Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

Last year I pieced together a solar layout for my 2011 little guy trailer. I found issue with my wiring so I pulled this apart in the conduit and tongue box.

While everything was apart I wanted to address another nagging issue. Even though my replacement tongue box size is nearly identical to what I replaced the spare tire does not fit between tongue box and the tire mount. I believe that I am missing by about 1/2 of an inch. Below shows the bad fit.



The amount of space on my trailer tongue is rather limited. Below shows the tongue area.



As constructed there is not enough space for me to fit a tire on the other side of the jack.

The tire mount appears to be removable. There are large bolts underneath that clamp around the 2 inch square tubing.

To have the tire fit the mount would need to be either 1/2 shorter in the horizontal direction or several inches taller in the vertical direction. I am not handy enough or have tools to slice the existing stems off and re-weld them.

I did an exhaustive search for something which I would deem capable of replacing out my existing tire mount. Most tire mounts hold the tire in the middle and I need something that would attach to my 2 inch square tubing and have the tire raised above the tongue level.

I finally ran into something of which I initially did not consider. There is a mount that would allow mounting to a vertical wall.



I really like the idea of mounting the spare on the sidewall above the passenger side fender. I like this idea as it would free up the 16 inches in between my tongue box and camper. This would allow me to stow away something such as my clumsy to move Coleman grill. Below shows where I would like to install the tire.



As much as I would like to do this I want to be cautious about the negatives associated with this. I don't know if the wall alone would be able to support the weight of the tire. The wall appears to be over an inch thick but I don't know if it's hollow. I would have to straddle an interior cabinet. I also would be concerned about opening an area for moisture to enter my trailer.

Does anyone here have any experience with placing the spare tire on the tear drop sidewall?

Your existing mount looks easy to me to modify, Find a welder that likes beer
I would not mount a tire on the wall of my trailer except for one spot that is heavily modified.

I want to be cautious about the negatives associated with this.

That's a lot of weight hanging out there. I'm afraid it might put too much stress on the roof and floor joints.

I like Twisted's idea of shortening your bracket.

Tony

I got the opportunity to check out an Australian built Little Guy camper a while back.
It was the rough road model. Big wheels.
I wouldn't hang one of those wheels off the side wall.
The little guy was very clear underfloor.
It has given me an idea with regard to my own trailer - I'm thinking of slinging the spare underneath.
Utes/pickups over here have a little winch underneath them for lifting the wheel in and out.
Of course it would have been easier to fit if I'd thought of it before I built the floor......

I appreciate all of your feedback.

I'll be honest; I would have liked to hear that what I wanted to do was possible, but I would absolutely hate doing something that would end up destroying my trailer.

I don't know of any local welders around here but I could do an online search. If they have a tool to cut through the 2 inch square tube this might be a viable option.

I had 2 other thoughts in regards to solutions. One would involve cutting my metal battery tray and shortening it by 1/2 inch and moving my tongue box 1/2 towards the front of the trailer.

The other thought would be to find a smaller spare tire that would fit my wheel and allow me to limp home to where I would replace it with the good spare. The trick would be to find the right bolt pattern on a smaller tire.

Thanks for your help!

We are mounting our spare tire there, but the mount was designed into the trailer from the beginning:



You probably wouldn't want to weld a mount onto your frame with the teardrop already installed, but it might be possible to have something fabricated that could bolt on.

But, I also calculated weight and balance when designing the teardrop and chose to move the spare back there to compensate for a heavy air conditioner in the front. Simply moving that much weight back there might cause you problems.

Tom

I struggled with this for a long time. Underneath wasn't an option due to ground clearance coming out of my driveway, and likely any dirt roads too.

Bolt on tire carriers for boat and utility trailers left halt the tire below the tongue, making clearance even worse. No bueno.

I had a bolt on hitch receiver left from another project, and a cheap bike rack from a yard sale. Viola. The tongue itself was recently upgraded to 1/4" thick square steel tubing, so the added point load is insignificant.

Future plans will probably see the tire and bike positions swapped for bike clearance to the TV.

So where are you located? Are any of us close?
Help might be possible.

immped64 wrote: If they have a tool to cut through the 2 inch square tube this might be a viable option.

EZ .

I appreciate all of the feedback! The clear overall census is that the best route would be finding someone who could shorten the horizontal beam of the existing tire mount and re-welding it back into position.

I am still entertaining other viable options. Perhaps making the modification to the existing mount would be the least problematic. If this ends up being the solution I will bring up a side issue likely to be encountered specific to this specific make of trailer.

The reason I am entertaining other options is purely from the stand point of thinking how much space that could be saved for carrying items to bring along for camping. Once I considered this I have been reluctant to give up on it.


