spare tire carrier and front crossmember

[rcarlisle]

Two things I noticed when crawling around on ground last night and thought I'd ask.

First, I found the spare carrier docs here.   Looks like the juice isn't really worth the squeeze on the carrier?  Looks like the slide out for the 2 tank version but I only have one tank.  I am missing the parts that secure the tire to the carrier - wondering if it's worth looking for.  The spare was in bed when i  bought truck but it has already been in the way in the bed.  Debating on trying to find the parts.  Any opinions?  HAvae thought about standing it up in the bed and strapping it there for now.  

Second - I noticed what looked like some sort of "Valance" under the front.  Well, when I looked, I can see that the truck was pulled at some point by hooking a chain to the front crossmember and pulled it completely out of whack.  Doesn't seem to have affected the front end too much.  Truck must have been really stuck to pull it so far out.   IS this a part I can find new?  Or is it going to be a junkyard part?  I have yet to find the jy with trucks yet.  

And I didn't take pics of either.   Will do so soon if the rains don't set in again.  

[85lebaront2]

When I bought Darth in 1994, he had no spare of any kind and no carrier for it. I first bought an extra wheel from a junkyard we passed near on our way to Pennsylvania towing our 5th wheel. The first time I needed tires, I kept the best for a spare.

Carrier and tire holder, there are two carriers, a slide out and a fixed one as far as I know. I found a fixed one laying on the ground at Pick-n-Pull in Virginia Beach. The two suspension bolts and the tire bolt were missing. I found the front "fixed" bolt and the rear eyebolt and clip nuts at different junkyards. Due to Darth having a massive V5 rated rear bumper/receiver combination fitting the dually wheel and 215/85R-16 tire up under the rear tank is interesting, tube on the tire support bar for the jack handle had to be shortened. I found when I had to change a tire on the side of US13 bypass around Salisbury MD when I blew the left outer dual, that getting the tire out and back in on the carrier isn't easy nor fun.

The tire holder is a large plastic, almost cone shaped nut that screws down on the carriage bolt that goes through the center of the wheel and holds it in place. It goes on point down for the smaller wheels, and point up for the dually wheels. For them and possibly the single large rims (F250/350) it has a scalloped raised portion on the large end that just fits inside the rim center. Getting the combination lined up is a royal pain so I added two alignment "pins" to the carrier that engage two of the eight bolt holes. Thankfully, when secured, the tire stem is accessible from underneath.

[rcarlisle]

Ok, thanks.  I *think* if I can find the wheel hold down, I'll have all the parts to put spare under there.  Under truck spares have never been easy and I don't think I've ever needed one in the trucks I've had.  So I could put the spare under there and quit wrestling it in the bed.  No jack with truck anyway, so I did buy a trolley jack and small 4 way.   But they aren't in truck currently.  THe truck is for local use, so I could leave it all at home I guess.  And call for help if I have a flat.  

THe jack and lug wrench are supposed to go in the screw down holders under hood correct?  Thought about seeing if my trolley and 4 way would fit in there - seems to be plenty of space under there.  That's all later projects really.  

Thanks for the information.

[kramttocs]

Correct- jack on the passenger side, lug wrench/hubcap pry bar on the driver. Jack handle across the core support.

You could also look into the in-bed carrier. It props the tire up along the side of the bed (behind driver). Still takes some room away from the bed but less than it laying down.

[rcarlisle]

Good information on spares.  LMC has the center hold down thing for $9.95.  I'm saving up part order for there til I have several items.  

As for the front crossmember deal, it is apparently the sway bar mount on some trucks.   I may see if I can get it unbolted - might be an excuse to buy a cordless impact....  I can remove it and see if machine shop can press it back into some semblance of straight - or look for a replacement.   I don't have sway bar up front, so not a huge deal and it isn't a structural member other than it will provide a bit more stability to front of frame?  

[FuzzFace2]

That front bolt in cross member always end up being bent.

I was lucky the one on my parts truck was in better shape so I used it.

As for the gear oil.
The oil I used was the only one I could find on a shelf at AZ that listed GL-4 & GL-5.
It dose not give me warm fuzzies that it also lists GL-5.

My Advance Adaptors over drive came with Red Line M-90 oil that ONLY lists GL-4 and think that is why they send it with the unit. They have you break in the OD using 30W motor oil for 30 min then drain & fill with the RL M-90.

My NP435 is a little hard shifting when cold and when warm little hard at times to down shift from 4th to 3rd. It is always hard to pull it out of granny gear.
I don't know if it was this way as I picked it up used but I want to fill it with the RL oil just been lazy to buy it.
Dave ----

[Rembrant]

FuzzFace2 wrote

That front bolt in cross member always end up being bent.

Yup, they sure do. Funny how often you can look under the front of a Bullnose and see that crossmember all twisted up. Too bad the OP wasn't closer, I have an extra one (that's straight). If it's just lightly bent I'd try to straighten it, but if it's too nasty...well, better off to replace.

As for the under bed spare...it was still intact under my 1984 when I bought it. I even had my dual exhaust routed around it so it didn't ruin the spare location.



Funny thing...the spare was in the factory location, but it was bald. I don't know if this was a thing for you guys, but it was common here one time that when you had to buy the first set of replacement tires for a vehicle, you'd buy only 3 and then install the good spare tire, and then take one of the old worn out tires and make it a spare haha. Of course that was only in the days when you had a full size spare on a wheel that was the same as the 4 on the truck, but it most certainly was a thing, one time. I chuckled when I found the bald spare under the truck. Back in the day, nobody around here would leave a perfectly new tire under a truck to rot and decay...lol.

[rcarlisle]

Yes that cross member is definitely NOT a pull point.  

I seem to remember the 3 tire deal as well.  I also remember my mom getting her first set of radial tires and the family oohing and ahhhing over them.  

[FuzzFace2]

As a kid I only remember re-cap tires as that's what dad had money for.
He had a delivery service with 2 trucks that ran local so to keep them going it was re-caps.
Dave ----

[rcarlisle]

Oh yeah on recaps.  There used to be a lot of places making them around here.