Originally Posted by
Briar
Just as a follow up. Took off spare. I laid underneath and held tension on the cable as my wife wound the winch up. No problem and no issues. My main aim was to see how much difference it makes to rear axle load by removing spare from normal position and pitting it on roof rack as far forward as possible. The wheel is about 34kg with weight all behind rear axle as a lever. It adds about 45 kg to rear axle loading due to force moment. Went over the dump weighbridge with spare in normal sport and on roof. On roof it removes about a total of 30kg from rear axle loading. This will help when towing van as it gives me more available load on rear axle from ball load. Not much, but it helps.