Tucson tortoise: Edit for photos

[noseoil]

When I lowered the cabin onto the frame this weekend, I had to drop the spare tire. It sits mostly below the tongue box, but also was in the way of the jack placement to lift the front of the cabin & position the bolts to match up the holes & drop in place on the frame. Simple, just unscrew the two lock nuts & drop the spare out of the way. That's the easy part. The hard part is putting the #%@^ing thing back in place. There's no room to work, my shoulder still has some torn tendons or something in it (torn rotator cuff they said) and feels like a bad toothache inside the joint, unless I do exercises twice a day. Even with the exercises, it was throbbing after the nearly half hour session of cussing, squirming, wiggling, blocking, levering & the generally miserable job of putting the two nuts back on while holding the 25# tire & rim balanced overhead and finally getting it attached. Never would have thought this simple job could be such a major PITA to accomplish. I know I'm getting old, but this is ridiculous.

I swore I would never do it again by myself. An extra pair of hands would have helped a lot, but there weren't any available. Last night I went to Harbor Freight & bought a 1 1/2 ton (cheap POS) scissor jack. It has a rather strange top piece of metal, which is folded & must fit something, but I have no idea what it is (a body seam under a car maybe?). The top looks like this.


I had a small circle of 1/2" birch left over from cutting some trim rings for the port holes & one of them just fits inside the 13" the rim (the plywood disc is about 11" in diameter). I started doodling & came up with a simple metal bar with two #10 screws in it, which can slide into the top of the jack. This evening I went out to the shop & made the plate, no 1/4" stock around so I used 2 pieces of 7/8" X 1/8" X 2" long flat steel. Drilled & tapped them for screws, routed a slot in the bottom of the plywood disc & made a plate which will attach to the jack with 2 slotted screws. Put 2 nuts & loc-tite under the plate so it wouldn't come loose & they also act as a stop. It looks like this in the plywood on the bottom side.


Now all I need to do is slide the disc (with the bar on it) onto the top slot of the jack, tighten the 2 screws & the jack will raise the spare tire just by turning the handle on the jack. It looks like this when it's in place & fastened on the top of the jack. The top rivet on the jack acts like a lazy susan to turn the tire into position.


I still need to drill out the plywood with a hole saw for access to the the nuts & bolts, but that's another day. Next time I have to put that bloody spare back up, I'll just use the jack to raise it & line up the bolts, then screw on the nuts & be finished. It should take all of 3 minutes start to finish, with this new setup. Simple, cheap ($20) & hopefully effective as well. One less thing to worry about down the road.

[Vedette]

Well, we get those jacks for $4.95 CAN from Pic'n'Pull yard.
The other trick here is to get the "crank" and shorten the handle (cut it off) to fit in your 3/8" cordless drill that you take camping with you to level your trailer.
It will save your sore shoulders (mine are killing me right now too!
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi

[dales133]

The camper i just did for someone else i got a spare wheel winch of a ute for free from a lpg conversion place and welded a shaft onto it that stuck out the side with the same size nut as the wheel nuts welded on.
Easy to wind up and down even for a heavy 4x4 wheel

[OP827]

+1 with dales133. A standard car spare tire cable lifting device would be my build consideration. I am sure it can be obtained from a car wreck yard for cheap. My old van had something like this too.

[noseoil]

Thanks for the input guys.

Unfortunately, as usual, I put the cart before the horse when I had the tongue box welded in place with the spare tire carrier welded under it (multiple layers of poo poo). A spin-up mechanism would have worked (like my Nissan Frontier, spare carrier under the bed) & a pick & pull yard would have been another good idea for a cheap jack, but for the $20 & an hour of time I'm happy with what I have. I could probably have done away completely with the cross-member under the frame & used the tongue box bottom with an extra plate welded in place for reinforcement as an attachment point. Add a wind-up mechanism & it would have been a better setup in general, but this is the "first" time I've worked on something like this & I just didn't see it coming.

The only problem with the winder mechanism would have been the way the frame is made (4" deep channel), the propane bottle in the "A" frame & an access point for the crank to go in & line up with the screw. Guess I can always drill a hole in the frame, but I don't like drilling structural members, only as a last resort. Drilling the propane bottle for access might be a bad idea as well... I'll take a look at it again at a later date, but I'm still trying to put this thing on the road and have a bunch of different items left to work on. The spare was an afterthought & happened because of necessity this weekend. My shoulder can't take much more of this type of lifting work.

