Continental spare tire holder

[Morden]

My 2004 Roadtrek 190 has a spare tire (Continental) holder on the rear bumper. It has to be lowered to access the driver side rear door. I am finding it very heavy for me to manage (wasn't always that way!!) and so the rear door access to storage is really cut off for easy access. Has any body developed a way to overcome the weight problem? Maybe a pulley system or??????

[PSW]

Several years ago on this B forum, a guy in New England addressed the same problem. He designed, built and sold an add on kit that provided the necessary lift for the spare. You might search the forum archives and find some information, but I think it was probably ten years or so ago.

Also, I thought later model RTs with the continental kit were equipped from the factory with a similar device, but my memory may be wrong.

I am still comfortable raising ours manually and I wouldn't give up the storage space for anything. Our RT has twin beds and the available storage space is really large. No spare in the back for me.

WHOOPS! After posting the above I got curious and found an old blog post that talks about the lift and the guy that made and sold them. Past tense. Apparently he went out of business a few years ago and McAfee Security alerted me to that the old business website was now very unsecure.

Maybe someone has an idea where you might get something?

[nickthehunter]

How about taking the spare tire holder off and putting the spare tire inside the storage space?

[Morden]

Thanks pasusan.

For me the slippery is not the issue. It's the weight!

UPDATE:

I have seen on another Forum that a spring has been used, installed / attached to the horizontal bar and the upright bar. so to lower the tire you may have to push down! But to raise the tire the spring takes much of the weight and pulls it back into upright position.

At least that is the theory.

I'll be going to an automotive (springs and shocks, etc.) shop this week to see if they can do something like this for me with a heavy duty spring.

PS We use our unit actively and when on the road I'd like to have ready access to the entire rear space.

Morden

[pasusan]

I make sure it's clean and then let it ride down against my body. Lifting it back up I use non-slippery gloves.

Mostly I have the things in the garage stored so that door has to be opened *very* rarely.