Spare Tire Location

[halfdome, Danny]

Today I went to mount my spare tire in the planned area under the galley and low & behold the tube for the hitch receiver for our bike rack was in the way. Luckily I picked up one of these at my local Boaters World http://www.boatersworld.com/webapp/wcs/ ... tId=346591 and mounted the spare on that 2" steel tube. I think it will be okay being is that the spare edge is 1" away from the axle and about 4 3/4" from the pavement. Has anyone had any experience with mounting their spare that close to the pavement? Danny

[Arne]

My battery box is about 7" above the pavement, but it is close to a wheel, so it isn't in quite such a perilous position as your tire. Anything the tire goes over will also clear the bat. box.

My tire is bolted to the bottom of the floor, hung off 2 3/8 carriage bolts, between 2 x-members.

I kind of cringe at the thought of you being surprised by something lying in the road and you try to straddle it... also, some speed bumps are high and 'sharp' meaning you drop off pretty hard... I'd be real careful with that little clearance...

[toypusher]

Danny,

Mine's just above my belt!

Actually, I did not mount my spare tire, it goes in the back of the truck.

[halfdome, Danny]

My battery box is about 7" above the pavement, but it is close to a wheel, so it isn't in quite such a perilous position as your tire. Anything the tire goes over will also clear the bat. box.
I kind of cringe at the thought of you being surprised by something lying in the road and you try to straddle it... also, some speed bumps are high and 'sharp' meaning you drop off pretty hard... I'd be real careful with that little clearance...

Thanks for the input, that is what I'm looking for. My spare is as close to the tire/axle as possible so even though your battery is 2 1/4" higher up something in the road could hit either of them or my foot well. The rims on my trailer are 4 3/4" above the pavement too so I would have to be running on bare rims for the tire to touch the pavement in the event of a tire failure. My concern was clearing driveways since I always go slow over speed bumps and keep an eye out for road hazards. Danny

[halfdome, Danny]

[quote="toypusher"]Danny,

Mine's just above my belt!

My dad use to call that dunlops disease :lol:

[GeorgeTelford]

Hi Halfdome

Maybe I am missing something, but your axle looks to be at full stretch already (weighed down, overloaded) (ie over here we would consider that as on the bumpstops)

Here is an unloaded torsion set



When loaded they still usually have some angle left (they have on the boat trailers I have built) yours look horizontal already

Thats about the best I can describe it for now, so is it a problem or are they totally differen over there?

[PaulC]

Over here those axles are adjustable to achieve the lowrider look. I'm assuming Danny has reset his axle for this reason.JMHO
Cheers
Paul

[halfdome, Danny]

GeorgeTelford
I have a Dexter Torsion axle with a 10 deg drop to obtain a tongue height of 17" with 15" rims to match my tow vehicle. There is still lots of give to the axle. Danny

[Melvin]

Looks a bit precarious, the real problem is you could damage the spare dragging it over something and not realize it until you need it some dark and stormy night a 100 kilometres from anywhere.

I'd be tempted to attach a tire sized piece of 1/4" ply to the spare. That way you could check if you ever hit anything by looking for scratches on the ply and the ply would provide some protection to the tire.

[mikeschn]

That spare looks awfully close to the pavement...

And I suspect it's just a matter of time before you hit something... I say that because I had my plug mounted under my bumper on the G6. It's close... but I figured I wouldn't hit. NOT! Just today I hit pulling out of a parking lot. I guess the departure angle was greater than I expected...

So yea, you will hit. It's just a matter of time...

Mike...

[halfdome, Danny]

Mike I think I'll look for one of those silly looking car skinny spares to replace this one. My stabilizer jacks and the bike rack tube screwed my plan to store the spare on one side. I have no other location to store the spare. I could get an adapter for my hub for when I get a flat to match my Blazer and not carry a spare. Too bad the spare I have is a smoothie just like the others. It's funny I see cars running around lower than that spare. One of the son's has a Nissan sentra and has go on an angle to clear some driveways and it's stock. Danny

[GeorgeTelford]

Hi Paul

Thats interesting, how do they make the adjustment? The ones I have fitted over here dont seem to have that facility (unless I missed it.....) the ones I have fitted have all been the paired sets like the Photo I posted, rather than an axle like on the teardroptrailer shown above is that the difference?

[rainjer]

You could alway build a spare tire rack the slides into you receiver for your bike rack.

[PaulC]

Hi Paul

Thats interesting, how do they make the adjustment? The ones I have fitted over here dont seem to have that facility (unless I missed it.....) the ones I have fitted have all been the paired sets like the Photo I posted, rather than an axle like on the teardroptrailer shown above is that the difference?

George, there are other threads around that describe this. You could also try reading this http://www.ucfamerica.com/flexride.html or this http://www.inlandrv.com/tours/axle-plant/axles-briefing.htm
Cheers
Paul

[Steve_Cox]

Danny,

With the spare that close to the axle you probably wouldn't hit the tire from inclines or declines in the road, like a driveway entrance, it would probably be from hitting a pot hole. One thing for sure, it won't clear a cat in the road.