Stepsides with the Spare on the Bed

[Boog]

Originally Posted by kyull67

Do you have any pictures of this? I've never seen it, but it sounds like a good idea since my fenders are already finished.

Just now tuning in here tonight. I'll see if I can round it up this weekend and maybe shoot a pic. I actually made one for an old ford truck I had years ago. Nothing to it and it's completely covered by the tire.
Your new bed looks so good I really hate to see you cutting on it. You are making some good progress on the cab too.

[kyull67]

Originally Posted by Boog

Just now tuning in here tonight. I'll see if I can round it up this weekend and maybe shoot a pic. I actually made one for an old ford truck I had years ago. Nothing to it and it's completely covered by the tire.
Your new bed looks so good I really hate to see you cutting on it. You are making some good progress on the cab too.

Thanks, If you have a picture of the stock setup I'd like to see what that looks like so I can try to copy it.

[Boog]

Hey bud. I just got home and snapped a few pics of my inbed spare tire mount. It came on my 69 from factory although I've not seen any on these forums like it. Any way this is the factory piece minus the bolt that slides down the middle slot and goes through the wheel. Most likely had a large flat washer then a large wing nut holding the wheel up there.
The one I made many years ago for an old ford I made out of 1" angle. Super simple deal mounted to bed wall. Cut off most of angle pointing out except in the center where I drilled a hole and bent a long bolt into a 90* to be the through bolt. I even welded a couple of short rods onto a regular hex nut to make my wing nut. The 1" angle was completely covered by the wheel and tire too. Looked great. Anyway here are the pics of the factory piece.

[kyull67]

Awesome Boog! Thanks for your help.

[Boog]

I just ran across this in bed mount in LMC Truck online catalog. The pic looks like it's on a fleetside bed but if you make your own it won't matter.

[19673ontree]

after seeing all this I like th idea of mounting it inside the bed too !!

hey fella's what do you think about a fleetside like my 67 with the spare inside the bed painted nice with a matching hubcap ???

[Boog]

It would look great there and if you wanted you could put a spare cover on it. What I like about the inside mount is it's completely out of your line of vision. And many of us won't really be hauling much if anything in our beds anyway. And if you should ever have a flat and actually need that spare it's super easy to get to.

[19673ontree]

hey kyull here is one of the inside mount's for a stepside ,,
(NOT MINE) http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/60-66...spagenameZWDVW

[kyull67]

Originally Posted by 19673ontree

hey kyull here is one of the inside mount's for a stepside ,,
(NOT MINE) http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/60-66...spagenameZWDVW

Thanks for the heads up. It say's 60-66, do you think it will fit?

I'll probably just make my own though . Looks easy enough.

[19673ontree]

stepside box's (NOT THE FENDERS) are about the same from 1955 to 1987

[tcb-1]

Originally Posted by 19673ontree

after seeing all this I like th idea of mounting it inside the bed too !!

hey fella's what do you think about a fleetside like my 67 with the spare inside the bed painted nice with a matching hubcap ???

you could throw a dead stump in that beautiful little 67 and it would still be one of my favorite trucks on here!!!!! your Camaro runs a close second!

[68shortstep]

Just a guess, but here goes: my thought is that when these trucks were new, many (or even most) of the stepsides were "farmer trucks" and the idea of getting down into the mud & cow sh!t to get a spare tire down & out from under the bed after a flat tire happened had VERY limited appeal. And on rutted & rocky country roads, with the poorer-quality tires available then, flats were a too-often occurrance out in the country.

And, the stake pockets often held the 5 ft high wood side panels to keep a cow or some hogs securely inside the bed on the way to market, or the beds were filled up hauling bales of hay or sacks of feed or loose grain, etc. So, having a spare mounted on the inside of the bed put it right squarely in the way.

Best solution: Mount the spare up & out on the side, so it was easy to get to & get it off for an easier-faster flat tire change. Reduced visibility in the door rearview mirror was a no-worries trade off. Usually nobody was following you that close behind on a gravel road anyhow. Too much dust.

I grew up in the country on a farm, and most of the old farmer-trucks all had side mounted spares. And they ALL were stepsides; the fleetsides were "city trucks" to most farmers. Some older brand X trucks even had two sidemount spares, though I honestly don't remember ever seeing any of our '67-72 body style trucks with two of the sidemounts ........ anybody want to jump in on this one ?

[tcb-1]

68shortstep

I think your right on the money with your history thoughts. The step bed was the original bed format. Then the ease of having the spare at your fingertips instead of on the underside of your manure caked rig makes sense to me.

I know my truck was a custom order by, you have it, a farmer in Wyoming. bare bones, 350, granny 4 speed, and side mount step side.

by the way. I remember throwing hay bales in the back of a 66 flatbed with an SM465 4 speed. throw the truck into first, get out and walk beside the truck throwing hay bales until my caluses bled...... all for $50 a day.

[19673ontree]

Originally Posted by tcb-1

you could throw a dead stump in that beautiful little 67 and it would still be one of my favorite trucks on here!!!!! your Camaro runs a close second!

hey thank's !!!

[68shortstep]

tcb-1 said: "by the way. I remember throwing hay bales in the back of a 66 flatbed with an SM465 4 speed. throw the truck into first, get out and walk beside the truck throwing hay bales until my caluses bled...... all for $50 a day."

You got paid way more than we did. Course it was probably a few years earlier when I was doing it. The going rate when I was doing that nasty-itchy-sweaty-bleeding work was 1-1/2 cents/bale, bucked onto the truck or wagon, hauled, & put up into the loft in the barn, split between the 3-guys who usually worked together.

No way could we make $ 50/day. Damn, I guess I was dumb(er) back then, because I was really pretty glad to get what money I got.

[tcb-1]

68,
it was the mid 80's, I was a teenager, and the rate wasn't bad for the time. of course I had to throw them then put them away with only one other guy helping...... and he was a lazy a$$! but I had a conveyor belt ran by a John Deere Super "B" that got the bales to the loft, which might be considered cheating!!!

then there was throwing watermelons..... but I won't go into that story. ah, what I did to make money back in southeast Missouri.

you couldn't pay me to do those jobs again. my hat has always been off to the independant farmer!!!