Wednesday morning early I was driving down the road and heard a clunk, looked in my rearview mirror and there was a tire lying in the road. I thought for a second (hell it was 6am) and said self I know that I didn't just run over that tire with out seeing it then self told me hey that's your spare so I turned around and went and picked it up. Yep it was mine. Lucky I was only going about 25 mph and that no one was behind me. Under the tire was the V shaped piece that held up the wheel. I know that that lift hasn't been up and down more that a couple of times since I bought the truck new in 02, does this happen often? How do I fix it. Its a F250 crew cab diesel 7.3 4X4. Thanks David

 

Common, you should clean and lubricate yearly. All the water, mud, snow and salt rusts the parts and then bang. Mostly they break when you need your spare....

 

Morning David and Self,

When I bought my truck a year ago the spare was lying in the bed. I looked underneath and found that the cable was hanging down a few inches and looked like it had just broken (it wasn't rusty). I am assuming that my truck's previous owner went through what you did. We aren't the first to have this happen, it actually seems to be somewhat common. I'm surprised Ford didn't have a recall on this, but I haven't heard of one. If you do a search of FTE you will find others have posted about this and how they have repaired theirs. I got a used winch assembly from a wrecking yard and keep my fingers crossed, although I did drop my spare and inspect the cable last week when I installed my new rear shocks.

 

No rust here I live in the south, The V shape holder was dusty but looked almost new, I haven't recieved a recall on this either, I'll call ford and find out if I missed it. Thanks for the replies. david

 

The cable is the culprit, stress is also a factor. Metal rusts in the south as well...

Ford has all the parts to replace the broken part(s)...

 

Went to the dealer to check on repearing my tire lift, I was told that you can't just get the cable replaced you have to get the whole mechanism ($158). Just glad that no one got hurt when the part failed. It'll be in on wednesday.

 

So you're saying the kind of flat plate that holds the wheel up bent into a V and the tire just fell off? Can you post any pictures of this? Have you inspected the bend closely to see if it looks like there has been a crack or weak spot that may have gotten worse over time? I guess I need to inspect mine and make sure there are no hidden issues waiting to surprise me.

Congrats on it being 6am instead of 4pm when it's nice and warm like it's been lately.

 

I think he means the part that fits through the opening in the rim is "v shaped." I guess mine is roughly a V, more like a tit with two flanges coming off it is how I'd describe it.

 

Let's call it a hanger plate for now. For the hanger plate to still be hanging under there in it's original shape means either when the tire was last raised, it somehow only grabbed half of the rim but still managed to lift the tire, or it was hanging loose enough to somehow bounce off the hanger plate and land in the road. Neither of those situations would require replacing the spare tire carrier. Am I missing something?

I can't tell you how many loose, swinging tires I've seen under the back of trucks driving down the road, but I don't see a lot of tires laying along the road or have never seen one fall off (I do a lot of driving in a part of the country where there are lots of pick ups)

 

The cable broke, and the hanger plate was on the ground under the tire when he picked it up off the ground... not swinging under the truck. Especially since he's talking about replacing the cable and only being able to find the whole lift. I don't think he bent anything, just the cable failed.

 

Got it now. Thanks. I misread it and thought he looked under the truck and saw the V.

 

 

Yes the cable failed, the wheel was on the ground with the sort of v shaped carrier plate under it. The plate showed no signs of failure. I figured that you could just replace the cable but the parts guy said that it only came as a complete unit not as just a cable and a clamp of some kind to hold the carrier in place. Thanks for the replies. david

 

This has not been that uncommon of a failure, especially in the rust belt states. Even though I have never had the problem with either of my trucks I still can't believe that NHTSA has not gotten involved with this. Having a tire falling out of the back of the truck is one thing but the potential to other cars on a highway at speed is scary.

From what I remember supposedly there was a change in design somewhere in the 2003 time period, and I thought it was either an increase in cable size or the addition of a compression spring to relieved some of the stress to the cable caused by bumps.

The best caution is to use a secondary method to keep the tire in place if the cable breaks. A chain or retention cable through the tire towards the front of the truck would keep the tire with the truck, although down the road you will hear a very loud pop once the road abrades away the sidewall. Still better then explaining to your insurance company and lawyer that the tire falling off your truck caused a multiple car accident and injuries.

Yeah I know you didn't design it, but if you're reading this you know about the potential. And even if it's not your "fault", dealing the the legal costs vs some chain or cable is a pretty big Delta.

Oh, and the last thing you want to do is use a padlock to hold the ends of the chain/cable together. They have a real nasty habit of rusting solid back there and that's not what you want at 11pm at night on a dark road when you need the spare tire.

 

My 02 has a spring on the end to absorb some of the shock of driving.