Do any of you know of a convenient way to mount a spare in a 48-52 panel. I would like to go underneath but it hangs too low unless you know a trick I don't. Looking for suggestions.

 

I turned mine into a seat in my '55 panel. Not for everyone, but, since mine had no other obstructions back there, it works fine for me. Good construction project.

 

Thanks, theGman. Does the G stand for the g's a pilot pulls or gov'ment man? I have a friend who was a Navy fighter pilot whose call sign is GMan. Thanks for your response about the spare. You have a great looking truck. Like the color.

 

You could go with using a winch unit out of a modern SUV, my full size Dodge PU has a winch unit for the spare and I think it's the great idea. Some on this board had a post on how he installed the winch from a Ford mini-van. If the search was working you could do a search.

Not too long ago some on uPay was selling a alter inside panel with a spare tire bracket from a PU shortened and welded to it, it looked almost stock. I thought I had a picture of it but I can't find it.

 

I seem to remember the bracket from inside of a pickup bed being used in some of the panels back in the day. As Bob has said I do believe that they needed to be shortened.
Don

 

G man has dual meaning; earlier career as investigator/agent, and my last name is Gayda.

Paul

 

Mine mounts to the inside of the back door. Actually, I always thought they all were like that. I don't have a wheel on there right now but I can try to get some pics posted this weekend. John

 

I was going to bid on it, but forgot all about it and lost out. I think that it sold for $40 or so.

I have the picture stored on my laptop at home, because I'll be doing the same conversion. I'll post it when I get home.

I have the spare mounted in the stock location, under the body in the rear, on my 52 Panel and it's not low. My truck is stock height.

Ilya

 

Both Bernie and Ilya say their spares hang too low, doesn't the panel truck have the same stance as the pickup? I haven't heard any pickup owners say their spares hang too low. My panel is sitting on a pickup chassis and it sits kind of high in the back:



When it was on it's original chassis it sat lower in the back. The person I bought the chassis from went over the suspension and might have added a leaf, I don't know. I am thinking of taking a leaf or two out to bring it down a bit. I just wanted to know if the panels were sit up different from the pickups when they came out of the factory.

 

The spare in the 52 doesn't hang low. The spare in the 51 is missing.

My 52 Panel is lower in the rear than the front. It almost looks like the rear is sagging. It could be due to bad springs?? It has the normal amount of leafs. However, the 51 Panel sits a bit taller and doesn't sag. It has additional, what I would call, helper or heavier duty leaf springs.

I don't like the way the 52 sits. It looks like it's always loaded in the cargo area. I plan to fix it by not replacing the springs, but to add a 2" or so lifting block.

Bob, I like the your Panel's stance, but it's a bit high in the rear. It gives it that "hot rod" type look. I just want to level my Panel out.

I don't think that the truck and Panel frames were made any differently. I don't think that Ford would have spent the extra $$ to make them different. Panels were built on the same assembly line as the trucks, thus, I don't think there were any differences.

Ilya

 

I didn't think there would be a difference in the chassis' but most of the panels I have seen on the internet seem to sit lower in the back. The pickups seem higher in the rear. I have only seen a handful in person around here in the last twenty years, about half sitting, rotting away in junk yards.

I was thinking of either doing the mount in the inside or the winch underneath. I will be doing the winch under the F-4, I don't what to have to crawl under it and wrestle with that big monster. The winch system on my Dodge works great, I've had to use it a couple of times on my last truck and on my current truck.

 

I used an Aerostar winch on my F-1. The junkyard was full of them. Install was easy, just some 3/16 x 3 with the appropriate holes drilled, welded into the crossmembers. The drive shaft will poke out just below the bed, just like a modern truck. Make sure you get the crank with it. My spare will be a narrower tire than the others, just to increase ground clearance, and looks to be high enough unless I'm dragging the bumper.

 

Here are the pictures.





I have an extra spare tire bracket that's bent at both edges, which I'm going to use. Now I just need to find an extra inner panel to weld the bracket to.

Ilya

 

If you go for the underneath winch, the second generation explorers (95-01) have them as well. My explorer has a 255/70/16 spare tire (stock) and the winch works great.

 

Here ya go:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/article/...ge_Trucks.html