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I hate the spare tire mount on my truck, it's a pain in the butt for me to have to hold the weight of the tire and unscrew the retainer bolt, and if my wife were driving it and got a flat she'd be out of luck. So, I designed myself a fold down, hitch mount spare tire carrier with a high mount brake light and a tow ring since I can probably get all the materials free or cheap. Thought I'd see what you guys think.
Looks good, but if you tow at all then you'll probably want to consider moving the pivot point higher up and making the thing capable of being used as a pass-thru receiver where you install the tire carrier into the truck's hitch receiver and then a hitch into the tire carrier's receiver. That way you'll never have to take it off to install a hitch. Also if it were mine I'd ditch the third brake light... looks goofy even on factory tire carriers.
Good thinking. My spare just slides around the bed usually. Think I'll make a bracket to secure it inside the bed somewhere.
I have a receiver-mounted bike rack I use occasionally. I get a lot of rocking side-to-side with it from the inherent clearance inside the receiver tube. I deal with it by running a tie-down strap from the rack to the end of my bumper, but I wouldn't want to do that for a tire carrier that's on there all the time (and I wouldn't want it rocking back and forth either).
They do make lock collars that are supposed to tighten that up. I haven't tried anything like that though so I can't say how effective they are.
And I'd be a little concerned about putting a receiver on Your carrier and towing a trailer through it as dixie460 suggests. It would add convenience, but the double amount of slop might be an issue. Another option might be to put a ball mount on the carrier itself. It wouldn't be as convenient to switch ball sizes, or to take the ball off when you aren't using it. But it would be a lot more solid.
Maybe you could retrofit a tire carrier with a manual crank winch from another vehicle. Then you could keep the tire in the same out-of-the-way place but it would be so much easier to get to when you need to.
Maybe you could retrofit a tire carrier with a manual crank winch from another vehicle. Then you could keep the tire in the same out-of-the-way place but it would be so much easier to get to when you need to.
That actually occurred to me after I did all the design work I'm also embarrassingly lazy so I've considered using heavy C channel to raise my bed box high enough to stuff the tire underneath. Of course, I'm so short then I'd never be able to get into the box
I just drilled 4 small holes on the bed rail and use 2 rubber bongie cords. Still have space for full sheet of plywood or sheetrock. Also have two wooden boxes on either side of the bed at the tailgate for bags and whatnot.
I've often thought about installing a Bronco swing-away spare tire carrier on my F-150, but never really got around to really researching it. I assume there is some kind of reinforcement on the inside of the bed side where the hinges are attached. Anyone know if that piece is welded on, or just bolted on? Might have to make a trip to the junkyard......
and making the thing capable of being used as a pass-thru receiver where you install the tire carrier into the truck's hitch receiver and then a hitch into the tire carrier's receiver.
This is part of the reason why I use a 2.5" receiver hitch, so an accessory can stay mounted and a standard 2" hitch still be used.
Maybe the top (where you have the third light) can be extendable so when the heavy tire is on the ground you can have some leverage to get it back tilted up?
They do make lock collars that are supposed to tighten that up. I haven't tried anything like that though so I can't say how effective they are.
I work at a metal fab. company so I figured on putting shim stock in the receiver to snug it up, I don't tow very often so it wouldn't be a big deal to keep it in there
I'm also embarrassingly lazy so I've considered using heavy C channel to raise my bed box high enough to stuff the tire underneath. Of course, I'm so short then I'd never be able to get into the box
