Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

My work truck was a 2000 GMC Safari, and when I took it in for a checkup, the cost for repairs would have been over $6000.00. Needless to say, I walked home that night. My boss, the great guy that he is, pulled the truck off the road and bought me a 2008 GMC Express. Well, to make a long story short, I asked him what he was going to do with the Safari. He said he was going to scrap it, so I asked if I could take some parts off of it . No Problem.

One of the things I was looking at was the under the chassis spare tire carrier.It's a crank up and down system that has the crank just by the back door and a wire going to where the spare tire sits. Kinda like a mini winch. You place the tire in the bracket and then crank it snug into the under carriage. To remove it you just crank it down.

Anybody done this before?? Anybody foresee any problems with using this?

They don't get used very often so they rust in place, so remember to lube things liberally when you get it working.
Brwbier

BrwBier wrote:They don't get used very often so they rust in place, so remember to lube things liberally when you get it working.
Brwbier

...YEP.................................................................

Good point... But more interested in if the application would work on a wooden floor. Would I have to put extra bracing on it , and would it hold without falling off travelling down the highway.......

1...probably(I would)...

2...see #1...

3...you built the floor...waddayathinkboutit...
madjack

Madjack.....You haven't lost your touch.......

...thankya...thankyaverymuch.... ...........................

madjack wrote:1...probably(I would)...

2...see #1...

3...you built the floor...waddayathinkboutit...
madjack

Like it!! I would use some sort of brace. Plywood doesn't seem strong enough in the long run. I have mine srapped up with ratchet ties.

John ,if you were dutifully reading the Desert Dawg website you'd know that my friend Kelly is doing exactly that!

I think it's going to work great!









She stole my tire for that last photo!

Joanne

I'm using one I have mounted it so that it bolts through the floor and into a piece of steel angle (running the full width of the frame) which is bolted to the main frame (after going through the floor again) and is also screwed to the rear bulkhead between galley and cabin. Basically I hung it under the most supported part of the floor and added some steel angle to spread the load.

I also added two full width wooden beams under the floor (one either side of the little winch) for the tyre to tighten up against.

My tyre is also a 31" Mud tyre so weighs quite a bit as well.





Cheers
Steve

Thanks Joanne and Steve... that's what I like to see. Now just to remove it from the old van....

For a 15 or 16 inch truck tire which can weigh upwards of 50 or 60 pounds, a crank up spare tire lift is probably a good idea. Probably doesn't add but 15 or 20 pounds to the truck either, which is a drop in the bucket . . . . for a truck

For a small trailer though where the spare weighs half of what the truck tires does, you're adding useless weight to your trailer for something you'll probably (hopefully) never need to use. No more trouble than it is to remove a small, lightweight spare from up under the trailer, I would just forget about it if it was on my trailer - You don't have to hoist the flat back up under and the convenience just isn't worth carrying around the extra weight . . . . even if it was safe to attach to your plywood floor

You're only considering this because you got the piece for free - Don't overlook logic just because ithe parts are free

Don

As long as we're on the subject of spare tires, does the spare have to be the same diameter as the original tire? I don't really have room for a 15" spare, so I was wondering if I could get by with a smaller tire, as long as it had the same bolt pattern. Kind of like the "donut" spare that some cars use.

My Spare Tire Drives me NUTTERS!!! I didn't make accommodations to mount it anywhere and even though its a 12" It's still a PITA to load up and unload....


I just had to vent....sorry....

Mk

Alphacarina wrote:For a 15 or 16 inch truck tire which can weigh upwards of 50 or 60 pounds, a crank up spare tire lift is probably a good idea. Probably doesn't add but 15 or 20 pounds to the truck either, which is a drop in the bucket . . . . for a truck

For a small trailer though where the spare weighs half of what the truck tires does, you're adding useless weight to your trailer for something you'll probably (hopefully) never need to use. No more trouble than it is to remove a small, lightweight spare from up under the trailer, I would just forget about it if it was on my trailer - You don't have to hoist the flat back up under and the convenience just isn't worth carrying around the extra weight . . . . even if it was safe to attach to your plywood floor

You're only considering this because you got the piece for free - Don't overlook logic just because ithe parts are free

Don

i don't think the hardware weighs more than a few pounds... i'd use it! in fact, i may go buy the junk yard to get one in order to mount a spare on the back of my TTT. may help with my tongue weight too!

tk