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Posted by Sherman in Idaho [72.47.153.24] on Friday, June 22, 2012 at 11:49:50 :
In Reply to: Re: Spare tire...umm what? posted by chriscase [75.36.32.68] on Friday, June 22, 2012 at 11:35:43 :
Yes, I know you're supposed to slide the spare up onto the bar and then hoist the whole thing overhead while you put the nut through the key hole and tighten it down. In theory, that's not too bad, aside from having to get your whole body under the truck, and hold the weight of the tire overhead, with dirt falling in your eyes, etc. But combine it with mud, rocks, snow, etc, and a bar and threaded rod that are all buggered up from dragging on the ground so much, and it doesn't work out quite as neatly as it looked on the engineer's drawings back in Detroit. Part of what lets the spare fall out is there are only two small tabs that stick up very slightly into the wheel center that might with luck catch it if it tries to slide out. The tabs get bent over pretty easily. Not too long ago I happened to find an undamaged bar and rod, so I replaced mine and haven't lost a tire since, but I don't drive the truck near as much as I used to either.
The system obviously worked well enough to keep people buying Chevy trucks, but just about anything else would be better. Maybe the F250 interpretation of that concept is better than the C10 interpretation. Even the Toyota pickups, that stow the spare in the same place, have a little winch. I can't imagine it cost any more than the bar and rod arrangement.
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