How do you get to your spare tire with the camper on?

SideHillSoup wrote:
I went to the auto wrecker and bought for $20 a second set of hand crack tubes and pouch. Now I haven’t had to use because of of a flat, however I have tested it and it works great even with the camper on the truck.

+1. A cheap and easy solution for my Tundra.

zzyzxpat wrote:
...Anyone have any suggestions as to how you are able to crank down the spare?...

Did that, done that. Middle of a freeway interchange. Busy freeway, in the city. On a hot afternoon. Right front tire, so it wasn't carrying the load of the camper. Had to put the jacks down and lift the camper in order to get at the bumper hole to lower the spare tire. Definitely in the not-fun category.

That said... This should be a relatively rare occurrence. It will suck if/when it happens, but I wouldn't put too much effort in to engineering a different solution.

-Eric

Thank you all for the responses. Pat

AAA

^^^^hahahaha

I had one flat with my rig. While it wasn't as convenient as just the empty truck, I didn't find any insurmountable issues. I just took my 1/2" ratchet and turned the tool to lower the spare and raise the flat.

Worst part about the whole thing was having to unpack EVERYTHING behind the seat to get at the spare tire tools. I looked at the pile on the ground and just shook my head. I was sorely tempted to leave most of it laying there.

If you consider removing the spare from behind the rear axle then adding it to in front of the front axle the affect can easily be 175# . It doesn't mean the spare weighs that much.

Another thing to consider if you have a dually is: can you get the center cap off to access the lug nuts on the rear wheels? I had to throw an extra tool in the truck for mine.

It’s a good idea to go through the motions of changing a tire at home once just to make sure you can do it.

:):)

bwlyon wrote:
I moved the spare to the front of our 2015 Ram 3500. This was accomplished by mounting a receiver hitch and receiver mounted tire carrier. The benefits are two fold: 1. The spare is easy to get to. 2. It effectively took 175lbs of the rear axle.

That is a heavy wheel. My 18" aluminum rims with tires were under just under 100 lbs each and my 19.5's on aluminum were just over 125 lbs.

With a 28" SuperTruss, I was still able to reach the spare using the crank and extension that came with my Ford without any modifications. My Ram carries the spare on top of a 42" SuperTruss and is secured by four bolts. I found once the tire is dropped to the ground, it is easier to pull the truck forward rather than trying to reach underneath and drag the tire out. I also carry a heavier bottle jack that has no trouble lifting the truck with the the camper loaded.