Hi all,
I have a 20' flatbed trailer to haul my skid steer around, and want to mount spares for both the Bobcat and the trailer. The Bobcat spare is going to go on the tongue, and I'm thinking of putting the trailer spare under the deck behind the axles. At first I was thinking of an OBS style pickup under-bed mount, but then thought of the newer winch style mounts. I don't have anything with a winch style, but as I understand it, the cable is the only thing holding the spare up against the bottom of the frame cross members, correct?
Anyone have any thoughts?
Anyone in the Denver area have a parts truck with a carrier they'd part with?

Thanks!

Phy

 

I buy spindle stubs, weld them on the trailer ... This keeps spares changeable hub, bearings and all, that way if it's a bearing issue you have that as well ...

It has saved me more than once!

It's the best thing I have ever done to trailers!

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

Although I've never had a spare tire cable hoist mechanism on a full sized pick-up I've had them on cars and on my Dodge Caravan with 15 in. wheels.

They are by far so much easier and more convenient to use in my opinion. It's a lot of low resistance cranking to lower to the ground and back up again but one advantage is that you don't have to get under the vehicle to do it. Just let out more slack cable and you can reach in and grab an edge of the rim and drag the tire out far enough to very simply disconnect it from the cable. Same to put it back up, just put the metal cross piece into the wheel hole and start cranking. It will pull the tire back under the vehicle and back up into storage position.

I just removed the long bar contraption from my 87 about 2 weeks ago. That was my second attempt - since it has never been removed since the vehicle left the factory it was rusted, stuck and a PITA to finally get it all apart to de-rust and paint. It had the original brand new 29 year old Firestone spare tire that now has 4 deep compression indentations on each side. It might be a bumpy ride and might separate but I am going to run that tire on my truck for a 600 mile trip pulling a 3500 lb trailer over the mountains and back until I can buy some new tires.

Probably the worst part with that long bar contraption is having to unscrew the piece that holds the tire to the bar. It takes a lot of turns probably with rusty threads too and all the while you have to do this while lying on the ground partly under the truck.

With the cable hoist system you only have to winch it up snug and it probably won't cause permanent compression indentations and damage to the tire over time.

That being said, it doesn't have to come from a Ford and old used ones might be in pretty bad shape from rust etc. Finding a way to mount it under your trailer will also present a challenge as you can see what a ford one looks like in the video further below.

After some thought and watching a few videos it would be ideal if you have room under the tongue for a spare tire. You could mount the hoist above the tongue on a home-made cross member and hoist the tire up snug under the tongue. That is IF you have the room and the ground clearance - the tire is not too wide or large diameter.

IF you had a vertical wall at the front of the trailer OR built a vertical tire mount for the bobcat tire you might have enough room to mount the trailer spare under the tongue with a spare tire hoist or even on top of the tong and forget the hoist.

How about this? Build a spare tire mount that holds BOTH tires vertically next to each other at the front of the bed.

You will probably have enough room so they don't interfere with the trailer jack, etc.

After-market spare tire winch:
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Video: Spare Tire Hoist Replacement Ford F150

 

My trailer uses the same bolt pattern and tire size as my truck, so my truck spare is also my trailer spare.

 

i hate those spare tire winches, the cables seem to always break or the winch breaks leaving the truck stranded with a flat and no usable spare unless you can cut the cable.
i have never seen one work that was more than 3-4 years old.

 

Yeah, after googling winch failures, I think I'll stay old-school.
Anyone near Denver have one to sell?
(I'd rather guy one from a FTE member than a junk yard...)

 

what i did on the trailers at work was weld a piece of steel plate to the trailer tongue vertically, then drill for two or three studs to fit the spare. remove the lugnuts, and the tire is ready to go. plus this gives you at least 2 spare lug nuts in case you drop one in the mud.