It is a dumb design, but has been on every vehicle I've had that has a full size spare underneath.

A long bolt and wingnut should be easy enough to rig up.

I've long since come to the conclusion that they don't often think about rust when designing vehicles. Considering on past vehicles I've had trim pieces that held water and salt around the wheel wells and caused them to rust 3x faster, rocker panels on an older GM that hold salt+moisture and rust out far too fast, spare tire carriers, the list goes on.

I'm sure if I tried to pull my spare tire off now I'd be dealing with the same issue, if I ever lower the truck more I'm just going to get rid of it entirely.

whens the last time you lowered it? I've had to cut the cable on a couple trucks

just looked at my tire carrier. yanking the winch out and weding in a grade 8 bolt 1/2 bolt. i always have my tools with me so a 3/4 socket and impact gun wont be a problem. dont use a wingnut, seen them rattle loose. i wont even put them on batterys.

when I rotate the tires, I work the spare up and down and spray lets-go on that mechanism. has become part of my routine maintenance.

Where is the special wrench located on the truck???

you just use the extension, in the club cab its under the passenger rear seat

Exactly, there should be a pouch with several pieces that snap together, including 1 with a hook. The hook piece is for the jack. Take 2 of the pieces, put them together and put the "socket" end into the hole above your license plate (if you look through this hole, you'll see where the rod is supposed to engage). The lug wrench has a square hole on the handle to put onto this rod, then you turn it to the left to unwind and to the right to wind up.

last thursday i got a slow leak in my drivers front tire, so i was like easy enough jack it up take it off, no i got the lug wrench on the lugs and got one with a alot of struggle and the second one, bent the lug wrench. so i called triple AAA and took my girlfriends car to class, she said a 300 pound man was jumping and stomping on the lug wrench to break them lose

yep.... no pouch... that kinda sucks...... what should i do? would a Durango have the same kit if I go to junkyard and try to scavenge one????