M1010 spare tire location

[stevoMT]

Finished up the rack. Seems to work alright, no issues with deflection or anything. I made a simple fork to flip over and hold it in the open position so it doesn't swing closed when your on a hill.

 

[L1A1]

That is a neat looking & practical mod. kind of looks "factory".


Matt

 

[ollied]

mounted mine to front grille guard

 

[L1A1]

mounted mine to front grille guard

Classic.
Matt

 

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View attachment 459004

Finished up the rack. Seems to work alright, no issues with deflection or anything. I made a simple fork to flip over and hold it in the open position so it doesn't swing closed when your on a hill.

This inspired me. If you use the patient crane to lift, it occurs to me that you could mount a receiver hitch vertically behind the rear towing shackle. Fabricate a ~30" vertical "stick" to insert into that receiver, and mount tire to that stick. Use a standard (locking?) hitch pin to secure the stick to the receiver. Use the patient lift crane to raise and lower tire/stick, either by unbolting the tire from the stick, or pulling the hitch pin and pulling the stick and tire out together. When parked, you can pull the stick and tire so both doors are available to open all the way. Just stash the stick & spare on the ground under the truck until it’s time to pack up and leave.

The advantages of this approach would be minimal weight, simplicity, and you can still open the doors all the way if you want. Does anyone see a problem with this approach?

I've been trying to figure out a way that a young woman would be able to change 37" wheels in the field. This is my best idea so far, but I welcome better ideas from the experts.

 

[stevoMT]

Well, I've had the spare tire rack like that for about a year now. I've put probably 5k miles on the truck with it and it seems to be holding up well. When I was contemplating the swing out rack I went through several iterations and ideas. I was thinking that a guy could do something that pivoted out of the way. The problem I encountered was that a 37" tire with a rim weighted 165 lbs! I'm a pretty strong fella, but lifting that tire onto the rack was a chore in itself. If I was a little more savvy I would have made it pop into a receiver on the swing out tire carrier and make it easier to use the patient hoist.

I ended up adding a wire basket and a propane tank holder. That goes on a piece of receiver hitch steel tubing and can be removed.

Overall I don't open it up very often. It's easy enough to get in and out of the truck with it closed. But when I set up camp I end up swinging the tire out and opening the door as needed.


Then I also added an aluminum basket that came off a troop transport carrier of some kind I bought off sportsman warehouse. It turned out pretty cool. I ended up riveting it to the passenger side door. I think I'm going to add a couple little folding down tables or something so when I have camp set up it adds a couple flat spots to do things such as cooking. These would be on the inside of the door and not bother anything. I thought that after seeing a guy with a 33" tire rack built onto the door it should handle some light weight cooking accessories!


I'm usually not a guy that likes to just bolt onto stuff that might not be as strong as steel, but I was looking at that aluminum piece in the corner of the camper box. If you look from the bottom up you can see the profile of the extrusion. Its pretty stout. I was thinking if a guy utilized that aluminum and spread the stress out over a long area by using a ton of 5/16 bolts or something you could probably utilize that to assist somehow. But the problem with that is if you break something you compromise the integrity of the corner of the box! So might not be the best idea.

The main reason I ended up making the swing out tire rack was that happened to be the type of steel I had in the scrap, funny to say when I have tons of money into this truck... But the other main reason is that after browsing and looking at a hundred racks online the swing out style is what has evolved in the off roading world. Utilizing trailer tapered roller bearings and stub axles. My advise would be to set up an experiment with the patient lift and try lifting 150 lbs somehow. Maybe rig up a spare tire winch to clamp onto the carrier to lift it! But from my experience it was difficult to utilize that patient carrier to lift the tire.

I'd be interested to see what you come up with!

 

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Very nice!

I like your swing-out rack. It's beyond my fabrication capabilities, though. I was focused on how she was going to lift such a heavy wheel, and how to allow the doors to swing all the way open. If I manage to make this happen, I'll post pictures.

Thanks for all the info. I was thinking I had to stick with stock tires due to weight involved in a tire change. You've inspired me to revisit that.

