Need creative spare tire relocation ideas / building an in bed mount for cheap

[Grit dog]

^ That'll work.
Imma day late, but was going to say I'd been hauling the spare in the square upright, against the bed side in front of the wheel well all last year, with a bungee cord holding it upright tight to the bed rail.
You could achieve the same thing with one piece of all-thread installed through the inside lip of the bed rail and then through 1 lug hole on the wheel. Basically works on any truck with any wheel. (unless its too short for a lug hole to line up with the bed rail, which shouldn't be an issue on any full size truck with normal size tires)

 

[SirRobyn0]

^ That'll work.
Imma day late, but was going to say I'd been hauling the spare in the square upright, against the bed side in front of the wheel well all last year, with a bungee cord holding it upright tight to the bed rail.
You could achieve the same thing with one piece of all-thread installed through the inside lip of the bed rail and then through 1 lug hole on the wheel. Basically works on any truck with any wheel. (unless its too short for a lug hole to line up with the bed rail, which shouldn't be an issue on any full size truck with normal size tires)

I thought about doing just that. The all thread idea. The thing is for me the trouble I had with the ratchet strap and the same problem I see with the all thread is that it only holds the top portion of the tire, so for me I'd end up with the bottom of the tire kicked out into the bed now and then, not a lot maybe a few inches or so. With the bracket I've built I'll be able to run a bolt though one of the top bolt holes and one of the bottom ones solving that issue. What I don't like it that I'll have to drill two holes in the bottom of the bed to install the bracket.

When I was experimenting with spare locations, a year or more ago, I hauled it up front in the bed like you are for a while. It's much easier to keep the spare stable there because the bulk head unlike the tailgate does not get opened so you have an additional point of contact up there to help stabilize it. But that didn't work because I wanted my tool box back.

 

[Grit dog]

@SirRobyn0
Yes you’re correct, not as stable in the back due to the reasons you mentioned.
But the all-thread holds the wheel tight and it doesn’t kick out. I’ve done that a couple times in the location you’re using to “show off” a spare with a nice matching wheel. It never moved. Also just enough meat on a piece of allthread to drill it for a small pad lock. Just to keep the honest people from getting any ideas…

A suggestion, for your mount, I would consider just zip a couple self tappers into the bed side lip and a couple into the bottom of the bed.

 

[AuroraGirl]

^ That'll work.
Imma day late, but was going to say I'd been hauling the spare in the square upright, against the bed side in front of the wheel well all last year, with a bungee cord holding it upright tight to the bed rail.
You could achieve the same thing with one piece of all-thread installed through the inside lip of the bed rail and then through 1 lug hole on the wheel. Basically works on any truck with any wheel. (unless its too short for a lug hole to line up with the bed rail, which shouldn't be an issue on any full size truck with normal size tires)

My gpa was a metal worker for many years and he also had a tendancy to overbuild things here and there, skimp on other places(Sounds like me somewhat.. lol) and he did this with the bent finger things holding the wheel on the inner hub circle then the hold-down goes around the lip part of the other side. The up and down followed your suggestion but its probably what kept that bedside from failing quite like the other side(The bed sill is dead there)

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[SirRobyn0]

@SirRobyn0
Yes you’re correct, not as stable in the back due to the reasons you mentioned.
But the all-thread holds the wheel tight and it doesn’t kick out. I’ve done that a couple times in the location you’re using to “show off” a spare with a nice matching wheel. It never moved. Also just enough meat on a piece of allthread to drill it for a small pad lock. Just to keep the honest people from getting any ideas…

A suggestion, for your mount, I would consider just zip a couple self tappers into the bed side lip and a couple into the bottom of the bed.

I'm pretty sure you saw my thread bed rail / rack system. So there are bolts for that which the mount will go into on the top. On the bottom I was planning bolts as well, but I may consider self tappers. I do quite a bit of hauling with the truck and I don't want self tappers to possibly pull out or snap off if I were to bump the spare with a barrel or the tractor bucket.

My gpa was a metal worker for many years and he also had a tendancy to overbuild things here and there, skimp on other places(Sounds like me somewhat.. lol) and he did this with the bent finger things holding the wheel on the inner hub circle then the hold-down goes around the lip part of the other side. The up and down followed your suggestion but its probably what kept that bedside from failing quite like the other side(The bed sill is dead there)

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You have posted that pic somewhere before I think, and it's really the cool mount. Nothing is going to bend that, which won't already be going to bend the wheel or damage the rubber.

 

[SirRobyn0]

Got it finished up this morning despite having to work in the rain. I'm not allergic to rain, if I was I'd never go outside here lol. So as I was walking out to truck I was thinking about what @Grit dog was saying last night. Up until now I was pretty set on putting bolts in the bottom bracket, but decided to go with the self tappers because they'd make a much smaller hole in the bottom of the bed, and if I get rid of the bracket at some time in the future it would be easer to fill the hole with a quick spot of weld and grind it flush like it was never there. I am a little concerned about strength with the self tappers, but if it's a problem I can always move to bolts in the future. Ok picture time!

Below: The mount installed, as mentioned before the only reason the top bracket is so long is so I could mount it using existing bolt holes. It would be perfectly fine to make it as small as the lower bracket.

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[SirRobyn0]

Mounting the spare to the bracket is as simple as two long bolts. I used what I had on hand. If your using the same material I am the problem would be that in order to have a bolt that will take a washer big enough for the bolt holes in the wheel, that bolt will be to big for the existing holes in the bracket. I wanted to keep this simple, and I had long enough bolts that were small enough to fit the bracket holes. So I cut some scrap material to use like washers and put the nuts on the inside. I used what I had on hand and this works for now. Moving forward I might replace the bolts with J bolts. Take a look.

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I have it set so it's tight against the inner fender, but has a couple inches between it and the tailgate.

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[AyWoSch Motors]

I have mine mounted at an angle in the front center of the bed, baja style.
I used a spare tire rack and hold down, from a 94 yukon, just bolted to the back of the bed. Looks cool.

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[SirRobyn0]

@AyWoSch Motors That does look cool. But wouldn't work for my requirement of being able to haul 3 barrels at the front of the bed or the tool box, BTW I like your headache rack.

I hope since this thread is stickied and my issue has now been concluded that other folks will come along and post a picture or two of how they have their spare mounted especially if it is mounted somewhere that isn't traditional. Might help someone out that reads this thread later.

 

[AyWoSch Motors]

@AyWoSch Motors That does look cool. But wouldn't work for my requirement of being able to haul 3 barrels at the front of the bed or the tool box, BTW I like your headache rack.

I hope since this thread is stickied and my issue has now been concluded that other folks will come along and post a picture or two of how they have their spare mounted especially if it is mounted somewhere that isn't traditional. Might help someone out that reads this thread later.

Thank you. Its was homemade, has saved that back window (and all my goofy stickers), many times.

I hadn't read threw the whole thing, just saw the title and the first message, and thought I'd throw my solution out there.