Access to spare wheel when camper is on board.

[earthman]

Anyone else noticed that whilst your camper is on board, you may not actually be able to get to the trucks spare wheel?

My spare wheel is hung underneath the vehicle, on a wire/ratchet system, the camper over hanging at the rear restricts access to the hole for the winder basically,... I may be able to work around this by fabricating a shorter tool that I could engage into the mechanism whilst laying underneath the vehicle, I'll see.

Having to demount a camper at the side of the road to be able to get to the spare wheel in the first place would be a right pain I feel.

[zildjian]

Grant found this out, secret is to avoid punctures

[earthman]

secret is to avoid punctures

[rubberrat]

I can get to mine with the Tischer. Do-able but not quite so easy on old SKarosser.
Suppose its not the end of the world to demount temporarily if ground is good or not on outside lane of motorway

[sabconsulting]

On my truck you insert a long T-bar through a hole under the tailgate to engage the chain winch that drops the wheel. The T-bar terminates in a 3/8" male square head.

I remove the tailgate when the camper is loaded. The back of the camper does not obstruct the hole for the above T-bar. However, because the floor of the camper is only a few inches above you cannot rotate the handle that fits to the T-bar's head.

So I found a couple of old 3/8" drive sockets of similar size and welded them back to back.

I can now use that too invert the gender of the T-bar so I can fit a 3/8" ratchet, and if necessary extension bar, from the socket set I keep in the truck.

Steve.

[mickjean]

Hi Steve That is a fantastic idea for lowering the spare wheel, it has been a problem that has been giving me loss of sleep thinking about demounting on the hard shoulder, Can't wait to get it made, many thanks mick4x4

[earthman]

Well I've got around the problem by fabricating a small length of steel bar, milling a slot in one end and attaching a 17mm hex nut on the other so that a ratchet or spanner can be used.

I'll probably use this to remove the spare even when the camper isn't on board, the factory set up just ends up being too long and unwieldy to use, even trying to get the end to engage into the mechanism is hit and miss whilst working 'blind' at the rear bumper. You pretty much have to get underneath the back of the vehicle to retrieve the wheel once it's been lowered so you might as well put some overalls on before the winding.

[TrueDink]

And make sure your jack is capable of lifting the truck and camper to actually change the wheel.

[earthman]

And make sure your jack is capable of lifting the truck and camper to actually change the wheel.

That's a good point.

[sabconsulting]

And make sure your jack is capable of lifting the truck and camper to actually change the wheel.

Yes. I don't ever use the pressed steel OEM jack. I carry a 12 ton bottle jack instead.

Steve.