Spare tire mount on bumper, Y or N?

I have had spare mounted tires on the bumper from the factory. Never had a issue but also never put anything else on the bumper.

That said my neighbor works for the state and they find RV spare tires all the time beside the road.

My bumper is good and strong but after a few years on the back on rough roads the tire mount broke and the tire rolled away in the forest somewhere... thank god it didn't happen on the road!

My Coachmen came from the factory with the spare mounted on the bumper. Everything is still straight and square after two years of towing on Michigan's terrible roads.

My suggestion would be either.....replace the bumper with another, much more substantial bumper, or build a receiver type assembly and run forward to the trailer frame. If the vehicle chassis is not too far recessed from the motor home rear.

Another thought! If the rear of the unithas adequate height, mount the tire beneath the unit. Ours is set-up like that. It may require a little creativity, but likely all of the components could be acquired at an automotive wrecking yard. The spare tire elevator assembly from most late model pickup truck should work. “Necessity is the Mother of invention”!

It's my understanding that the typical 16 gauge steel bumper is rated for 100 lbs max. That'd be a static load. When hitting a pothole or speed bump, the dynamic load will be much higher and put high stress on the standard cr@ppy welding. You don't want your bumper to end up like this photo.

If you have the tire under the A-frame already, I'd leave it there. I installed a BAL tire carrier under our TT and it has worked out great. The bumpers sorta work as sewer hose storage, but some hoses are a pretty tight fit. If they only made the tubing 1/4" or so wider it'd be much better...

I cringe when I see a trailer in a CG with bikes on the back when they go over a speed bump at just 5 mph and they look like they're gonna be flung into orbit. I'd hate to have bikes on the bumper end up like in the photo below. If you want to put more than a tire on the back, I'd go to a welding shop and get it all beefed up and attached back to the I-beams.

My 5er had the spare on the bumper. I DIY'd an under mount carrier to move it to the front so I could carry bikes on the rear.
Some trailers are made cheaply and some aren't.

dccamper wrote:
Check out https://www.mount-n-lock.com/index.php. Brackets for shoring up your bumper.

Those look pretty good.

Our TT came with the spare tire mounted on the rear bumper. The bracket is designed so the tire is right up against the bumper, which I believes helps prevent bouncing and/or twisting. 15 years now without a problem.

Other bumper mounted tires and equipment racks I've seen have the weight out away from the bumper, which makes bumps all the worse due everything being off center. The amount of bouncing of bicycle racks is amazing - and I am sure the driver has no idea what is going on back there.

So.... If you mount a spare tire on the bumper, make sure it is not mounted up and away from the bumper - you don't want that bouncing leverage to damage the bumper. Also think about getting something like those bumper supports.

Tyler0215 wrote:
It's not a bumper, it's a hose holder.

We have a Freedom Express with the spare under the tongue. Extremely easy to use, we had a flat last summer. Just uses your crank for your stabilizers. Will note that you need to keep tension on the cable when winding the tire back up, otherwise you'll get the cable jammed up in the winch. Learned that the hard way. But I think this is a pretty good system. Plus it adds some weight to the tongue.

Depends on the bumper and how it is attached.
My spare has been on since new and also carried three bikes for a while and a generator.

philh wrote:
Spare tire is currently mounted underneath the tongue, I hope I never need it, that won't be a fun day.

With several trailers we've owned including our Coachmen Freedom Express I moved the spare tire to the front pass through storage compartment. The spare wheel itself makes for a great place to store hoses, cables, etc.