 

[stevoMT]

Well exciting. If you need any photo's or anything else on this let me know. It's always fun to share this stuff. I spent some time on some of the other people's forum's and racks. There is a lot of handy hardware that makes life easy depending on what you want to do. A person can buy most everything to make a heavy tire rack. The biggest things that I would recommend is using the biggest bearings you could for the swing out part if you choose to go that way. If you use tubing or something where you have bolt holes going through it weld in some spacers so you can clamp the bolts down tight. I used 3 pieces of tubing that 1/2" bolts could go through and drilled the holes out to 3/4" then welding them into place. This allows the whole assembly to be held in place without collapsing the square tubing. I should draw it up one of these days in cad and then you could take it to a fabricator if that was an option. There are a few things different that I would do to improve it and make it more simple. I just have a habit of making something out of what I have vs designing it and buying the materials.

 

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Using available materials is its own design challenge. I don't trust my welding skills with a 37" tire on the interstate. That's part of why the "stick" idea appeals to me. It's simple enough that I can build it.

Did you put a fuel tank in the space where the old spare went? I've heard that some folks install the fuel tank from a suburban or a blazer there. With a 20-gal tank on the right mirroring the stock tank, and another 40 gals in back, you'd have impressive range, even in the most difficult terrain.

 

[stevoMT]

No worries there. You might be ahead to get some welding books and study up, or just burn some rod! As long as you have a decent arc welder a couple weeks practice and it would hold!

As far as the fuel tank placement, I just used a saddle tank on the pass side like the 80's civy chevys. One guy has an M1008 "warwagon" build where he did a 40 gallon suburban and a 20 gallon aux tank on the side. It works out well. I mostly use the 20 gallon side tank for my espar heaters. Where the spare tire was now has a bracket for a Superwinch husky 10,000 lb winch. That and a receiver hitch I built.

 

[Boats]

Recovery 4x4, did you ever get the 255/85/16 to fit in the stock spare carrier? Thank you!

 

[Recovry4x4]

Recovery 4x4, did you ever get the 255/85/16 to fit in the stock spare carrier? Thank you!

I have not even tried yet. Item 642 on the "to do" list

 

[Boats]

I understand!!! I'm just a long way from home, thinking about taller tires... and don't want to have to throw the spare into the back of my ambulance.

 

[tbearatkin]

I know an old thread. Instead of a swing out why not a swing down carrier. The carrier would fold up/down with the help of the Stretcher lift, place the tire into the carrier bolt it in place and then lift it up and secure it with a pin.

 

[cruzer747]

Recovery 4x4, did you ever get the 255/85/16 to fit in the stock spare carrier? Thank you!

Read through this thread and thought OH SHOOT! The full size spare 37" won't fit!? I did not buy a set of 5 when I got this size but I planned on it fitting without issue under there, I will see if I can get under there soon and test fit this size I have a set of coopers ... Something tells me that might be too easy :/

EDIT

*just noticed how old this thread is still the last suggestion before my post sounds like a good one if the spare wont squeeze in (maybe mod something to make the stock area fit?

 

[Boats]

Cruzer747, when you figure it out.... Please post your results!!!!

 

[cruzer747]

So the 255 85 16 is a 32.8" tire and from what I can tell it will fit as per my tape measure but I will update it when I try. It will be close but looks doable without modification. Definitely doable in the location, just maybe need to widen the hangars... Soon I will try.

 

[Boats]

Cruzer747. Please post pictures when you figure it out!

 

[cruzer747]

ordering a spare this week, will fit it one way or another and get the answer pretty soon.

 

[cruzer747]

okay, so I got the spare today and went to see how it would fit, two things, it appears it will fit, to be clear I am running the cooper discoverer s/t maxx 255/85/16. The problems I ran into are these; the hanger studs are not long enough. Also the big receiver that the fire department put in attaches to the frame in such a way that I can not remove said studs. My plan is to get some couplers (looks like 1/2x20) and cut the existing ones up a few inches, screw on couplers, thread in some new fine all-thread and dial in the perfect height on the fixed side and then put a few tack welds on things.

-Update- So I got the spare in there and it went well, the passenger side exhaust is about 2 1/2 inches away from the tread and the drivers side is about 3 1/2. I will have to make some minor adjustments and tack welds tomorrow. The details I came across are that it is NOT fine thread but 1/2x13 coarse thread. Easy to find couplers and allthread. I dropped the driver side hanger bolt and cut 1.5" off, added a coupler and some allthread above to tighten to the frame. cut 1.5" off of the passenger side bolt and added coupler and some allthread. Got it installed but would like it a touch more snug than it is now. I would say the optimal cuts would be around 2" off of each if using couplers. If just welding allthread to existing then it may be easier but I like the couplers for whatever reason. Will put up some pics when I wrap it up tomorrow or the next day or so.