Spare tire and mounting hardware

[eamarquardt]

Went to Pick U Part today. Found an emergency spare and the cable hoist to mount it under the bed of the trailer. Twelve bucks! Also saw a truck bed work cover that had some slam latches that would work well for the galley hatch. Need to drill the rivets out to get them off so charging my batteries tonight and will attack the rivets tomorrow. Also saw an air filter box top that I can use to replace the broken one on my son's S10.



I'll make some brackets that will allow me to mount the mechanism under the floor and I'll be able to crank it up and down from inside the cabin. Outta the way and low center of gravity.

Cheers,

Gus

[cokebottle10]

The only thing that you may want to check is the wheel offset. That looks like a spare for a front wheel drive car. If you use trailer wheels that will have little or no offset. When you bolt the spare on the trailer the inside of the wheel will hit the trailer body. I wanted to do the same for mine. I went with a spare from a lincoln town car (rear wheel drive). The spare had little offset. It was the same bolt pattern and was almost the same size as the 195R14's that I'm using.

Thanks,
David

[eamarquardt]

I like the look of Toyota truck rims (with std ford bolt pattern) and have used them on my dump trailer and have them on my completed teardrop frame.

I measured the distance from the frame to the center of the Toyota rim/tire and it was 5.5 inches. Put the emergency spare on and it was 6 inches. Also the emergency spare is narrower than the Toyota tire so there is definately no interference problem.

However, better to check now than learn of a problem out in the middle of nowhere after a tire failure, ha. I also have a matching full size spare that I can also sling under the trailer but like the weight reduction and increased ground clearance of the emergency spare.

For some odd reason, I seem to get 10 times more flats on my dump trailer than my van, even though the van is towing the trailer and "leads the way", ha. Go figure! I always carry a spare for the dump trailer and have used it many a time.

Thanks for the input.

Cheers,

Gus

[bdosborn]

I'd make sure you have something supporting the wheel in the up position other than just the lift mechanism. I've heard that the cable breaks pretty easily on those and a loose spare tire under your trailer would chew it up pretty good.

Bruce

[eamarquardt]

Did a quick search on the web and found this:

http://www.canadiandriver.com/1999/03/1 ... er-one.htm

Here is So. Cal. corrosion is not a problem. I will go to the junk yard and see if I can find a Chrysler mechanism as they are cheap. If I can't it won't be difficult to fabricate a secondary restraint.

Thanks for the input.

Cheers,

Gus