2004 Ford F350 DRW

Spare tire access change

January 2008

I carry a Lance 1181 camper that extends 3 ft. over the rear bumper and covers up the access to the spare tire lowering mechanism. After a recent complete tread separation, and the hassles of unloading the camper to lower the spare tire, I decided it was time to fix the problem. I remembered seeing a web site about changing the access and searched and found this one by AnEv942 as he calls himself on the NATCOA Truck Camper Forum. Doesn't cover DRW situation though, so I plowed ahead and was able to accomplish the change with a bit more work that on his SRW website.

First, the rotation of the mechanism leaves part of it dangling over the access hole as only one bolt hole can be reused on my DRW. So I found a piece of metal to span the gap and added another bolt for good measure bring to 3 the total number of new holes for the mechanism and reusing two threaded holes that were part of the original mount. Then the frame hole had to be enlarge to allow access for the "key" that actually cranks the mechanism to lower and raise the tire.

Here are some photos to show the results.

The repositioned mechanism. Only the bolt in the lower left is in an original hole in both the frame and the mechanism.

The added metal support spanning the hole with washers to level the mechanism:

The enlarged frame hole on the passenger side:

The repositioned access tube (before final bolting of the metal support):

The crank barely missing the outside tire. If I can't get both rod parts in when the frame is lower under load, I can either put a wrench on the single part of the rod or use the camper jacks to take some load off the springs.

So I can crank it up and down like this:

I'm much happier.