Maybe once I retire & have more time, I can think through it again and come up with something better & easier to use. For now, good enough will have to work. Anything but having to crawl under there again & deal with the nightmare looks good to me at this point! If I ever build another, the spare tire will be a consideration in the planning stages & the tongue box will go on LAST. At least it wasn't 110 degrees outside this weekend while I was trying to do it. I'm so glad fall is here now. Should be a nice winter, best time of the year for us down here!

[OP827]

I hear you and understand and it's great that you got it on the road, that is where I still have a long way to go. I am sure I will screw the spare tire thing quite well myself as I did not think or figured out where to put it yet in my build. Cheers to your great build !

[dales133]

Yea i never thought about my spare either but im just beginning to look at it while the cabins off the trailer
My issue will be fitting it without it interfering with my disc brake cables.
We learn as we go along mate.
Looking very nice too i must say

[Sheddie]

For those of you who are looking at how to mount a spare, l also spent a lot of time head scratching, looking at the options for where and how to carry the spare wheel. I ended up making a simple frame that drops to the ground, slide the wheel on, lift and latch with an over centre catch. No getting down on the ground and only takes a few seconds to get it in or out. I only have a space saver, but this system will also work well with a full size wheel. A lot of jap vans and station wagons used a frame like this. Have a look on my build journal, page 9.

[noseoil]

Nice job on that one Frank, looks very simple & quick to use! Mine's a bit more clunky, but it should do in a pinch when I need it.

There's no way I want to travel around in the heat here in summer, without a spare & access to it. Our worst time here is the summer for tires blowing out. There are "alligators" all along the interstate from the big trucks & passenger cars. Lots of roll-over wrecks snarling traffic when it's hot due to poor tire maintenance & bad driving habits as well. Traffic can back up for miles between Phoenix & Tucson. There's no state vehicle inspection here in Arizona, so you can imagine what some people drive in a climate where there's no rust and a proximity to the international border.

[Sheddie]

We had done quite a lot of travelling with ours before having the spare. We had a bottle of goop and a 12v pump in the tongue box and hoped that we didn't shred a tyre. I know that Vedette advocates that you don't need one, but like all insurance, it is better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. We still carry the goop and pump, aka belt and braces.
In New Zealand we have required vehicle safety checks (6 or 12 month, depending on age of the vehicle), but people assume that just because their tyres scraped through with minimum tread depth they should last another 6 or 12 months. I had a tyre shop for a few years and some of the tyres people drove in on were astounding.
Keep up the good work it is looking superb. I like the checker plate behind the guards, I may look at that myself.

[Vedette]

Okay Frank
You made me laugh as you beat me to it!
As I was catching up on this discussion, I was already formulating my reply!
"Who needs a spare?"
If you get a flat tire ....you have everything you need to survive a night or two hooked to your tow vehicle....Just Camp!
Help will come along sooner or later.... and you will have another story to tell some day around the campfire!!!!
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi

[Atomic77]

I won't have a spare on my trailer either. But the reason being, the spare in my tow vehicle will fit on the trailer as well. Purposely planned. But I am wondering, for those who say don't worry, just camp, what do you do the next day? How do you get it home without a spare? Count on someone taking you to buy a tire?

[dales133]

Hell i havnt had a spare on my crusier since someone stole it 5 years ago.
Should probably have one between both though

[Vedette]

Okay, before anyone else chimes in here to comment on the above post and so that we don't completely hijack this "Build Thread"
I have to say we have towed Miss Piggy over 34,000 miles now with only "ONE" flat enjoyed a Geat night of camping with friends and didn't worry about it until the next day.........and we have a Great story to tell!
Good Roads (no nails)
Brian & Sandi

[Vedette]

I won't have a spare on my trailer either. But the reason being, the spare in my tow vehicle will fit on the trailer as well. Purposely planned. But I am wondering, for those who say don't worry, just camp, what do you do the next day? How do you get it home without a spare? Count on someone taking you to buy a tire?

You don't need a ride from someone else!
Remember you have a Tow vehicle attached to the front of your trailer???
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi
PS
My second post got hung up in "post preview" land and didn't get here in time to stop others???