Front bumper mounted spare?

[BSkinner]

Would there be any downside to mounting a spare tire on my Buckstop bumper? I would worry mostly about airflow disruption. I thought making a tire mounting bracket that attaches to the pre-drilled holes for the winch in the Buckstop would make a pretty clean installation. I'd still carry a spare in the conventional place put that would be a "spare for my spare". It's a pain in the rear to mess with that whole system. I'm traveling some pretty poor roads lately and two spares might come in handy.



I won't have to worry about the additional weight of the spare sagging my springs even more than the Buckstop did. My KORE Recon kit gets installed tomorrow! Life is good.



Bob

 

[rbattelle]

It will certainly disrupt airflow, but the only way to know how much would be to try it and see if the truck starts running hot. If it does, you can always remove the spare.



-Ryan

 

[WStephens]

I remember haveing to have two spares every were I went in Wyoming and have been hunting and they guy had two spares and we managed to have two flats because the rocks in the road bent the beads. That was a long night.



I mounted my spares in the bed on each side in front of the fenders and behind the cab on my Ford I had. The only time that was a problem wahs when I tried to put 4X8 sheets in the bed.



I do not know if mounting a tire in front of the grill would caused you any problems but like the other guy said try it and see what happens. Do you have an EGT guage on your truck because the EGTs might go up faster than the water temp and you could be in trouble before you know it with out one.

 

[Bob4x4]

On the last Chevy truck I had I was running 18. 5x40 tires and had a slide in 4wheel 9ft camper. My only option for carring a spare was on the front. It worked fine,no heating issues even when towing with a 400hp smallblock. The tire was about 1 foot away from the grill on a very strong tubular mount.



Bob

 

[BSkinner]

I remember haveing to have two spares every were I went in Wyoming and have been hunting and they guy had two spares and we managed to have two flats because the rocks in the road bent the beads. That was a long night.



I mounted my spares in the bed on each side in front of the fenders and behind the cab on my Ford I had. The only time that was a problem wahs when I tried to put 4X8 sheets in the bed.



I do not know if mounting a tire in front of the grill would caused you any problems but like the other guy said try it and see what happens. Do you have an EGT guage on your truck because the EGTs might go up faster than the water temp and you could be in trouble before you know it with out one.

I don't have an EGT.



I've got a hard bed cover so can't mount the spare up right. If I could figure out an easy way to mount the spare solid to the bed that could be easily removed leaving a flat space for loading stuff, I might go that way. A spare mounted on the front will make my garage a bit tight.



Thanks, Bob