I'm thinking of replacing the spare tire hoist on my 2004 Dakota before the Northeast salt eats through the cable and I watch the spare bouncing away in the rear view mirror. Dropped the tire and inspected the unit which appears to be bolted on from the top down leaving very little, if any, clearance to wrench off the (most likely) rusted bolts. Short of removing the bed to get direct access, has anyone found a way to get the bolts out and new unit in?

 

If you don't need to do it right this minute, I'm in the process of getting my truck ready to go to the shop for a new suspension and will be pulling the spare and everything underneath out sometime this week. I can let you know what it took when I'm done.

 

Thanks! That’ll be a big help.

 

If you haven't, it might be a good idea to lower the spare tire and then oil the cable to help prevent any further corrosion.
Mine's still going strong at 21 years, although I've been doing this pretty much once a year.

 

OK, the answer is yes and no. Yes, you can remove the hoist without removing the bed. You pull a hairpin style cotter pin to remove the lowering shaft, pull the two bolts out and it just kinda falls out. It's held on with two 13mm bolts on one side and a couple of formed hooks on the other. I used my Craftsman socket set that has the pass-through handle because the clearance between the bolts and the bed is pretty tight. I also had to use a small breaker bar on it to get enough leverage to move the bolts. It's not that they were particularly tight, but the cross member that it's bolted to is pretty stout. It has a couple of cutouts that make it easier, but there's still very little room to work. It probably took about half an hour to remove it, including lowering the tire.

Now then, if it's the whole cross member you want to replace, then no. That is riveted to the frame rails, and is a very hefty piece. If that's what needs replacing then you're going to have to pull the bed and remove half inch or bigger steel rivets, which is probably going to need a torch or a pretty hefty cutting bit on a jackhammer wrench.

 

Thanks! The crossmember is fine, it's just the end of the cable that was causing concern so it'll be following your directions to get the winch mechanism out. A couple of access holes through the bed floor, rubber plugged, would have been nice!