My 2002 never had a spare tire so I found a set of matching wheels and tires for under 100 bucks. I figure having four spare tires is better than.one, lol. But when I tried to winch it up something stopped it from resting in place. After inspecting the area I notice a bent steel bar welded under the winch, kinda like a handle of some sort. Nice weld job but I'm sure it's not factory so what could it have been for? Anyways now it's time to buy a cordless grinder so I can have a spare tire.

 

Wow, that looks pretty heavy duty as well. I agree, I really don't think that is stock. I have no idea what it would be used for. A nice handle to help you crawl under the truck easier??

 

Flip the wheel around so the deep dish points up

 

Tried that but no hope so I went ahead and cut it off with my grinder, now the spare tire fits perfectly. I'm still curious to know what was more important than a spare tire?

 

That's a factory part buddy. You either didn't line up the spare correctly, or you're running a wheel for a spare that the factory didn't build for. But GG lobbing off parts of your truck!


Peaking through the hole in my spare...

Spare sitting perfectly.

 

I'm riding on factory chrome steel 17" wheels. I searched Google images for "2002 Dodge RAM spare tire winch" and not one had that bar. I still wasn't convinced yet so I went to the junkyard and looked at several other trucks and didn't see another winch with the bar.

 

My 07 doesn't have that bar but I would expect that the stock spare would fit up there if it did.

 

I agree, the stock spare is the only one that will seat properly but I've always had spares that match the current wheels and tires on my Ford and Chevy trucks. So to all the other Dodge RAM owners, which spare wheel would you rather have?

 

It's a spare lol

 

I had to replace my spare last year. Hopefully, the matching spare wouldn't rust out like the stock one.