spare tire carrier replacement

[jeffw920]

hey guys,
my factory spare tire cover under the bed on my 02 is almost rotted out:sad:
i was wondering if this happened to anyone else and what they did. i dont want to loose the ability to carry my spare, and would really prefer to keep it in the stock location under the bed. I figured maybe someone was in a a similar situation and came up with a way to keep the tire in the stock location while retaining the ability to crank it up and down with that gizmo with the cable in it that the jack handle fits into...if that makes sense haha
thanks for any input

[straycat]

My 99 does not have that problem. I still have the original tire in the stock location...but I put my spare 33x12.5 KO tire in the bad mounted flat style. Just put yours in the bed. You can mount it up front in the bed against the bed or in the back against the bed. They have mount kits for all kinds of trucks. That is what I would suggest you do. Don't spend a lot of money to keep that spare mounted in the original place.

[jeffw920]

yeah the truck came out of NH and from what i can tell was driven through snow, salt and all kinds of muck, then parked till the next time it was needed. As a result that carrier is rotting away where it attaches to the frame, and all over for that matter. Thanks for the advice though, i will probably just come up with a way to slip it under my toolbox and secure it up front there since that part of the bed is sorta usless cuz of the box.