Spare Tire Modifications (2 Viewers)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

When I spaced my 80 series one up many years ago, I removed the front bar, used a 6" rim, and 255 for a spare, so it sat up as high under the chassis as I could get it.

My truck had the rear aux tank standard, but it had a 30mm [1 1/4"] body lift, so this was how far I spaced up the spare winch x member.

As long as the winch has a chain, and not a cable [they were recalled here and replaced because the cables wear and break off.] and the tyre winds up tight, against something, as high as it can go, front or rear, to take the torsion vibration away from the x member, then you could not use the factory "bars".
I have the cable. It looks in great condition as of now after 20 years. I googled and couldn’t find a recall to get replaced with a chain. Any additional info on this?
 
Since no one else replied: I believe the recall was in Australia/not the US. I could be completely wrong. I myself would actually love the chain hoist as I’m concerned if I didn’t have the tow hitch bracing the tire from behind the tire would certainly come off from dragging on the ground.
 
I have the cable. It looks in great condition as of now after 20 years. I googled and couldn’t find a recall to get replaced with a chain. Any additional info on this?

I've never seen such a recall (here). But I can tell you the chain version (as on an 80 series) is a direct replacement.

I removed the cable version on LX470 and sent it to a deserving MUD member and put the chain version from my 80 series on it.
 
I did the spare tire mod on my 2006 Land Cruiser to fit my new full size spare 275/70R18. I ended up flipping the front bar, angling the back bar with 3/8" wedge spacers, and raised up the crossbar with the winch using longer bolts (M8 x 1.25 x 40mm) and ll washers on each side (5/16"). This worked perfectly. I made a quick YouTube video in case it helps anyone in the future:

 
I did the spare tire mod on my 2006 Land Cruiser to fit my new full size spare 275/70R18. I ended up flipping the front bar, angling the back bar with 3/8" wedge spacers, and raised up the crossbar with the winch using longer bolts (M8 x 1.25 x 40mm) and ll washers on each side (5/16"). This worked perfectly. I made a quick YouTube video in case it helps anyone in the future:


Thanks. I looked under mine and thought for sure the canister was in the way enough to make this mod not as impactful on later models. Not so. And the wedge spacer idea is clutch.
 
Did this with 1.5" prefabbed steel spacers and the usual extended bolts and washer shims. Worked great and netted me right about 1.5" of extra clearance in the back. 285/75/16 tire fits no problem still.

UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_56db.jpg


UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_56d9.jpg


UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_56dc.jpg


UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_56d3.jpg
 
Last edited:
Has anyone had any luck using this mod to fit a 285/75/16 KO2 with a Curt aftermarket hitch? Installed the hitch today but the tire won't fit without serious rubbing. Might be the catalyst for a swingout mount on the bumper but that is overkill for my purposes. Appreciate any thoughts.
 
Interesting… on my ‘04, the canister was angled, and blocking the beam (tire winch)…
i was able to rotate it back straight and also clear the beam as well. Only took 1 hole drilled and 2 rivnuts to reposition the charcoal canister. The ‘06 in the vid looks like its already straight… maybe different canister?

44CBE238-793B-464F-BDF1-B3B83701C38D.jpeg


3F4E2FFD-1D3F-4578-B2A1-FC5127472731.jpeg


C81434B8-AF72-4368-B483-94CE5B6C4A0C.jpeg


8C4BE1A0-0CAF-4B9E-90C6-FE333145FD05.jpeg


50A25CB7-1F64-462D-A681-F2FADB2136D2.jpeg
 
Has anyone had any luck using this mod to fit a 285/75/16 KO2 with a Curt aftermarket hitch? Installed the hitch today but the tire won't fit without serious rubbing. Might be the catalyst for a swingout mount on the bumper but that is overkill for my purposes. Appreciate any thoughts.
I had the same issue, I have the Cooper AT3’s and they are 33.5” …. What I ended up doing was taking the curt hitch off and drilling one more hole in the hitch itself to actually move the hitch back more. As far as structural integrity I didn’t get it certified by an engineer 😳😳 but there was certainly enough iron left on the hitch that I’ll never worry about it… I’ll see if I can dig out some pics of the holes drilled…

edit… just found the pics and apparently drilled 3 holes per side, I think I gained almost 1-1/2” overall and now have about 3/4” space at the pan hard. I’ve already towed quite a bit with it like this and it is solid.

62DA2B2A-DEC3-405E-8751-4AE5539AED22.jpeg


B26EFE82-7DB9-4397-A153-1811996286B4.jpeg


0D89A0B4-2DA9-4EE5-8562-E1C61DBE260E.jpeg
 
Last edited:
fitting 35x12.5x17's very soon and I think im in for a treat trying to get that up in the stock location.
Keep us posted if you can make it fit. Might be able to shoe horn a 34" in there, but I'm not sure a 35" will fit at all, especially if the hitch is in place.
 
Keep us posted if you can make it fit. Might be able to shoe horn a 34" in there, but I'm not sure a 35" will fit at all, especially if the hitch is in place.
will do, after doing a couple of hours of work and the very popular mod of adding spacers to increase the height of the carrier I made a couple inches of vertical space and almost 2 inches of horizontal space between the tire and panhard bar. as of now I know that a 34 would fit no problem with no rubbing, and 35's will be here very soon so I can get on the soon.
 
Keep us posted if you can make it fit. Might be able to shoe horn a 34" in there, but I'm not sure a 35" will fit at all, especially if the hitch is in place.
i was able to put the hitch on 1”spacers to lower it a bit and get it on, im not running it anymore because it was ugly, but you only really need to drop it by 1/2”. i hit plenty of rocks on the hitch and jacked the back up from it, so no strength issues
 
Finalized the spare raise this weekend. I removed the front and rear bars completely so the spare rests directly on the forward crossmember and the rear bumper step plate. With 20mm spacers in place the tire wasn’t quite high enough to make contact with the forward crossmember and therefore wasn’t solidly mounted. I exchanged those for 1 1/4” spacers (≈32mm) and now the tire rests firmly against the forward crossmember. I also lowered the winch with some 1/2” spacers.

I discovered that it is pointless (and actually worse) to raise the spare higher than 1 1/4”. You can raise the spare crossmember higher but the forward crossmember and the rear step plate are your limiting factors. Raising the spare crossmember higher than 1 1/4" will decrease the contact area the tire has, it will only rest against the front & rear and the spare crossmember will essentially float above the tire.

35x11.50 tires
IMG_5265.jpeg


IMG_5264.jpeg
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom