spare tire holder

just got back from getting a flat fixed,the wife and I had to go to a dinner for a 40 year celebration we we were invited to last night,when we came out to the parking lot she had a flat on her chevy colarado pickup, The cable that lets the spare down would only go down so far and stop, I couldnt see too good in the dark,so we left it in the parking lot,and we were close to home so we got a ride home. Went back this morning,sprayed the cable mechanism with liquid wrench and got it to lower down, Posted all this to warn people to let the spare down once in a while and spray the lowereing mechanism with lube,Good thing it happend close by it could have been a lot worse on the highway or with my wife or daughter driving,

Only time I ever had a flat tire in my old pickup (carrier like yours) was in a sloppy field in 6 or so inches of mud and water... I was more concerned that my snorkle would get under water than the cable coming down :roll:
Was that celecration in germany????
Good tip tho.....

Excellent point. I haven't check our two vehicles since we got them.

What is a spare tire????? LMAO I have four pickups and not one of them has the spare back in the carrier after the first time it was taken out. Around here at home I just don't carry a spare. I run good tire that have heavy ply rating so I don't get too many local flats.

If I go somewhere further I just throw the spare tire in the bed of the truck.

Funny thing on that. Close friend was in town a few weeks ago and came out of the lumber yard to find some one had taken his spare tire out of the bed of his truck. In broad day light right in front of the lumber yard. Mine is usually safe as the rim is an old steel one with a pretty worn out but good tire on it.

As far as convenience goes I know what your talking about just throwing the spare in the bed, I did it for years myself. I say did because I rarely do it anymore. Granted I have the occasional relapse and throw something in and get in a hurry and forget to tie it off, but I do my best to not forget. This mind set cam,e about after being involved in an accident where a guy crossed the center line and hit me head on. Had his car not gotten side ways at the last minute and turned some of the collison force into also pulling both of us the side ways it would have been alot worse. As it was it pushed the front end of my '87 F150 back car enough to buckle the floor pans, and put the passanger door of his car nearly to the center console.

That said, at the time I had a spare tire, and a couple of plastic antifreeze jugs full of water in the back. The force of the collision caused the spare to jump out of the bed and travel over 100 yards away from where the two vehicles stopped. All of the plastic jugs had ruptured, but not before hitting the front of the bed hard enough to bend it until it hit the back of the cab.

Fron that point on I will still haul stuff in my truck, that's what it's designed for, but unless it's something that isn't likely to get out of the bed, and will more than likely be contained within the bed in an accident, (like the water jugs) I try not to haul anything that I don't tie down....especially a tire. The way I see it with the force it took to make that spare tire go nearly 100 yards it could have easily come through the back glass of the cab and took my head off. Heck, I guess the jugs could have too given the force they expended to bend the front of the bed, but I KNOW the tire could have. Thing is I like my head being attached right where it is......even though my wife would sometimes have me believe she thinks I've got it stuck somewhere else....LOL

Seriously, if you throw anything heavy, be it a tire, or anything else in the bed of a truck, tie it down. I know we all get in a hurry and become forgetful, but better to take a minute or two to secure a load than to only have a split second to wish you did when someone else hits you and you wind up injured or dead.....

I was heading down the freeway in Houston very early one morning in a heavy rainstorm. A truck about a 1/4 mile ahead of me, traveling about the speed limit, spun out and did a 360 or two down the middle of the freeway, luckily staying on the pavement and hitting nthing. But the spare he had in the bed bounced out of the back and bounced down the road. I would not have believed that the spare would bounce out like that had I not seen it myself.

That is a good point, had to cut mine out with a bolt cutter after a couple of years on a new truck.

My spare is somewhere around the house. I have towing on my insurance at about $6 for 6 months. Haven't changed a flat for years. Why get all dirty when some kid needs a job. One flat will more than pay for the cost of the towing package.
Ran my blade on my mini excavator into a rear where on my 10 yRd dump cost me $25 to have a good used tire put on an all I had to do was watch. Talked the guy into putting most of the tire cost onto the labor ins. Payed it.
Walt

I always do away with that set up because of things like that and you get extra dirty when you have to get down on your knees like that ti get it out. Plus me and my knees and concrete do not get along any how. On my pick up I have a spare tire mount up front of the grill so it is #1 easy to get to the tire and #2 makes a good deer pusher so if I hit a deer it does not take out the radiator

Been driving since 1956 and have never had a flat on the highway or away from home. That must be about 56 years or so. I don't drive but about 12 thousand miles a year though. Joe

Don't throw rocks at me, but I've never had cable trouble on a spare tire carrier. No salt on the roads here.

Wife was married to me for 40+ years with no flat tire, then had 2 or 3 in one year. One involved me driving 20 miles in a thunderstorm to change the tire. Tire ruined by a piece of metal she couldn't see in the rain. Others were bad Chinese valve stems. So you guys with no flats can't tell when a flat may happen.

KEH

I had one of those things fail when I was doing 40 mph on a dirt road. I didn't know what happened, I heard a thump, and the tire passed me about 20 feet in the air, went off the road into a guy's yard.

Why would anyone go farther than the end of their driveway without a spare? I have seen way to many vehicles parked on the side of the road up on a jack with no one around. I put a new set of tires on my PU last summer and picked up a bolt on the highway about 50 miles down the road. So good tires is no guarantee of no trouble. I sure would not like to have my family waiting on the side of the road in the Arizona heat waiting for help cuz I didn't have a spare.