For years I have carried a tire plug kit and a 12 volt air compressor. I have had to use it several times as I travel a lot of rural roads. It's slow but it beats laying in the dirt trying to get a spare out from under the bed.

 

No I wont do this, but, the old farmers up here used to bolt their spare tire/wheel to the front of their trucks on some kind of moose/deer catcher. Looks ugly as sin but they didn't care. My dad even did this and when I got the truck it was the first thing to get yanked off.

 

When ya find the right tire go to junk yard and get a cable wench from a ranger or most anything and mount it under the truck then get a flipdown tag and mount it to your rollpan then drill a hole behide the tag for the cable wench rod also weld a pipe from the wench to the rollpan hole to guide the rod easy as that.Heck i might could put a full size tire under there just havn't tryed. I also have a trailer hitch behide the flipdown tag.I also put a wire gormet in the rod hole so when ya put the rod in it don't mess up the paint. NOT TO BAD FOR A REDNECK !!!!

 

I'm running mine under the back of the bed, using one of the cable mounts from an Aerostar van. You can see it from the rear, but if I used a temp it would likely be hidden. I don't really care, I like having a full height spare. Notice I didn't say full size, just full height. I chose the skinniest tire I could that was the proper height.

 

I have 15'' rims but i got a 16'' donut hoping that will make up for some of the height. rhopper hurry up and paint that truck i can't wait to see it !!!!!

 

rhopper & arrowheadfred, mind sharing some pics. This is one of my last things to do (actually plan on doing after I put plates and insurance on it). For me not so much asthetics but technical. I have a stakebed, and it has a front catch but no tire over 5" wide will fit so I am going to need to fab something.

 

Here is a link since I am not smart enough to post pics. This is a spare cable lift off a 97 ford f150.
https://picasaweb.google.com/junkman...SpareCarrier02

This link shows the truck from the rear with the spare in place. You can click on the pics until you get to the rear one. Sorry, but not going to spend time learning how to post to this forum.
https://picasaweb.google.com/junkman346/1955Ford

Hope this helps
Larry

 

That is a dang sharp lookin truck, very nice job there.
That's what I was lookin for - tells the tale straight up.

I'm also looking at adding a hitch (very small stuff, light little boat / jetski / etc not putting an additional 5000# on 4 drum brakes or nothin silly), so a bit of thinking and seeing how others did it and what all will still fit with each other, thanks much.

 

Brain 75
If your referring to my truck I appreciate that. It's not done but getting very close after a little over 2 years.

If your not using a chrome or Stainless rear bumper, there is plenty of room to mount a frame mounted hitch between the frame rails and still use the under mounted spare and plasma cut a square in your rear bumper the size of your receiver bar. You can slide the bar in the hole into the receiver and pin it. When removed you could easily cover the hole with a drop down license plate mount or a square rubber plug made to cover the hole.

Larry

 

tin man
i have a 51f1...
what i did was find a s-10 frame that had the spare tire holder ( i think it was around a 2000), but most of them are the same.
it had either 4 bolts holding it in place...it is the cable and crank type
with a cranking handle that comes out just far enough to crank, but not too far to be an eyesore. it looks like it belongs on these f1 pickups
i unbolted it and drilled on hole on my cross bar and if fit perfectly on the rear area of the frame between the two rear cross bars.
when you crank it up is sits high and out of the way.
thanks
ashlandcat

 

If you have a receiver and a welder you could a make your own continental kit and use some vintage wheels or a dragster front wheel. Didn't the model A have 5-1/2" bolt patterns? Just some thoughts.

 

If you are looking for a thinner spare, all modern ford trucks came with "full size spares", but crown vic, grand marquie and I think mark Viii all have 5 on 5 1/2 pattern with donuts. I've researched more than a bit. (!caveat emptor - be sure to measure for yourself, you might find a mark viii with a 5 x 4.5 or Ford might change it after I post, etc)

[edit] Note - The temporaries I have seen are not be 28.4" diameter, You'll probably find a couple few different sizes amongst those 3 cars, and they will all be thinner - but I so far have not seen any that are as tall or taller, everything I have seen was shorter to way shorter [edit]

I currently have 4 spares - the junk 15" that the PO put on :P so financially I am not going to spend for more tires.
Plus the junkyard I frequent, well the low rider crowd rob all the donuts so they can cholo their ride. :P

Now that said, I am looking at robbing the measurements off a draw tite 75034 hitch and taking the above info to put the spare carrier together. I think I might actually have enough info to take off now, thanks.

 

You can always build a hitch like this one.



It bolts to the inside of the frame rails and I should clear the spare tire. The bar hides behind the rear bumper.







I have no use for it and the rear bumper.

 

51PanelMan, That looks great. Looks nicely made. But looks like a knee knocker!

 

Yup! It's the knee cap terrorizer. It, too, can be yours!!!