I've further checked into the vertical wall mount. The company that makes this does install tires on the exterior sidewall of their teardrop trailers. I asked the question as to whether the little guy would be able to support the extra weight. He wasn't sure whether the wall of the little guy would or wouldn't support the weight as compared to their own trailers. There is a small interior bracket that they also sell to strengthen the attachment. From looking online it appears the wall of my trailer would include 5/8 inch birch plywood covered by 1/4 composite material covered by the outer shell. Without a clear reference to the viability of this and not wanting to gut my trailer to make it stronger I believe I'm going to have to shelf this idea.

This morning I found another idea. Prior to this I have abandoned the idea of mounting my tire to the side of the trailer tongue as it would interfere with my tongue box and henceforth just not fit. Then I saw a picture that shows the tire spanning the tongue box.



To be honest I have no idea in how this could be attached like this with a standard tire mount. I've also noted that the tongue box was shifted away from the tire side to allow clearance.

In looking at my own setup I can see 1 conceivable way of doing something similar with the materials that I already have on hand. First of all the spare tire mount is fixed to the 2" square tubing by straddling the tubing and being bolted down. The below picture "may" show the straddle, and the fact that at least a narrow 5 inch groove was necessary to get past the internal grating in the tongue area.



If I were to angle grind a narrow channel similar to the one already existing along the tubing just behind my tongue box I could move the tire mount to where the spare tire would fasten overlapping the outside of the tongue box favoring to the back side of it. This potentially would remove my issue of tire clearance with just grinding out a narrow 5 inch groove.

The biggest detriment to this that I see is that there would be a load imbalance. My counter to this issue would be that my portable but cumbersome Coleman grill would be held down on the other side. Whether this would be enough I don't know.

Would this be viable?

Oh; by the way I live in northern lower Michigan.

I have an adapter to use the TV spare.

That is quite interesting.

I have been wondering whether the spare from my car could be used temporarily as a spare for my tear drop trailer. Without doing the measurement the 5 spoke pattern looks similar between the 2.

So evidently there is a difference between car and trailer that would require an adapter.

Could you share the type of adapter you are using possibly? I couldn't find it doing a Google search.

This would be great for saving space on the trailer and bypassing any potential balance issues by mounting the spare somewhere else.

to find the adapters, use the term "wheel adapter" in google search. There are a number of things to check for this to work. The outside diameter of your vehicle wheel doesn't have to match your trailer, but the closer it is the better if you think you might have to use the spare for a long distance. And of course, if the outside diameter is too big you loose fender clearance. Trailer wheels have a zero offset ( the mounting flange face is in the center of the rim width). Vehicle wheels usually have the mounting face offset to the outside of the wheel. This problem is taken care of if the wheel adapter is the appropriate thickness.

I went with a compact spare with a 5 x 114.3 bolt pattern and mounted it under the trailer. I had it in front of the axle but later moved it behind the axle for better balance as more and more weight found its way into the tongue box. It is mounted close to the axle so ground clearance isn't an issue. Yes - I had an old bike frame laying about and used that for the spare tire rack.

immped64 wrote:In looking at my own setup I can see 1 conceivable way of doing something similar with the materials that I already have on hand. First of all the spare tire mount is fixed to the 2" square tubing by straddling the tubing and being bolted down. The below picture "may" show the straddle, and the fact that at least a narrow 5 inch groove was necessary to get past the internal grating in the tongue area.

plenty of room to roll a spare tire into space allotted

Behind Tongue Box measurements.jpg (98.7 KiB) Viewed 3984 times

* The space you have between front wall and tongue box is perfect to mount a spare. I mounted mine there before I ever found the right box to put on my tongue, and relied on it to furnish much-needed tongue weight in the process. After I got the box, I decided to keep my spare there anyway, so I constructed a triangular mounting platform (slides forward to remove spare), to attach it to the single beam tongue (with lighter-duty outrigger struts for stability).


* With the stanchion already in place, you could easily roll your spare into position (with slightly angled maneuvering) and lock it onto the stanchion (a custom bolt placement will lock the tire in place). My spare tire placement worked out great for me, as it is readily accessible, safe from theft (3 locks), and also supports a folding shelf/rack (weight=60 lbs). A complete rationale for this mounting spot is in this thread: http://www.tnttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=70759&hilit=spare+tire&start=15#p1255280

Working on it:

That is a very imaginative way of utilizing the full space of the tongue area.

My project is a work in progress but I don't believe I could utilize a sliding box as I have my solar controller wiring inside my tongue box.


I actually have between 7.25 and 7.5 distance between the tall mounting stem and my tongue box. The stem is angled towards the cab somehow which helps but I still need a clearance of 8 inches.