How much can you raise the spare with the mount lift mod?

[e9999]

Yes, I searched, and found a discussion with references to Rogue and MoJ use of nuts to lift the mount. But I did not see any specific figure as to how much you can raise the mount and still reach the crank with the handle. Was one guess that sounded like about 2 1/4" but no confirmation.

Sooo, anybody has a firm figure on the max lift you can give it and still use the crank? That would be great before I hit the hardware stores.

thanks
E

 

[cruiserdan]

I raised mine one and 1/8 inches. In order to use the hoist I had to shim down the hoist about 3/8 of an inch. I had an OEM spare tire lock on mine so you may be able to raise it more without one. It is unlikely that any of you will have one of these locks as they were never actully released for sale. It was found that it was difficult to get the rod, with key attached, through the hole in the step plate. As a result the accesory was discontinued before it hit the ground. A friend smuggled one out to me before they were all rounded up.....

 

[Docmallory]

I raised mine 1.5 inches, using steel pipe connectors. I was limited to this because I could not find new bolts that were any longer than that on short notice. However, even at just 1.5 inches, I still had to knock down the pinch weld that runs above the area where the rod goes to the crank. I lowered the crank a little too, but can't recall how much - maybe 0.5 inch?

I also took the bar off that the rear of the spare sits up against and cleaned it up. It was the rustiest part on my truck, by far. I was tempted to leave it off entirely, but something changed my mind - can't remember what either. Too much Leatherique fumes.....

 

[e9999]

OK, thanks. That sounds about right. I just went out and tried with some wood blocks. I raised the mount 2.2 inches and no way the crank would get there. It was at least 1" too low. Maybe by grinding down 1/2" the pinched sheet metal that's in the way. Removing the aluminum cover plate on top of the bumper -or notching it down- would help too but that's a bit much. Maybe by tilting the mount one could make the tire lay more horizontal. Perhaps that could help? Mine seems like it was quite a bit tilted down on the diff side. Are yours horizontal?

Sooo, with all that, what's the big deal with this mod? We can raise the tire 1 or 2". Does not seem like that would make much difference out there. Hardly seems worth the trouble. Except that I already took it apart of course....
What am I missing here?
E

 

[Safado]

Why do people drop the rent check on a 2 inch lift?

It's just something to keep you busy and to get it out of the way as much as possible without forking out the loot for a rear swing-a-way.

 

[Newps]

One or two inches of lift is a lot. Think about, you have to go from 31's to 35's to get two inches of lift. If you can get two inches of spare tire lift with just a little time and no money you are doing well IMOP.

 

[e9999]

Yup, I guess an inch or 2 will help, that's true.

Anyway, I figured it out. Did a bunch of trials and meaurements. IMHO, it is possible to lift the mount between 1.75" and 2" while still using the original crank handle. But, that takes a couple of things. First, I ground the notch in the sheet metal lip all the way to the horizontal surface. Second, I lowered the crank mechanism 0.5" from flush with the mount. With that config, the crank worked fine and I ended up with around 0.4" gap between the tire and the "sharp" sheet metal lip when the tire is hitting both the rearmost bar and the forward edge of the mount. Now, you probably don't want to have the tire rub on that relatively sharp lip unless you pad it, not too hard to do the latter, but if you pad it, it lowers the "edge" so no good. So 2.0" seems to be about the max one could lift the mount. When I tried 2.2" the crank handle ended up havings its lock bolt dig in the aluminum bumper plate. OK, so you don't need that bolt and you could also lower the crank mechanism by 0.75" instead of 0.5", but there is still the lip in the way. Bottom line, 1.75" lift gives still some significant clearance between tire and lip, and 2" is possible but getting close to interference. Over 2" seems problematic to me.

HTH
Eric

 

[cruiserdan]

By doing what I did, my 305 tire was no lower than a stock 275 in the original location. The 305 in the original location really was loowww.

You could lower the hoist at least 3/4 of an inch below the crossmember to restore the approach angle for the crank bar, especially if you have steel wheels with a deep enough dish to clear the hoist.

 

[cruiserdan]

"Fender" washers stacked instead of nuts or sleeves (larger contact area).

 

[StressPuppy]

c-dan,

good picts!! Since it looks like I will be getting 305/70-16s, could you give a little more detail on what you did? Or should I be able to figure it out from what you already posted?
Need to get to work on that so the tires will fit!!

 

[cruiserdan]

The second pic shows the crossmember "upside down". I used six 8 x 50mm bolts and 90 5/16 fender washers (15 per bolt).

It is easy to do. unbolt the crossmember, being careful not to let it land on yer bean , and stack the washers up one bolt at a time. Get them all started and then tighten them up. If you want to drop the hoist a bit get 4 more 8mm bolts and another handful of washers and drop it as you like. It is easier to drop the hoist with the crossmember out of the truck and it is not very heavy.

 

[Riley]

This is a great mod - it's cheap, easy and is functional. First thing I did and thanks to this site.

BTW Dan, I hope you already had those pics lying around and didn't drop the tyre and pull the assembly. That's way too nice if you did.

R

 

[cruiserdan]

I'm not that dedicated

I removed the carrier when I installed my Slee rear bumper/tyre carrier last November. I just wandered out to the car port and dug it out from the pile and snapped a couple pics...

