Forum Discussion

mleekamp's avatar
mleekamp
Explorer
Jun 04, 2020

E-450 Spare Tire carriers

I've been putting together a spare tire kit for our C. I know some of you would never consider doing this, so this is geared towards those that do carry a spare....and hope to never use it. **Please, keep this to HOW to carry the spare...not all the other pros/cons/items needed to change it...I've already had posts on that! :W

How do you carry the spare? I thought I'd go with a hitch mounted unit, but expensive...and interferes with our Jeep dinghy. I wish they mounted underneath...

Any ideas? What have you done? Anyone make an underside carrier?
  • IAMICHABOD wrote:
    You could mount under side of the frame as Baja Man did

    Here is a link to that thread with pictures!


    Thanks to everyone for your response! I love the underside mount idea -- will be looking into that.

    Guess I'm a cautious fool...gotta carry tools and spare tires. That was the biggest shocker to me going to a C from a TT....none had spare tires (at least the models we looked at....Coachmen, Jayco, Forest River, etc)
  • My '98 Coachmen came with an underside-mounted carrier, as well. It's a style that has a crank mechanism with a shaft that runs to a little cover on the side of the motorhome; stick the appropriate socket or handle there, and it's not hard to wind the spare down. Getting it back up is a tiny bit trickier as the wheel tends to balance the wrong way and wants to get caught in the wrong position on the frame, so it usually involves a bit of crawling around underneath to persuade it to winch up properly. (Naturally, one does have to crawl underneath to fetch the spare after it's been winched down, or at the least to detach it from the hoist mechanism before driving forward a bit to clear it.)
  • Kit Carson wrote:
    My 2008 Winnebago came from the factory with a spare carrier mounted underneath. The spare has never been on the ground!

    The same as Desert captain.
    A rectangular boxes made from 1" square tubing, and a centre plate with studs to hold the rim/tire. It's hinged on the drivers side mount to the frame. On the other side, the threaded stud coming down. Held up by a large wing nut and secured by a snap pin, so it can't vibrate loose.
    Hint once a year or two, take it down and lubricate or use anti-seize on all moving parts/nuts. Better than having to use heat and a breaker bar when you really need it, side of Interstate in the rain.


    Ken
  • I have a roadmaster spare tire carrier that is hitch mounted but also allows you to insert an extension to mount a ball for towing. Only limitation would be the weight of what you are towing vs what your vehicle would tow. Unit is in the $500+ range.
  • Another way is to put a receiver hitch on the front, then a spare tire carrier that mounts to the receiver.
    It does not look all that nice, and some will say that it blocks the air flow. I have yet to hear from anyone that has done that to find that air flow was a problem.
    And it moves some weight to the front.
  • My 2008 Winnebago came from the factory with a spare carrier mounted underneath. The spare has never been on the ground!
  • On a cross country trip several years ago the bumper mount fractured and I nearly lost the spare. Since then I have yet to see a bumper mount that doesn't make me nervous. When we passed through Elkhart I went to the Nexus factory and in addition to having them add an extra seat belt in the coach I had them build a permeant spare tire mount under the rear of the coach.

    Sorry, I don't have any pics but they welded a framework out of which a threaded rod comes down through the tire and a steel bar runs athwartship that the tire snugs up against. You just loosen the nut on the threaded shaft and the tire drops down and out. Yes it is a PITA to wrestle with but that is what the ERS guys are for... at least I have a good spare mounted on a rim ready to deploy... which came in very handy last October out on I-10 when my outside/driverside dually grenaded.

    :C