Spare Tire Carrier Option?

[Doppleganger]

Ok, after finishing the rear sway bracketry, I have hit myself in the head again and come up with yet another stupid idea. Curious as to what you think.

I hate-loathe-despise the OE bracket that I am supposed to hold a 75 lb tire with one hand while hooking it up with the other. The cable thing sounds possible, but have heard issues with those too. Might use it with this? Anyways, saw a pic of the carrier the 08-17 Mercedes Sprinter vans use and bagged one yesterday. It is basically an open cage ramp that hinges on the front end and hooks on the back end. They are made for tires much larger than GM stock and for $25, can get a kit that expands it to a larger size yet. A cheater bar allows you to unhook and lower the cage for little effort. Here's a few pics of the original and then one that I mocked up under my truck. Some brackets will have to be made, but knew that going in. Plenty of holes already in the frame so no drilling.

There's room to tweak its height and position, so not set in stone there yet. And FWIW....my (almost) 33's fit in it like a glove. Waiting on the hitch now to see how I can fit 10lbs of flour into a 5 lb bag. Booze and a bigger hammer may be needed.

Original:

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Mocked up:

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[Corvette Ed]

Chris,congrats on a sweet setup.

 

[voodooskin]

Great idea. I'd love to hear how it goes with the hitch. I need to 1) find / buy a spare 2) figure out how to mount it (strongly prefer under the bed) and 3) add a hitch of some kind....

 

[Ricko1966]

Didn't GM offer a spare tire mount like that as an option?

 

[HotWheelsBurban]

I'm interested to see how this goes! I'm looking at several options for remounting the spare on my CCLB. Somebody stole the spare under the bed, I hope it didn't last them long(might've been a 25+ year old tire!). They also messed up the hold down hardware so I can't just put my replacement used tire and wheel back where it belongs. Currently it's laying in the front corner of the bed, I stand it up and bungee cord it in place if I need to fully load the bed. The idea of having a ramp to slide the tire into, and more leverage to raise it in place, is something I could use.....

 

[Doppleganger]

I'm going to have to make a bracket that the hinges hang from, then a way to hook/secure it - not a big deal but time consuming. Bought a new hitch - they sent the wrong one. Returned and re-ordered it. Now am waiting on them to ship the correct one. Will mount the rear bumper temporarily to see how a hitch will fit with a full size spare.

 

[Doppleganger]

Didn't GM offer a spare tire mount like that as an option?

Kinda-sorta. But so far finding one is harder than trying this.

 

[JACK34]

Just throw it in the back of the truck. Problem solved.

 

[Bennyt]

The original swaybar on my '63 Nova was probably 5/8. I see people on the Nova forum literally giving away the entire front subframe when they upgrade. I would think if you used the Nova crossmember and swaybar mounts, you'd have your hinge and mounting brackets and just need to come up with a latch. Take a look at CL and see if it is something that may work

 

[Finkaire]

Mine came with the glide out carrier as an option. After installing the hitch I don’t believe it will still work. In your picture I’m not seeing the exhaust as well. Personally I just signed up on my wife’s AAA. The stock glide out carrier works well

 

[Doppleganger]

I'm about to have the cage and brackets powder coated and mounted for good. There is plenty of room for the exhaust over the outsides of the axle - with some clever routing. Just cant see it from the angles shown in this thread.

 

[SquareRoot]

Ok, after finishing the rear sway bracketry, I have hit myself in the head again and come up with yet another stupid idea. Curious as to what you think.

I hate-loathe-despise the OE bracket that I am supposed to hold a 75 lb tire with one hand while hooking it up with the other. The cable thing sounds possible, but have heard issues with those too. Might use it with this? Anyways, saw a pic of the carrier the 08-17 Mercedes Sprinter vans use and bagged one yesterday. It is basically an open cage ramp that hinges on the front end and hooks on the back end. They are made for tires much larger than GM stock and for $25, can get a kit that expands it to a larger size yet. A cheater bar allows you to unhook and lower the cage for little effort. Here's a few pics of the original and then one that I mocked up under my truck. Some brackets will have to be made, but knew that going in. Plenty of holes already in the frame so no drilling.

There's room to tweak its height and position, so not set in stone there yet. And FWIW....my (almost) 33's fit in it like a glove. Waiting on the hitch now to see how I can fit 10lbs of flour into a 5 lb bag. Booze and a bigger hammer may be needed.

Original:

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Mocked up:

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Congrats on this being your 10,000th POST!

 

[SquareRoot]

Nice job on the build. Now is a perfect time to add these ORD shock mount reinforcement brackets. I love mine. The single mount bolt cracked the frame on both sides. This makes it double shear and much stronger. Kind of a pain to install with the bed on.

 

[oldretiredafguy]

Neat idea. I used to go to wrecking yards and buy the Dodge truck crank up spare tire mechanism for 10 or so bucks. It could be fabbed to attach to the rear center of the cage, to alleviate the weight that your cheater bar is doing now.

 

[TotalyHucked]

That's a really cool setup