Spare Tire Carrier Problems

[AXE]

My spare all of a sudden lowered about 2-3" and I can't get it to go up or down. The tube that you stick the tire iron in just seems to spin. I don't know if the gears are broken inside or if their is some other type of locking mechanism that is not working or maybe a pin sheared off.

I can't see how you will get to the winch unless you cut the cable and remove the spare. Any suggested fixes?

I have it strapped up now, but I don't think I car to drive it much more knowing it could come loose and hurt someone.

Thanks.

[AXE]

Yeah, I figured it out. It was a combination of issues. Mainly I wasn't getting the tire tool seated into the carrier spool the right way. I guess that is why you don't work on stuff in the dark. The secondary latch was also catching. The work around is described in some detail in the owners manual if you are in a jam, so apparently they expected some issues.

Anyway, once I got the tool in correctly I was able to tighten it up and then lower the tire the right way.

I then took the spare off and proceeded to check out the function of the carrier spool and associated hardware. Overall, the spool works fine and the cable looks great. What I did notice is that there was a lot of wear on the sides of the secondary locking device where it was rubbing against the carrier housing. In fact, one side was worn half way through. I am going to throw a couple of welds on it to beef it up and I should be good to go for another 85K.

I used to think this was a good way to hide the spare and make it acessibel when needed, but this is really a piss poor design. I still have know idea why the cable came loose, but I guess I will have to tighten it up occasionally.

It did get me thinking and I concluded that in approxiamtely 325K miles I have not changed a tire on my last four trucks, nor have I had to on my wifes Tahoes. I haven't been so lucky with my trailers and some rental cars.

Out!

[heymccall]

I'm pretty sure that wasn't wear, but rather the notch for the secondary latch.

[oldbrownsierra]

Mine is stuck up. The secondary catch is engages and I just haven't really tried to get it down. Have been down this road many times... The secondary latch gets dirty/rusty/gumed up and you will never get your spare down. If I didn't live in the city, I would just do away with it, but my spare will get stolen. This is a very common problem with GM trucks since they started putting the spare under the bed.

[AXE]

Originally Posted by heymccall

I'm pretty sure that wasn't wear, but rather the notch for the secondary latch.

No it is some serious wear on both side of the housing that support the secondary latch and on the secondary latch opposite the hook. The only thing I can think of is that this thing was loose for some time and just flopped around. I might not have noticed it, unless a co-worker following me to a meeting hadn't noticed it moving about.

In fact, the wear had pushed the metal of the housing up against the latch and the latch was no longer functioning, as the spring was not strong enough to engage it. I am pretty sure that if the cable had failed, the secondary latch would not have engaged and and the spare would have dropped.

This is a POS design and I recommend checking your spare frequently. I am under my truck quite a bit as I do my own maintenance, but I had no idea what an couple inches of slack was doing or how it even got slack in it. I don't know if it was like that for 100 miles or 1000 miles.

Out!

[oldbrownsierra]

Now that is entirely possible. If you can snap some pics, that would be great, I would like to see what that looks like.

Basically everything worked as it was supposed to, as you still have your spare and nobody ran over it.

[BLUE05HD]

I agree that the overall design is horrible. More than once have I been on the side of a dark road (and it's always raining, can someone explain that) and been swearing at the damn lowering mechanism.

[Bear9350]

I recently tried to lower my spare. After lowering it the first inch or two it stopped. After reading the above posts I assume it is the secondary latch that is giving me problems. What do I have to do to lower the spare?

[jettech]

x2, I didn't even know it had a secondary latch,how does that thing work ?

[77 K20]

I hate that **&^%## spare tire system. The previous owner of mine kept the spare in the bed, and when I bought it I decided I would hang it underneath. I made a mistake of following the directions on the jack tool set and had placed the tire valve stem up. I tried to lower it and it wouldn't. The safety catch had hooked.

The owners manual says if this happens to try to tighten up the cable again, then try lowering it again. I tried this 6 times, and nothing. Then there are some directions about using your jack to press up near the cable to get it to detach. Nope. I tried and tried and nothing. Ended up unbolting the assembly and then was able to drop the tire and spare assembly out of the truck (onto me). At this point I threw the whole thing down the driveway in a quite satisfying childish fit of rage. On the final bounce the spare assembly was flung off of the wheel, and was free.
The secondary catch is there incase the cable breaks. That way the tire stays in place. I ended up cutting off the secondary catch and using some very light grease on the cable to prevent it from rusting. I had thought about using a secondary cable to make sure the tire won't drop, but haven't done that yet.