I dropped my tailgate one for obvious reasons. My 1980 had a spare tire carrier mounted on the inner wheel well, I sorta liked it.

What's the biggest tire you guys think I could fit on that if anyone else has one?

 

I have a 31X11.50X15 aluminum wheel mounted on mine. I put the bolt through one of the holes where a lug nut goes, then tightened it down. The factory spare tire cover doesn't fit this larger combo but that's ok. But I think that my size is about as big as you can go without resorting to having to chop up the mount and reweld it. Also, if you don't get the spacing right when you put a larger tire on there it will come in contact with the inside of the tailgate and make squeaky sounds that will drive you nuts. But the way I have it positioned now it does not touch the tailgate. Bottom line - I don't think you'll be able to go much bigger than 31X11.50X15 without re-jiggering the spare tire mount.

 

That sucks, thanks for the info though man.. I've been keeping an eye out for one to show up on Craigslist, now I'm glad I didn't find one.

Guess my only option for 33-35s is for a custom made bumper with a tire carrier..

 

You can always buy one off Ebay or wherever and then make some measurements and have a shop reweld it for you, or weld it yourself. You'd have to move the center (where the retaining bolt is) up and forward (towards the front). As it is my size tire doesn't fit the stock way, with the bolt going through the hub hole. The bolt had to go through one of the lug holes because the hub hole on my mag wheel with 31's is now too high up to use the factory bolt. But I thought of all sorts of ways to make it work before I attempted putting mine one, luckily I didn't have to do anything. One was cutting and re-welding but I'm not a welder so I'd have to make the measurements and have a shop do it (no big deal though). Other ideas included getting a flat piece of steel stock, holding the tire up as close to stock as I could to make a measurement, and relocating the stock tire holder bolt by drilling a hole at each end of the steel stock in the correct place to make it line up with the hub hole on your wheel. If that makes any sense to you. It sounds harder than it really would be, it simply involves cutting a piece of metal and driling two holes. You affix one end to the stock location (you might have to turn the bolt around so it doesn't hit the tire) , and the other end will now match up to your wheel's hub hole. Then you get another bolt of the same size that fits the spinner that holts the spare tire on and use that with the spinner and cap to hold the wheel in place. You just have to get your measurements right. Being that the hub hole is larger than a lug hole, you have room to play with. Again, this may-sound- difficult but if I was there showing you what I mean then you'd see how easy it would really be.

Failing that you could always bungee it in place!

 

BTW - this is all assiming that you have your back seat out. I took mine out and left it out. I never carry four passengers so why lose the storage space? And being that I play in a band, it's great to have the hauling capacity. Even my dog never went on the back seat, she likes the front passenger seat or to lay down behind my driver's seat. So it was pretty useless for me. But if you're trying to get on oversized tire in there with the back seat in place forget it!