Spare tire on front

[AJMBLAZER]

Drooling over the old GM goodness...loves the round headlights!


I like it. Would work good for stockish sized spares. Used to be very common on trucks but seems to me like it wasn't done much after the 80's. The guys who actually remember that era might know more though.

The problem would be lifting anything past a 33 or so. They get heavy fast.

To whoever said put it on the roof...ever tried lifting a tire up that high? Even with the stock 31's it gets to be some work. Then try getting it down without screwing up the paint and/or body.

 

[appalacious]

And we're back to 2-1 against.
Well, I have to say, the old school pics make it easier to like for me.
And due to the high practicality (presumably) I'm at least going to take it to square 2.
J

 

[mangus580]

And we're back to 2-1 against.
Well, I have to say, the old school pics make it easier to like for me.
And due to the high practicality (presumably) I'm at least going to take it to square 2.
J

You could go with my theory... I dont usually carry a spare. Tires are so decent these days, that as long as you have good ones, your chances of needing one are quite slim. Granted... with my 1009 I am never more than 20 minutes from the house....

Same goes for the deuce. The wifes suburban on the other hand, has a spare in the stock location and it stays there.

 

[appalacious]

Thats true. I've been driving for 12 years now (I'm 27) and I've never had to change a tire.
I'm sure it'll happen one day, but that is a pretty good MTBF.

J

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Random question but why not just carry it inside the truck like stock? Radio gear in there or something?

 

[appalacious]

This is my only big truck. As such, I've run into problems with cargo space when I'm picking up a quick load of stuff. Pine straw, hay, whatever.
If its easy, I'd like to increase the space as much as I can.
J

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Gotcha. Same reason I'm not carrying a 38" spare in the bed of Big Ugly except on long trips.

I'd either put it on the front like you're thinking or some sort of rear bumper swing up/down or swing out setup. Still working on that for mine.

 

[corelokt]

My thought is to rig a bolt down carrier to the bed of the cargo area and then a false floor over it. Hoping the height works out about even with the folded seat and then carrying cargo would be a snap. Under the false floor would also be some storage space around the spare. I don't really need the space tho, as I bolted in some large ammo cans onto the fenders wheel wells inside the rear to put stuff into and secure it down.

 

[86M10086.2L]

I like it. Have though about it myslef, but don't know if it would work well on the trails, and would block my planned offroad lights on the grill guard.

But what about this, if you have a 2 inch reciever hitch on your truck another option would be a reciever mounted spare tire carrier. You could use something similar to a bike rack setup that drops down when with a simple hinge/pin arrangement when you open the tailgate to load and then bring it back up when your done. Of course if you need to travel with the tailgate open then you would have to get creative. And unless your running some real serious tires tounge weight shouldn't be an issue. Basically a similar idea to the A-frame stinger tire mounts that some mount of the shakle points or directly to the bumper. A little easier to make in my opinion and portable too. You proabbly could pick up a used bike rack at a swap meet or garage sale an modify that. Just look for one that hinges. I got one for $20 last year but I actullay use it for what it was made for. Just a thought.

 

[IRWFO]

I have to look for them but I have some photos from Desert Storm with 1008's & 9's that had spares mounted on there brush guards. So it was done by some of our troops.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

Post those if you can. Like to see if they were just strapped on or actually had some sort of a mount fabbed up.

 

[hobie237]

I voted "Yes," although I don't think it "looks killer." I just like the fact that it's out of the cargo area- there are few things that bug me quite as much as a spare tire taking up cargo space. Personally I think I'd wind up just tossing it on the roof, but the brush guard works, too. The rear carrier would be nice if it wasn't so expensive.

 

[Numbers]

Square tubing in the hitch will also work with a little welding.

 

[surewriting]

well, if you see in my avatar, ive got an old beater grand cherokee, and what my father and i did was pull the spare out of the back for more room, head on down to the junkyard, and pulled of an old bronco swing-away tire carrier for about $10 and welded/bolted it on. the jeep's a unibody, so mounting took some creative fabrication (we dont know how to weld, so we paid some of our buddies who do with a 6-pack and they got it all hooked up). of course, we had to move the taillights down to fit it, so it looks a little strange, but it works. i dont know if the civillian version of your truck ever had a tire carrier on the rear, but if it did it seems like it wouldnt be too hard to pull one off at some junkyard

 

[surewriting]

oh, lol i forgot my avatar is from the front. ill try to find a picture from the rear if you want it.

 

[AJMBLAZER]

There was a pseudo-factory tailgate/body mounted setup in the late 70's. It was offered through dealers, not the factory, and is rather rare. It's also known for tearing the sheetmetal at the mounts even if installed correctly with the braces behind the body contact points - even with stock sized 31's.

 

[datsunaholic]

My old F250 has the spare up front. Was that way because it had a cabover camper on it which meant there wasn't anywhere else to put the spare. I never had overheating problems. Been up there since 1976 or so (the mount, not the tire. I changed out the 1971-era spare a couple years ago). It probably would work better with a "vented" wheel rather than the stock steel one, but on a CUCV that wouldn't look right. And yeah it's heavy hurking that thing up there (I've had to do it several times... you'd think I'd learn to get rid of the bias-ply tube tires on split rims...).

 

[Numbers]

From what I see there is not much welding involved in fabbing a hitch mount tire carrier as you cann see from the attachment. Getting creative for a hinge down model would be sweet.

In addition there is a nice one on a Brand X web site. Includes alot of details for fabbing up a simple (sort of) version pinned to hinge down.

http://www.yotatech.com/f88/hitch-mount-tire-carrier-2nd-gen-134525/
Hope this helps.

 

[appalacious]

I like that link, although I can't see any of the pics at work. photobucket is blocked.
I'll check it out when I get home, though.
J

 

[jw4x4]

Here is another option. If your tires are fairly new and in good shape, just carry a compact 12v compressor (or an air tank or CO2) along with a tire plug kit. Most flats are just that. Flats. This will get you going on anything short of a blow-out. If you feel a tire going down, stop and check before it shreds. I have owned lifted trucks/Blazers since the early 80's and have yet to shred a tire (fingers crossed, knocking on wood).