Hey all, my truck is in the shop right now after breaking a tie rod end, long story short, I have to use my spare tire for a bit. The guy working on my truck can't seem to get my spare tire down. He wanted to cut it off because he can't figure out how to get it down, I assured him he would be paying to fix it if he cut it off. I told him how to get it down and now he is saying that it won't come all the way down. I was reading about spare tire locks, but I'm 99% sure I don't have one, and besides with a lock it shouldn't move at all right?

anyways, does anyone know why it won't come down all the way or what this knucklehead needs to do to get it down?

I'm stateside right now and my truck is in germany otherwise I'd kick him in the head myself.

thanks

 

should just unwind down. Sometimes getting the tire off the cable is difficult.

 

The carrier has two "fingers" that fold out and keep the thing from coming down. Its like a safety mechanism or something if the cable were to ever break, anyhow over time they get rusty and don't fold in when trying to lower the tire. Stupid design. It took me forever to figure mine out. You have to lower it a bit the reach up over the tire and squeeze them together. Kinda hard to explain, but he has to lower the tire as much as possible, then get up in there and look over top of the spare and he will see what it is. Read this thread, and the thread in the thread. Common problem with these trucks.

https://dodgeforum.com/forum/3rd-gen...tire-help.html

 

^--- What he said. Also the cable might be pinched on itself in the winch spool. That area gets so wet and rusty.

Like said before, stupid design not for area's that use salt in the winter.

I have been thinking of cutting off the stupid thing and using one off of a 2 gen Dakota, it just goes through the center cap hole.

 

Yeah I had the same problem one night. Took me about a hour and the help of a friend to get the damn thing undone in the dark. Really cut into my drinking time. But yeah the cable should descend and the tire will free up some. You have to reach above the tire and press in those tabs manually, while holding the tire up to relieve the weight from the mechanism. Jkeaton explains the rest. Its a huge pain in the *** and took me a while to figure out but it is doable.

 

I just dropped mine, it hung up a bit after two turns but a little kick and some more turning got it down all the way. you have to release the tension on it by lifting up the tire, and with enough slack you can turn the black part sideways and get it through the bore.

 

Remove the tire completely and carry a can of fix-a-flat instead....think of the weight savings...

 

if I blow a rear tire, then I can barely slide the spare out from under the truck. I'm looking at taking it out and keeping it in the bed.

 

I'm going to drop mine this weekend..I dont feel comfortable having to remove that in event of emergency. Much better off having it in the bed in my opinion and its a cleaner look. Now everyone can really notice my lime green diff cover (;

 

Yeah poor design in my opinion, just give me a bolt and wing nut underneath.