Houston just less than 1 yr ago, the road is elevated and was causing my truck to bounce up and down as I crossed each bridge joint. On one of them I felt a hard bump in the rear end, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw nothing accept for cars braking and splitting off to the right and left hand side of the road. Then down from the sky comes my spaer tumbling end over end. It hits the ground and shoots right back up out of sight, when it comes back down it rights itself and is now rolling down the road. I lost sight of it as it veered to the right shoulder and was skidding along the cancrete barrier. Lucky enough for me it never hit anyone. I never found that tire.
The cable is broke but the rest of the carrier appears to be in tacked. I'm sure I could replace the cable.....I'm just unsure if I want to trust something that has already failed me once before.