The Ultimate spare tire mod-The Condom

[Tenzig Norgay]

The problem: In the midwest, after several years of rain, snow, and lots of road salt, the spare tire lift rusts in place, and you can't lower your spare, usually in the most inclimate situations. I have installed a new one, operated it several times throughout the year, only to have it seize up after a harsh winter when its only 4 or 5 years old. I use my truck as a work vehicle, and am constantly loading unloading tools, supplies, and over the last year, that stupid spare tire.

The solution: The condom with grease zirk for fully functional and lubed spare tire lift. Hopefully this will keep all the nasties off my chain, and lift, while keeping it properly lubed for operation.

I drilled a hole and inserted a grease zirk on the bottom of the lift, right in the center, so the spinning internals won't hit the zirk. The zirk is 1/4 inch, 28 thread count, short grease fitting. The condom is made from a piece of rubber(what else would it be made of), exactly 14 1/4 inches long by 5 1/2 inches wide. An 1 1/4 inch hole is placed 3 3/8 inches to 4 5/8 inches from the edge, and from 1 to 2 1/4 inches from the top. I then wrapped the rubber around the lift, drilled an 1/8 hole through both pieces of rubber, removed the rubber, installed the first set of snap fasteners, then wrapped and snapped the rubber, drilled the second hole, removed rubber, installed second fasteners, then repeated process for the last fasteners. I didn't want it to fall off, figured that would be kinda embarassing.

One thing I did was after installation was count how many chain links up from the tire to the lift, with the spare all the way up. I then lowered the tire, and lubbed this portion of the chain upward about 6 inches, because this is the part of the chain that is actually wrapped around the lifts internals.

 

[superjuice]

Way to practice safe umm......jacking?

 

[1shot1kill]

And it is ribbed!

 

[Tenzig Norgay]

Sitting around with time to waste today I read through my owners manual, front to back. When i got to the spare tire section I got way to excited. The spare tire goes on the lift in only one orientation, outside of tire up. I had it on backwards and didn't even know it. Is that a bad or good thing? Actually, when I had it on backwards I noticed that it didn't want to go straight up, the tire went up at an angle and I couldn't get it level, however, when I had the tire mounted outside face up, the tire went up nice and level.

Also learned the tool bag straps to the jack in the side compartment, and that is what the extra hole in the strap is for. This is starting to sound weird.

 

[elprup87]

The sad thing is that I have owned so many Toyotas in the past, some of this is second hand nature to me. My 80 doesnt even have a manual anymore (not when I had it) and I wish somethings I could read on. Like the Oil Pressure gauge, what lines are what PSIs (ballpark)? But then again, in the past Toyotas I didnt have those gauges. Meh

Nice "condom", although that sounds weird saying aloud. If I wasnt planning on making a rear tire carrier, I would do this. I hated all the debris and gunk making it hard to lower/raise the tire. Found a few coins in there one time (how the?).

 

[IdahoDoug]

With 200k on the clock, my wife and kids left on a 6000 mile trip back east. Among other preparations for them, I lowered the spare to show her how it works, lubed the chain lift and checked the pressure. If you haven't showed your wifey how to do this, frankly it's worth doing. Between the location of the tool kit, how to assemble the crank, where the crank fits and that they'd be doing this on the side of the road - definitely worth it.

 

[Tenzig Norgay]

Almost three years now, and my condom mod works fricken awsome. No rusty chain, no seized parts, fully lubed and ready for action. One of my best mods ever, as stupid as it seems. For three years now, I haven't seen that tire, maybe 4 times to put air in it, but every time, its been fully functional