1990 F250 HD 2WD. So my wife comes in the other night and says 'Don't shoot the messenger, but you have a flat on the back of Chief.' Yup, flat as a pancake. Fortunately it did so in the driveway. Picked up the SECOND utility knife blade in a new tire in less than a year. Fortunately had road hazard protection on the set (all 5) and they replaced it. But that got me thinking about a few problems that exist currently in this rig.
1. The tire is stored in the bed and needs to go back under it. Tired of playing tire tetris every time I need to put something in the bed. Need to make something here because the original setup will not fit these tires. I'm thinking an A-frame with two pin hinges and a pin to secure on the back side of the heavy duty bumper. 265/75R16. Thought about an in-bed mount, but it takes up too much room.
2. Looking at alternative jack options. That little bitty one under the hood would need a bunch of blocks to get to a decent start height. I could drag around a bunch of wood blocks, but wondering if there's a better option commonly used here. Might just carry a second one that's about 50% longer in the tool box.
3. Fought every lug except the two that were replaced with ones with the wrong cone angle. The threads are stretched in the lugs. Thanks, tire monkey with the impact wrench. At least so far I have not lost any studs. Replacing all the lug nuts to be sure I don't have issues in terrible weather in the future.

TIA.

 

The under bed spare tire mounts on these old trucks SUCK!!!! There is no way you're getting that **** out of there without getting really dirty, and you better have pulled it down recently to make sure it's even possible because on EVERY SINGLE ONE of these trucks I have owned I had to cut the bolts on the carrier to get it out due to rust.

Do you own a welder and a chop saw? If so the two options I see that are viable are to cut up the carrier and mount it up inside the bed on the side, or go find a modern truck at the scrapyard with a crank up carrier and transplant that into your truck.

 

buddy bought a hi jack pro, for big tires, and used 2 stainless I-bolts to secure in corner of flat bed, jeep people, mount on hood/cowl

 

Just keep the spare in the back of the bed

 

uumm, he said "Tired of playing tire tetris every time I need to put something in the bed"

 

No offense torq'ta but I hate trying to jack up a pickup truck with one of those handyman style jacks. Those jacks lean way to the side(best I remember) before you get the truck jacked up. I prefer a regular 2 or 3 ton shop floor jack if you are capable of unloading and reloading one.

As far as the spare tire make a mount to hold in upright, most likely in one of the front corners.

 

non taken, I wouldnt want my step-daughter using it, would those have enough travel (13-14") to lift a dually, my 150 axle is 11-12" with 31's on it?

 

Hi-Lifts certainly have enough travel to lift a tire. Problem (as mentioned) is stability, especially since it's hard to lift only one tire. Jacking on the bumper is likely to twist things unless you're close to a frame rail, and then you're more lifting the middle of the truck. You can lift both tires at that end, but then the truck REALLY want to fall sideways off the jack. Not saying a Hi-Lift can't be used safely, but it's not easy to use it safely.

Floor jacks are great, but not the easiest t pack or handle. I keep mine in the garage.

What I like are hydraulic bottle jacks. Small and easy to pack (I have 2 in an ammo can), low effort to use and pretty quick to change height. I did realize that the one that's small enough to fit under my front axle with a flat tire isn't tall enough to lift a rear tire off the ground (which is why I have 2 in the ammo can, although some pieces of wood would do the trick too). They do require crawling under the truck to place them, which is a downer. But no worse than the stock mechanical bottle jack, and much easier to use.

On the spare tire placement, I go with the stock location under the bed. Rust isn't really a problem if you start with clean, new bolts and slather them with anti-seize (and I live in the rust belt). Yeah, it's a pain to get the tire in an out, but I don't have to all that often, and it's out of the way while still being available.

 

I keep my spare tire and jack at home in the garage...