 

[Riley]

Yea, after I posted that, I remembered that you had the Slee rear carrier and wouldn't have been running that setup anyway.

 

[cruiserdan]

DO remember that if you want to carry TWO spares, you can leave the OEM carrier in place and utilize it as well. I likely would have done that if I had not wanted to integrate my receiver hitch into the rear bumper/crossmember.

 

[e9999]

here is what I figured is needed to get the max lift:

6 bolts that are 8x1.25 mm and 65 mm long shank to get the max lift (edit: should be a tad more)
4 bolts that are 8x1.25 and 30 mm long shank if you want to drop the crank gizmo (you'll probably need to)
Spacers: 6x 1.75" or 2" as needed and 4x 0.5" or 0.75" as needed (I used nuts for the crank gizmo, need fewer than washers and still plenty strong. Can also use a piece of tubing, I'll probably use that for the mount.)

something to grind the sheet metal notch (I used a Dremel and a 1/2" stone, took about 1/2 hr of grinding...) plus paint to cover up the bare metal.

E

 

[RavenTai]

would anything be gained in crank access by lifting the front of the tire more than the rear? it sounds like the problem is how high the inserted tool can reach so I am guessing no?

 

[e9999]

RT, from what I saw and measured, the tire is held up against the "bar" in the very back. That is what limits how high it can go. Just in front of that is the sheet metal lip, also fairly close. The tire is not touching the rear of the transverse mount, just the front. So basically, the rear of the tire is limited in how high it goes by the bar and lip. And it's already there with the regular mount position apparently. On the front, there is indeed room to move it up. This is what you do with the mod. Note, however, that if you keep on moving the front of the tire up, you will hit the lip (not good), and because of it tilting, the rear of the tire would start going lower. Now, I imagine that would not be satisfactory, because the rear of the tire is normally the part that would be most likely to scrape (closer to the bumper) whereas the front is already higher than the rear diff and so not a liability.

Basically, this whole mod just tucks the front of the tire in higher. The rear of the tire does not move up unless you weren't hitting the bar yet in OEM form. So, it's not really a straight lift and you may not gain as much as you might think. (I may be wrong on the rear tire already hitting the bar in OEM form, not sure about that. I will try to go back in and see/measure.)

As far as crank access, no, I don't think tilting the front would help much. You probably want the crank mechanism to be aligned with the handle, which is the point of lowering it, and I already have notched the sheet metal to let the handle reach up as much as the OEM bumper will let it. Now, if you have an aftermarket bumper that may be a different story. Also, moving the mount up more in teh front than in the back may introduce problems with the mount bolts alignment.
E

 

[RavenTai]

I see, I was thinking you could go further if you did not have to fight the winch but I see that is not the case, thanks for the explanation

 

[e9999]

OK, I'm done. Here is the latest on what I did:

I think I came very close to the max lift possible. I have about 1/3" between the top of the tire and the sheet metal lip. A tad more on the rear of the mount and maybe a bit more still in the very front on the tire near the Panhard rod. So I guess I could have lifted the mount another 1/4" or so which may have translated to almost 1/2" higher or so on the front of the tire. Close enough for me, considering that the front of the tire is now quite a bit higher than the bottom of the diff.

Here are the numbers:
I lifted the mount on all 6 bolts by 1.85". And lowered the crank mechanism by 0.6". Also notched the sheet metal lip higher by about 1/3". With all this, the crank mechanism works still fine.

The OEM tire (275mm wide) -with stock suspension- is now 12" from the ground in the rear and 11.5" from the ground in front. Considering the geometry, I am guessing that the front of the tire moved up by about 2.5" thanks to the mod. Not too shabby. The rear of the tire did not move significantly up, I believe.

To do the job, I used 6 bolts for the mount. These are 8x1.25 and 65mm long. I should have gotten the next longer size. Had I had longer ones, I could have moved the mount up another 1/4" but as it was, these bolts barely filled the nut so I could not lift the mount any more. I also used 4 bolts to lower the crank mechanism. These were 8x1.25 and 30 mm long. I could have lowered the crank another 1/4" or so with these bolts, if necessary. For spacers I used 5/16" washers, 0.88" across (the larger of the 2 washers size they had, short of fender washers. The OD of these washers is plenty large to make the lift very strong as it is. I used 19 washers (0.1" thick) as spacers for each bolt, plus a locking washer and a flat washer under the head. Or about 120 washers. I could have used nuts but that would have been less stable and more expensive. I looked at using steel pipe chunks but the precut ones were more costly and bulk pipe would have had to be cut, more work and less adjustable than the washers.
For the crank mechanism I used 2 5/16" nuts, about 0.25" thick, as spacers on each bolt, or a total of 8.

Oh, yes, while I was under there, I measured the space across available for a tire. I got 34" between the Panhard rod and the hitch receiver. So a 33" tire would fit (barely) but not a 35".


So, in summary:

Cost: bolts: about $6. Washers (bulk by the lb): about $3. Nuts: $1.
Total: about $10.

Time: Took me a good half a day, futzing around under there, cleaning, measuring, trying out, grinding the notch (1/2 hr + with a Dremel) and getting the bolts at the store. But that was taking it easy and contemplating the meaning of life under the truck. I would think that with the list above ready, one should be able to do it in 2 hrs easily.

Result: front of tire moved up by about 2.5".

HTH

Eric