Thread: Where to put the second spare tyre............

Carrying a second spare tyre is a pretty good idea if you venture off the beaten track. I've never actually needed a second spare , but the day I don't carry one, well you know what will happen .

But where do you put it. It takes up too much room in the car, and if you carry it externally you need an expensive roof rack with all of its inherent disadvantages. Poor fuel consumption, wind noise, increased height.

What I need here is a plan C and this is what I've come up with.
I need a second spare tyre not a second spare rim, so ditch the rim. I carry tyre pliers, tube, plugs etc so I can change a tyre if need be. I'll carry the spare tyre with the spare wheel. I reckon the bracket's strong enough but if I can transfer a little of the weight off the carrier I'll be even better off. The existing spare when new just rubs on the rear bumper (255/70 as opposed to 255/65), so I'll pack the bumper to take it up a bit tighter.

Before (note the rub marks)



After



Nothing like a bit of conveyor belt rubber and a couple of pop rivets.

Then drill a 16mm hole in the centre (close ) of the spare wheel carrier and fit a piece of high tensile threaded bar with a nut either side. Anyone who does concrete panels will recognise these bits. The bar is grade 80 steel and as strong as hell.



You do the nut(s) up with a hammer by belting the lugs. There's no way it's going to come undone.

Next cut a piece of aluminium road sign, um................err, scrap 2mm plate, in my case 440mm in diameter and glue and pop rivet it to a piece of 6mm marine ply 400mm in diameter. The ply centres the tyre and the metal disc pulls it in. Note the washers on the pop rivets where it pulls up on the wood.



Cut a smaller disc for reinforcing on the back, a couple more pop rivets and cut a 16mm hole in the centre.


Screwed another nut on the shaft with its flat outwards, a steel washer and instaledl disc assembly with the spare tyre. I put a piece of scrap 50mm channel accross the centre to stiffen it up a bit. Spun on another nut and steel washer and adjusted the inner nut to get the right tension on the tyre. Gave the outer nut a belt with the hammer and away you go.
Note. The ply centres the disc on the outer tyre but the tyre's held to the original spare by the inward pressure of the tyres pressing against each other. All up there's 4 nuts on the threaded bar, pulled against each other with a goodly ammount of ft.lbs. It's a good feeling doing nuts up with a hammer.

I copied this setup from a mate who used the same set up on his high roofed troopy a couple of years ago. He circumnavigated the country with this setup with no problems.

The end result looks like this



I cut the triangular shaped hole so that I could a\. get access to pump up the spare and b\. have somewhere to store rubbish when travelling.

Will it do the job ? I'll let you know.


Deano

Hey Deano,,
I've put a copy of this in "Projects and Tutorials"

You are now officially FAMOUS!!!