I am going to lift my truck in the spring and run 36x12.50 where's the best place to store the spare. I am fabricating heavy duty bumpers and thought of doing a pivoting holder like at tiregate.com but the design I'm going with on rear bumper I don't have the room. I really don't want to lose bed space as I ride atv's a lot. Any suggestions?

 

Roof rack would be really cool but tie it to the bed so you don't drill holes in the cab. You could double it as a headache rack too.

 

I thought about a roofrack but can't figure out how to stabilize it to the truck. I don't mind drilling in the cab just want something functional as well as nice to the eye.

 

If you bring the bars up the back of the cab and brace out to the front. Have it floating an inch or two above the cab. Its only has to hold 100 pounds or so. If I could draw it on my phone I would.

 

Mine just lays in the bed, but when I need the bed space I strap it in the right front of the bed along the bedside standing up. Kinda redneckish, but good enough for me. You could still get a four wheeler in that way. Not sure how fussy you are here.

 

if you look at how ladder racks attach to cargo vans, you see they clamp to the drip edge/ seem. if you grab a used rack i bet those clamps would work on the drip edge of our obs trucks and you can fab a cool roof rack. when you guys say roof rack are you talkin about a cargo basket thing you see on top of a jeep/SUV? I bet it would look cool if done up right

im not finding a good pic, but you get the idea

 

a 36" tire-even on an aluminum rim-is kinda heavy to put on the roof...i wouldnt trust those rain rails for anything...

my reccommendation would be stick it in the bed...

 

3 rails like in the pic iv seen hold a lot. with multiple fiber glass extension ladders, step ladders, steel pipe, conduit, lumber. i think one would be surprised in what they can hold. on a pick up you would fab a rack with only two rails i would imagine. but i think it would hold. any sort of roof rack over the cab seems it would need more than a head ache rack sort of design to support the leverage a tire would produce. it would end up looking like a truck ladder rack sort of thing, or a headache rack with roll bar kind of braces.

iv seen ppl put a spare in the spare tire location w the 38 gallon tank mod, so w a stock tank, a 12.5 tire wouldn;t hang down any lower than a stock tire under a 38g tank. it hangs low, but it seems it could work

 

I thought about the drip rails but it is thin metal with small surface area for clamping. I would be afraid I was on a trail and it go flyiing from all of the movement.

 

I would imagine they are just as strong as the drip rails on the vans, but i guess vans dont often hit the trails.... there has gotta to be an off road/4x4 forum or magazine with a suggestion somewhere out there for a roof rack or tire carrier. A bronco style spare tire rack wouldn't do the job?

 

I would just like to find photos for ideas on fabrication..

 

Off Road Unlimited Roof Rack - Ford Super Duty Storage - Diesel Power Magazine

 

That looks sweet, but it requires drilling it looks like

 

Yea I like that. I wish I could see the mounts to the cab better.

 

the link i posted above has more pics. it just looks like a piece of metal with 2 holes in it. then the put a bolt through with a rubber looking thing on it that expands when it is tightened, wouldnt think that would hole, but i guess it does