Sourced a second spare wheel. Now which rear bar mount to mount it on?

[Jared01]

Hello,

I was lucky and sourced a second spare wheel (matching rim and tyre brand new (was the spare) from an identical starcraft outback ( 17.58-3) for $250.

I have been thinking about mounting it on the rear bar (checked with Jayco and they said OK to mount 1 spare only).

I will see how the caravan behaves with having the extra weight on the rear bar.


My preference is to mount the second spare on the rear bar instead of under the chassis in the rear.

Was looking at options for mounts and saw Crusty181's post below which showed a damaged spare wheel holder, so I am searching around for an
alternate option.


post #152 here http://expandasdownunder.com/threads/crustys-big-lap.8218/page-8


From the pictures, these look like they may be stronger. Anyone have one?

https://www.couplemate.com.au/caravan-trailer-parts/boat-trailer-parts/spare-wheel-carrier/

Not sure which one I would require though?

 

[Jared01]

Anyone tried any of these https://www.couplemate.com.au/caravan-trailer-parts/boat-trailer-parts/spare-wheel-carrier/

 

[bigcol]

I built my own.......................
dont like the price of the pre-made ones I have seen

 

[Crusty181]

@Jared01 dont take my poor old rear bar factory mount as a point of weakness. Crossing through a river I dropped the whole weight of the ar$e end of our 3 ton behemoth square onto the entry bank, and the wheel took the full hit. I was pretty impressed it didnt ripped the whole thing off, and that pic is a great example of just how robust the rear bar and factory wheel mounts are. That pic is a celebration, not a failure. If you can swap out your rear bar for a factory wheel mount bar, I would absolutely do that. That will be the easiest and best alternative, and I expect you should be able to get one for not much more than $373

Where is your spare mounted now ???

The Couplemate mounts are an awesome (slightly weighty) idea to cover off on a set and forget spare part system, but theyre pretty extreme. To get the benefit out of it you'll need to be able to remove your old stub axle and weld the new stub axle to your suspension frame, all on the side of the road. If you need to use the replacement drum it will be because yours has been ripped off and nothing short of a full engineering work shop will be need to get you going again. Realistically, the only benefit will be when your van arrives at the engineers on the back of the recovery truck, some of the spare parts needed to repair it will be "U" to the vans rear bumper.

You'd need the $373 2t Electric Drum Trailer Rescue Kit, and you'll need to get the 10in drum and matching bearing kit

 

[Drover]

Tad expensive, tad heavy, just a bit of overkill I think.....................if I wanted to carry a spare bearing and hub I would go for a non braked hub with bearing, carry the spare wheel and if needed to use the spare hub, unbraked would be good enough to get out of trouble though usually the axle stub is stuffed .

Just a thought, you use the spare hub how do you carry the spare wheel ??????????

 

[Jared01]

Thanks for the feedback.

@Cursty181, good to hear the story about the rear bumper spare wheel. I assume it was a result of just going over bumps or corrugations.

I have one spare wheel in the normal spot in at the front in the A-frame below the gas bottles and I sourced a second spare wheel just in case which I will take on the trip (2 complete spares for the caravan and 2 complete spares for the car).

I thought I may have needed to buy a stronger spare wheel carrier but sounds like this is not the case.


I was also trying to figure out what the differences were with the couplemate parts that I quoted were and I simply want to clamp on a spare wheel bracket on the back bumper with some u bolts and probably take it off after the trip. No intentions on taking spare hubs etc. I was going to drop into their Seven Hills store and ask for advice but I can now probably just order a brack online.

My back bumper is just the normal starcraft bumper. I was not aware there was an option for another type of rear bumper that had the bracker welded into it.


There seems to be a few positions in which the rear bumper can sit, as in the position mine is in now, it can be moved forward a few inches towards the caravan where there are other bolt holes, not sure why this is, unless it could be some adjustments to balance out the caravan (as a bad guess).

 

[Crusty181]

Hey @Jared01 the Couplemate mounts arent simple wheel mounts, they are a method of carrying a stub axle, gearing kit and brake drum all as spare parts, and all conveniently mounted like a spare wheel carrier, hence the nefty price tags. The Couplemate website upper pics are the stub axels mounted to a post for you to source the rest yourself, and the lower pics are the complete spare part units.

My rear bumper spare wheel mount is ex-factory, Im not sure if they still have any van models with bar mounted spares, Expandas generally don't due to the rear bed lid clearance

You can purchase a good clamp on wheel mount from a trailer supplies, or BCF, that are commonly found on boat trailers. You'd have to check the offset and stud pattern, but they are quite cheap and very sturdy at around $40. I have one on the rear bumper that I modified as a satellite dish holder.

One issue with mounting stuff on the rear bumper is the potential slack between the inserted bumper arms and chassis, and resulting bounce. My bumper was pretty sloppy so I just shimmed it with some metal sheet I had lying about and theres very little bounce now.

 

[Jared01]

Finally got around to installing the second spare wheel on the rear bumper.

Jayco advised it was OK to install a spare wheel on the rear bumper, but nothing else and that 30KG was maximum.

Was hoping to get the G&S chassis mount but they said it was only good for up to 75mm x 50mm.


Called Barnes Caravans in Lansvale and they had 2 second hand ones in stock and they were both the G&S and they did fit on my 100x50mm bar.

Will see how it tows with the extra weight on the rear and it I notice anything different.

I was given wheel nuts with it but they seems to not fit so wheel (so I bought some locking nuts).


Not sure how I can secure/lock the bracket to the bar

 

[Drover]

Should be the goods @Jared01 , just use proper wheel nuts to hold your wheel on, normal nuts even Nyloc ones can cause the studs to wear the bolt holes on the plate of the rim, not good if you ever have to use it.......Overtightening with other than proper wheel nuts can even distort the rim, nuts can be purchased easily at auto or tyre shops..

 

[Ben Sweetnam]

I tried the ones shown but found the tyre sat too low so i have used 2 x

https://camec.com/chassis/spare-wheel-mount-bolt-on-straight.html

The spare sits flush with the bottom of the bar but i had to modify the plate that holds the wheel in place with a larger hole (not difficult)

 

[Jared01]

I was given the gold nuts with the bracket but the started to strip some metal off when I tightened up.

Went to supercheap and bought the other ones in the photo. I tool one of the caravan and it had written on it 1/2 20R.

Hope they are ok?

 

[Drover]

The conical bit is the bit that stops it chewing things up, looks good from here..........you may want to fit a bit of flat (4mm) across the top of the bar where your bracket sits on the bar, extend out about 25mm this will ensure it doesn't crunch the bar with any flexing that might occur, not saying it would mind but just to give it all a bit more area to apply any loading..