Spare Tire Bed Mount

General talk about the Subaru Baja.

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Baja_CNY
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Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2011 9:56 am

Spare Tire Bed Mount

Post by Baja_CNY »

Hi Guys

I did a search and didn't find anything,
so I thought I would ask.

I have a full-size spare tire in the bed
and I'd like to mount it.

Has anyone done this before?

Maybe with straps or a spin-on holder
that goes through the center hole of
the rim and into the bed?

Thanks . . . Brian
sfeather11
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Posts: 157
Joined: Tue Sep 29, 2009 7:07 pm
Location: Southeast PA (near PA/MD/DE state lines)

Re: Spare Tire Bed Mount

Post by sfeather11 »

Hey there,
I've never heard/seen one with a bed mounted spare, although it sounds like a cool idea. I've currently got my Baja in my garage the last few months working on fixing and restoring the last few years of daily driving. While tackling the rust around the sides and rear, I decided to remove the donut spare and move it to a roof rack mounted option. If you also remove the spare tire holder and hardware, there is a ton of room to access the floor of the bed from underneath. It looks like it would/should be easy to add some type of spin on holder. You would have to drill through one layer of sheet metal and the plastic bed liner..

As a side note, with all the room I've gained from removing the donut and hardware, I was thinking of adding a 5-10 gallon water tank and an RV pump under there to have running water out of a hose wherever you need it. I've seen Jeep owners do this and thought it'd be a fun and convenient little mod...

Let us know if you move your spare!

Peace!
Scott
w.rohr
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Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2015 11:15 am

Re: Spare Tire Bed Mount

Post by w.rohr »

I see a lot of pickups with the spare mounted to something similar to our bed extender. You would probably have one custom made if you still wanted to keep the tailgate functional but there are always welders looking for work on craigslist.
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kamesama980
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Posts: 369
Joined: Mon Feb 29, 2016 6:54 am

Re: Spare Tire Bed Mount

Post by kamesama980 »

w.rohr wrote: Mon Sep 18, 2017 1:16 pm I see a lot of pickups with the spare mounted to something similar to our bed extender. You would probably have one custom made if you still wanted to keep the tailgate functional but there are always welders looking for work on craigslist.
There might be a reason they're looking for work on CL...
-Russell
"You don't get to judge me for how I fix what you break"
03 sport 5mt
05 turbo 5mt vf39 and other STI bits, 3" turbo-back
w.rohr
Scoobytruck Contributer
Posts: 82
Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2015 11:15 am

Re: Spare Tire Bed Mount

Post by w.rohr »

There are a lot of good welders who just want some side work, of course you should always look at what they have done previously
Baja_CNY
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Posts: 41
Joined: Wed Apr 13, 2011 9:56 am

Re: Spare Tire Bed Mount

Post by Baja_CNY »

Thank you everyone.

I did move the spare.

I got a new steel rim from Canada
for $65 and put on one of the used
tires when I just got a new set (yes
I know about how bad it is to have
tires with different tread depths).

This is my wife's Baja and we don't
really use the bed at all, so having
a tire there makes no difference
and we could always move it if we
had to..

I centered it and mounted just
behind the tail-gate. I wanted
to get-it-done this past Monday,
so I used what I had. I cut a 9"
piece of threaded rod, put 2 nuts
and a fender washer on the bottom
and pushed up. Then put another
fender washer and a nut on top to
hold the rod so it doesn't fall down.
Tire went over the rod and I cut a
piece of angle iron, placed on the
rod over the tire and again, used
a fender washer and nut.

This is soooo not the kind of job I
normally do, but I was determined
to get the tire mounted and not
have it floating around - that day.

So now I have the luxury of some
time, I'm going to get a stainless
steel bolt instead of the threaded
rod. Then underneath I'm going
to mount something that spans
the 7 or so ribs in the bed, to
distribute the load of the bolt
head.

Then I'm going to get a round
spare-tire-washer that's made
to fit the rim hole and use this
instead of angle iron.

I could use something that
hand-spins on the top, but I think I'll
go with a nut because, while it's
hardly high security, a nut will
at least stop a grab-and-run type
of theft.

So, criticism that I didn't do a very
good job right now, but I did meet
my goal of getting it done that day.

When a proper job is done, I'll take
some pics and post them.

Once again, I appreciate all the help.

Brian


ps. By the way, I now have two temporary
spares that I don't need. One is new and
looks it, the other is new, but the rim
is rusty.
oldpro
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Posts: 78
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2015 11:10 am
Location: New Mexico

Re: Spare Tire Bed Mount

Post by oldpro »

The owner's manual for my '05 on pages 9-16 and 9-17 under "Flat tire" illustrates how to fasten the full-size tire into the bed using a threaded rod and other hardware that's in the tool kit. There isn't any means of locking the tire and wheel into place, but a clever Baja owner should be able to develop some means of doing that. :D
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