WHat's the deal with the stinkin' spare tires???
 

OK, my spare tire is pretty much brand new (as new as it can be for a 15 year old truck), and I'm beginning to understand why:

When I bought the truck, I knew it didn't have the jack, but I have a floor jack, anyway, so it wasn't a problem. That is, until I realized that the spare requires the lugwrench for removal. Again, no problem, I have a socket set with the right size socket....... OK, so the socket doesn't fit into the hole on the tire retaining bracket thingy (technical term). OK, that's a problem. Good thing I didn't have a flat tire. Guess I'll go to the salvage yard to see if I can find one, unless someone has a different fix for this.

thats probly your best bet, or find a freind or co-worker with a similar enough set up and borrow their tools to get your spare out. i mounted mine in the bed and removed the stock carrier. the retaining bolt was rusted so bad it twisted off when removing it.

I had the same problem with my old 2000 Ranger.What I did was I had found an old piece of thin steel bar in my shop just lying around.I realized the end of it was small enough to fit inside the little slot.So I bent the end of it to make a handle,and used that to get the spare tire down.It worked like a charm.I didn't realize what the bar was from until I was helping a buddy put up some new chain link fence.It's actually the little bar that you slip into the end of the links that holds the links to the metal pole.