Spare Tire Relocation

jeepdaddy65 · 06-22-2008, 04:01 PM

I am moving my spare tire to a custome roof rack I built and would like to know if there is anything available aftremarket, or what others have done to plug or cover the holes from the original tire carrier on the back of my 05 Liberty. Thanks in advance for the help

CRD4Liberty · 06-22-2008, 10:53 PM

Somone found some nice plastic plugs that seem to work very well on the LOST KJ site.

dcxman · 06-23-2008, 07:44 AM

[QUOTE=jeepdaddy65;5367906]I am moving my spare tire to a custome roof rack I built and would like to know if there is anything available aftremarket, or what others have done to plug or cover the holes from the original tire carrier on the back of my 05 Liberty. Thanks in advance for the help[/QUOTE

The spare is a pain in the A**. It has to be removed every time I pull a trailer.
One possible cure is to use an extension to get past the tire, but that probably increases the tongue weight, but shouldn't be a big problem for light loads. So I am interested in any solutions that you come up with.

LAjeep · 11-08-2008, 04:36 PM

Quote:

The spare is a pain in the A**. It has to be removed every time I pull a trailer.
One possible cure is to use an extension to get past the tire, but that probably increases the tongue weight, but shouldn't be a big problem for light loads. So I am interested in any solutions that you come up with.

I read on the LOST website that the spare tire carrier can be flipped upside down and will give several extra inches of clearance for trailer coupling. I tried hooking my trailer up today and there isn't enough clearance for coupling lock mechanism to clear spare. I'm gonna try flipping the carrier over and see if glass still clears tire. Oh, btw, you can get an extension for receiver that will extend out about 7 more inches for around $45.

DaveJKJ · 11-08-2008, 05:39 PM

The spare is a pain in the A**. It has to be removed every time I pull a trailer.
One possible cure is to use an extension to get past the tire, but that probably increases the tongue weight, but shouldn't be a big problem for light loads. So I am interested in any solutions that you come up with.[/QUOTE]

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I have 3 trailers. A boat, a camper, and a utility trailer. So I ended up buying different drawbars as they hook up different. I think I have 4 of them, all different. One day I also discovered that I could open the back door to clear the trailer coupler lock so it would not hit the bottom of the spare tire and I could lock it on, hook up the utility trailer, then swing the door closed and it cleared the hookup. I don't know if I am explaining this right. But experiment with your hook up and different drawbars. One will work.

Hope this helps.

LAjeep · 11-08-2008, 09:02 PM

Wow, never thought of that. I'll try this tomorrow and see if the open door clears the boat trailer winch. Thanks.

jeepdaddy65 · 11-08-2008, 09:46 PM

I went with the spare on the roof and the wind noise was pretty bad and the wind resistance seemed to create a lot more drag. I just tow a pop up camper and take the spare and put it in the camper when towing. Could you explain flipping the spare carrier upside down to make more clearance. I have surge brake on my camper and the hook up with the door open didn't work. My tongue weight on the camper is around 300lb.I know I can have a max tongue weight of 500 on my 05 with the trailer tow. would going to a longer draw bar reduce my tongue weight much to be safe Thanks

LAjeep · 11-08-2008, 10:14 PM

Take your spare off and note the configuration of the carrier. It is not the same offset on top and bottom. If you were to unbolt it and mount the top to bottom and vice versa, you would effectively raise the tire up several inches.

DaveJKJ · 11-08-2008, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeepdaddy65

I went with the spare on the roof and the wind noise was pretty bad and the wind resistance seemed to create a lot more drag. I just tow a pop up camper and take the spare and put it in the camper when towing. Could you explain flipping the spare carrier upside down to make more clearance. I have surge brake on my camper and the hook up with the door open didn't work. My tongue weight on the camper is around 300lb.I know I can have a max tongue weight of 500 on my 05 with the trailer tow. would going to a longer draw bar reduce my tongue weight much to be safe Thanks

I have surge brakes on my boat trailer also. I use a 14" receiver bar when hooking up the boat trailer and it just barely clears the tire when I hook it up. I can't open the door with the boat trailer because of the surge brake unit. I was a little leary at first of the long bar but I havn't had any problems towing it with the longer receiver bar. But on my utility trailer I can open the door when hooking it up. It doesn't have the surge brakes and the door will clear it.

BlackLibertyCRD · 11-09-2008, 05:19 PM

I tow a 12' Haulmark V-nose enclosed trailer and remove the jack after hook up. Then I can open the rear door to let the dogs in and out of the back. I also flipped the spare tire mount, it sure helped.

LAjeep · 11-09-2008, 07:35 PM

Flipped my carrier this afternoon and the rear window barely but does clear the tire. It does, however tilt the tire out at top and in at bottom where tire has less than 1/4" clearance between tire and bumper. If trailer hooks up okay, I will just put a couple of washers under lower nuts.

06-22-2008, 10:53 PM	#2
CRD4Liberty Registered User Join Date: Aug 2005 Posts: 453 Profile Gallery Classifieds My Jeeps	Somone found some nice plastic plugs that seem to work very well on the LOST KJ site.

11-09-2008, 05:19 PM	#10
BlackLibertyCRD Registered User Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: rhuffman35@comcast.net Posts: 10 Profile Gallery Classifieds My Jeeps	I tow a 12' Haulmark V-nose enclosed trailer and remove the jack after hook up. Then I can open the rear door to let the dogs in and out of the back. I also flipped the spare tire mount, it sure helped.