Montana's Spare Tire Carrier

[Irlpguy]

After replacing my Marathons with G614's and their considerable added weight, I decided to check the integrity of the Montana under mounted tire carrier.

Well that engineering marvel consists of 4 brackets welded to two 1.25" x 1.25" x 1/8" angle pieces that extend the width of the unit. The assembly is held in place at each bracket by no less than two 1/4" bolts to the frame and must support approximately 90 lbs of tire, rim, and carrier. It sure did not seem adequate to me. Besides I hated the thought of always having to worry about the lowering mechanism coming loose and having to crawl under the trailer to check the tire pressure or remove/replace the tire.

Since I have a long bed truck I decided to make a carrier behind the hitch for the spare tire. It uses two of the slots in the rear bed rail to secure it and to also make it lockable.



I built the carrier at a height which in the event I drive off with the pin not locked the pin box will drop on the tire protecting my truck box. I do hope never to test this theory however. The tire is secured with two keyed lug nuts onto the carrier.



I plan to put a wheel cover on when traveling.

[Art-n-Marge]

Nice, but I can't afford the room in the truck bed.

Even if the tire carrier was adequate, I do hate fetching the spare (happened once on asphault). I should carry a dolly to drop the tire onto, but with my luck the rig will be on gravel when I need the spare and make the dolly useless.

[DQDick]

Very nice job. My short bed has two generators, two propane tanks and a gas can back there so I don't have room, but if I did that would be a great way to go.

[Montana3800RE]

Looks good my friend but I thought you would paint it pink with that can I gave you down in Yuma.

[dunrovin1955]

Will make one heck of a bed saver tooooooo.

[K0LCB]

Nice!

[Mudchief]

Very nice.

[Tom S.]

I like the braket, but think I would have mounted it under the trailer. As Art mentioned, room in bed is often not enough.

[drsmart]

Good to be pro-active and avoid problems down the road. I kept the feather weight Marathon as a spare when we went to G614's on the trailer. It's only there for temporary use if needed. If one of the G614 has a leak or blow out, it will be repaired or replaced and go right back on the axle ASAP and the spare will go back where it belongs.

[jsmitfl]

Nice Idea

[Irlpguy]

quote:Originally posted by Tom S.

I like the braket, but think I would have mounted it under the trailer. As Art mentioned, room in bed is often not enough.

Building the carrier and mounting it in the truck bed served several purposes, I don't have to crawl under the trailer to check the tire pressure or remove/replace the tire should the occasion arise.
It also removed the tire from what I consider a inadequate mount under the trailer, especially because of the additional weight involved with a G614.

Mounting the carrier under the trailer would have created a nightmare for removing/replacing the tire without using the cable, which is also a weak point IMO.

I have lots of room in my truck bed, the box in the front has two compartments, one houses my Honda 3000 watt generator and the other is storage for tools, compressor, hyd jack and so on. I still have room beside my tire to put a smaller tub on each side should I want to. I did not design this to sell, and it would definitely not work for everyone, it works for me and I sure don't have to worry about the tire coming loose under the trailer nor dropping the trailer on the box anymore.

drsmart, I have an additional unused Trail America ST235/85R16 tire I intend to mount on another rim, this will go under the trailer if I go on a trip to Alaska or the Yukon again in the future.

[TLightning]

I carry mine in the bed, but not in a carrier...I like to move it around depending on what else I have in there.