UncleWillie
Captain
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2011
- Messages
- 3,995
Spare Tires tend to be something you don't think too much about until you really need them.
They get mounted somewhere and then are mostly ignored for years. Bad Move!
Last fall I noticed that my Spare Tire mounting bracket had bent slightly and the Tire had a noticeable list.
I remembered that another member here had Lost his Spare Tire completely on the freeway a year or so ago with disastrous consequences. I made a mental note that this spring I would straighten the mount and add a couple of the Common C-Chanel Mounting Bars to the front of the mount to help stiffen it up.
So I purchased the mounting Bars and proceeded with the project. Nothing ever works out as planned.
After taking the cover off the tire I noticed that the bracket was truly bent as suspected, but the weld looked very suspicious.
After taking the Bracket into the shop for closer inspection, it was obvious that the Weld wasn't holding and also that the coating on the backside was buckled and splitting. After bead blasting off the paint, it was more than obvious that the bracket had fractured clean through for more than half its width.
This thing was getting close to complete failure!
So I straightened out the bracket, and ground out the weld and the back plate.
Fresh hot metal was welded back into the missing spots, and all was cleaned and ground and re-painted.
The Tire is now remounted nice and strong and siting upright again, and the mounting plate has the C-Chanel Bars helping it just in case. :joyous:
The moral of the story...
Don't ignore your Spare.
If it looks suspicious, find out why! You don't want to find out at 65mph!
Make sure the Air Pressure is correct. Mine was 10lbs low.
Be sure you have a cover on it!
If you don't, you will have a Sun Baked, Splitting Rubber Popsicle instead of a Spare Tire when really need it.
They get mounted somewhere and then are mostly ignored for years. Bad Move!
Last fall I noticed that my Spare Tire mounting bracket had bent slightly and the Tire had a noticeable list.
I remembered that another member here had Lost his Spare Tire completely on the freeway a year or so ago with disastrous consequences. I made a mental note that this spring I would straighten the mount and add a couple of the Common C-Chanel Mounting Bars to the front of the mount to help stiffen it up.
So I purchased the mounting Bars and proceeded with the project. Nothing ever works out as planned.
After taking the cover off the tire I noticed that the bracket was truly bent as suspected, but the weld looked very suspicious.
After taking the Bracket into the shop for closer inspection, it was obvious that the Weld wasn't holding and also that the coating on the backside was buckled and splitting. After bead blasting off the paint, it was more than obvious that the bracket had fractured clean through for more than half its width.
This thing was getting close to complete failure!So I straightened out the bracket, and ground out the weld and the back plate.
Fresh hot metal was welded back into the missing spots, and all was cleaned and ground and re-painted.
The Tire is now remounted nice and strong and siting upright again, and the mounting plate has the C-Chanel Bars helping it just in case. :joyous:
The moral of the story...
Don't ignore your Spare.
If it looks suspicious, find out why! You don't want to find out at 65mph!
Make sure the Air Pressure is correct. Mine was 10lbs low.
Be sure you have a cover on it!
If you don't, you will have a Sun Baked, Splitting Rubber Popsicle instead of a Spare Tire when really need it.
