How do I mount my spare under the bed?
 

I have my spare tire in the bed of my truck. Like many of you, I use my bed a lot, so I find myself removing the spare often. How do I mount it under my bed? Is there a spare tire mounting kit, or should I rig something?

Re: How do I mount my spare under the bed?
 

The spare mounting for these trucks always seem pretty clunky to me. I have wanted to try and mount a 88-98 truck spare tire carrier with the cable. LMC carries the original carrier, but it is expensive.

Re: How do I mount my spare under the bed?
 

there is a kit.. i used tome nuts and three quarter rod after finding a salvage spare tire carrier in the boneyard.. ill try to take pics later for you

Re: How do I mount my spare under the bed?
 

My truck has no spare mount either. I may look into adpating a later model cable mount deal. Thanks for the suggestion!

Re: How do I mount my spare under the bed?
 

I found the cable style I plan to mount to the bottom of my truck, go to the bone yard and pull one out, it should work

Re: How do I mount my spare under the bed?
 

The shop building my truck removed the original swing-out spare tire mount (optional equipment) from my truck & it's not going back on since mine will be on a custom mount in the bed. Give them a call & I am sure they'd be happy to sell it to you for cheap... It's WFO Concepts in Auburn, CA. (530)268-9494 - ask for Trevor. Hope it helps!

Re: How do I mount my spare under the bed?
 

LMC has ones that bolt the tire to the side of the (inside) bed. I had a rear cable model rust out and drop my spare last winter (1990 1500). I may try to fabricate one for my 83 K10.

Re: How do I mount my spare under the bed?
 

What is superior about the later style mount?

If I mount my spare tire under the bed, will I still have the option of adding a 2" receiver hitch?

Re: How do I mount my spare under the bed?
 

I will try to look up this mount type. I just need to see its' functionality. Thank you for the offer and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Re: How do I mount my spare under the bed?
 

Many stock under mount spare tire assemblies have been removed in order to accommodate a frame mounted receiver hitch. This is why a lot of old trucks don't have a spare tire carrier. It is also hard to find the under mount hardware because people tend to throw them away. I spent the money to re-install the stock hardware and still kept my frame mounted receiver hitch by moving the long pivot bolt about 1 inch forward so the tire would just clear the hitch. Check under your truck to see if you still have the main upper cross member for the spare tire. You can then buy the rest of the hardware from LMC, or get the whole works from them if you need to. I did this and the parts were OK (all made in Taiwan). I would try to get the OEM GM part numbers and search for those parts on the net if I had to buy the parts again - maybe at Vintage Parts.
The cable set up would be better if you could get it to work. The advantage is that you don't have to muscle the tire under the truck to work it on to the carrier to remove and replace it. You would have to find a way to drill a hole in your bumper for the crank handle to engage the cable mechanism. I have a dump hoist conversion, so my bumper moves with the box when it goes up and down, so the cable system would not work for me without some cobbled up mod.
Here is a pic of the top cross member you need for a stock set up.

Re: How do I mount my spare under the bed?
 

Here's mine. I hate it. I'm going to look for something else. My old chevy Luv and Nissin are all over this one.

I just hope I can find the plate to my floor jack before I need to put the spare on :lol: