My wife had a flat this afternoon and when I went to change it, I could not get the spare down. There was no problem with the cable as it was laying on the ground by the time I got down lowering it but the plastic piece that actually holds the tire is stuck.
Anyone have this problem or have a fix?

 

Yep that's a really common problem. I've see it posted a lot on here. there's a stupid safety latch that was added which rusts in place and leaves you stranded. you need to use the tire iron and get thru one of the wheel holes to bend that stupid safety latch and the tire will drop. you need to have the cable taught so the pressure is taken off the center plastic peice. if you have all the tire weight on the plastic center peice you can't move the latch from the weight on it.

 

Thanks, nothing like being on your back in a parking lot trying to figure out what the problem is.
The rusty latch matches the rusty hood but that's another story.

 

Got it, in large part to this site. To try to describe it in my words, the cable comes down through a square metal tube. To prevent the tire from falling onto the road in case the cable breaks, there is a metal hook arrangement at the bottom of the metal tube that is supposed to pivot in and out as a ratchet arrangement. Rust prevented the hook or secondary latch as I guess it's called from doing the pivoting and no amount of PBBlaster was going to change that.
At any rate, I used two jacks to support the tire up against the body and with the cable tight, I fished a long thin screwdriver through the center of the tire up into the metal tube and by twisting it around, it finally released the secondary latch which is now permanently bent out of the way.

 

take some rope or webbing and put it around the plastic holder. Lower the cable down half way and take the other end of your rope or webbing and loop it through another cars tow hook or something that won't move. Drive forward slowly till it pops. Worked for me and yes I was once stranded on the side of the road because of this stupid stuck carrier too.

 

Interesting way to do it. Before I got this to work, I bent a 4' bar that I used as a lever against the trailer hitch. The secondary latch is relatively flimsy but I could never get enough downward force to force the carrier past it.
Had I known this was a common problem, particularly in the salt belt, I would have tried to drop the tire at least yearly and spray it with oil or something at the same time. Overall, I suppose we've been happy with this van with most of the problems being corrosion related. The hood started to rust through 2 months after the corrosion warranty was up, rear heater lines went out, rear brake line last year, fuel filler pipe assembly last year and a few other more minor things.

 

Happened to me too. Thanks "22Dodge22".

I have attached a picture (pdf) for those who are next.

FYI I moved my connecting wire to the hole on the right side. I found it in the center hole (end of spring), but it seems to rotate (unhook) better this way. Anyone know where it belongs?