BAL tire carrier

Bob Vaughn · Nov 8, 2013

On the landmarks there is the BAL drop down slide out tire carrier. I just installed one on my Big Country. There are 2 long bolts that attach the tire to the carrier. I can see that it would take 2 men to get the tire lifted off these bolts. I am wondering if the two washers and lock nuts are necessary to hold the tire to the carrier as when it is up against the bottom of the rv there is no way the tire would bounce off those 6" long bolts. So my question is for those who have this carrier do you think it is necessary to install those nuts???

Gary521 · Nov 8, 2013

My guess is that if you have to lift the tire off the bolts, no nuts are necessary. If I am understanding what you are saying. I would modify the system to have the bolts attach from the top side. Perhaps weld nuts to the carrier. This way you do not have to lift the tire off anything. The system looks neat and I will investigate it more. Now, I have to crawl under the trailer to get the spare.

Did you remove your old carrier to mount this?

Gary521 · Nov 8, 2013

One more question. To lift and slide the tire out, how much effort does it take? These tires weigh a ton.

Bob Vaughn · Nov 8, 2013

I took one of the bolts to the hardware store and got wing nuts to hold the tire in place. I then rolled the tire on to the carrier and laid it down and lined up the bolts to the holes then dropped the washers on the bolts then put the wing nuts on then tightened them down. When I went to slide it under the rv I could not move it because of the weight. I will get my wife to help me move it and lift it into place. I will see how that goes.....

pegmikef · Nov 8, 2013

Is this the same piece of poorly designed tire carrier we were talking about on another thread that is almost impossible to lift unless you are superman (or at least someone a little younger in very good shape)? If it is then IMHO the only way to fix it is to replace it with something that works and can be operated by the average person.

Bob Vaughn · Nov 8, 2013

Yes it is......I think that instead of making the tire mount permanently fixed it should have been made to slide so that once you get the tire affixed to it you could just push it to the swing down point and clamp it down. Then it would work just like a fulcrum. That way all the weight would be closest to the swing down point. Then when you needed it it would be easy and simple to drop the carrier and slide the tire down and away from the side of the camper. There is defitinately a better way....

Gary521 · Nov 8, 2013

Well, I guess that answers my question about effort. May I ask why you don't go back to the carrier that came with the trailer if this takes two men and a boy to lift?

Bob Vaughn · Nov 8, 2013

Gary the guts to the winch fell out the first time we used it.....and because it was over a year since we bought the rig they would not replace it under warranty. Plus when we dropped the spare we cranked and cranked and cranked then to put it back up we cranked and cranked then the flange that keeps the cable on the reel broke into 4 pieces. So I cranked it up anyway. I do not know it it will go back down when I need it......We are going to Alaska next summer and I want to be prepared.......

Gary521 · Nov 9, 2013

That explains it.

Netem · Nov 9, 2013

Instead of lock nuts or wing nuts how about drilling the bolt and put a washer and hair pin clip through the bolts.

pegmikef · Nov 9, 2013

Gary521 said:
Well, I guess that answers my question about effort. May I ask why you don't go back to the carrier that came with the trailer if this takes two men and a boy to lift?

In my case, my 2014 BH was delivered with this piece of almost unusable design disaster, so I don't have anything to go back to. I never had any trouble with the cable systems on my other rigs. I am hoping that some of the folks at Heartland will actually try using this thing and then saying, this is dangerous and unwieldy and replace it with something that works.

Bob Vaughn · Nov 9, 2013

I was thinking about how to lift the carrier up into place and noticed that a friend of mine had given me a Bi-Pod for the king pin of my 5th wheel and geezam it hit me .....that one leg looks like an old time bumper jack. So I looked closer and figured out that if it were shorter the part that went under the bumper could fit under the center part of the carrier and just jack it back up into place. When I figure out how to shorten the jack I will post a photo of it in action.....

JohnDar · Nov 9, 2013

Bob Vaughn said:
I was thinking about how to lift the carrier up into place and noticed that a friend of mine had given me a Bi-Pod for the king pin of my 5th wheel and geezam it hit me .....that one leg looks like an old time bumper jack. So I looked closer and figured out that if it were shorter the part that went under the bumper could fit under the center part of the carrier and just jack it back up into place. When I figure out how to shorten the jack I will post a photo of it in action.....

Why not just use a small bottle jack?

Bob Vaughn · Nov 10, 2013

JohnDar said:
Why not just use a small bottle jack?

There is not enough room under the carrier when it is down to get a bottle jack under it. Now if there was a crossmember between the top of the candy cane handles then yes that might just work. i may see if I can fashion a piece of wood to go underneath them to see if it will work....

JohnDar · Nov 10, 2013

Interesting thread since I've been considering getting that mount for my rig. I can still muscle tires about, but if the slide mechanism flexes as much as you say, it might not be as convenient as it sounds. Maybe I'll attend the next RV show in my area and see if there's one on a demo I can play with.

Bob Vaughn · Nov 10, 2013

Once you get the carrier lifted high enough to slide it in to attach it to the frame you must lift and push at the same time. I guess I will have to go to the gym and start doing some curls with some 70 lb weights. To me it is awkward to get it back up. Then you have to line up the knob with the bolt hole. Get it threaded thru then attach the safety pin......I did not think it thru when I installed mine because once I got it installed I realized that the rear stabilizer arms would go down because of the carrier.....It looks like I can move it towards the front of the rv more or just disconnect the stabilizer bars.....

Gary521 · Nov 11, 2013

From the pictures on the Lippert site, it looks like the system they have that has the storage bins and the sliding tire carrier may work best. Does anyone have this and how does the tire carrier perform? Also has anyone ever modified the existing drop down system so that it sits off to one side. Why is the carrier in the middle of the trailer? The back breaking system that we are talking about in this thread has the tire off to one side.

jmgratz · Nov 11, 2013

Gary521 said:
From the pictures on the Lippert site, it looks like the system they have that has the storage bins and the sliding tire carrier may work best. Does anyone have this and how does the tire carrier perform? Also has anyone ever modified the existing drop down system so that it sits off to one side. Why is the carrier in the middle of the trailer? The back breaking system that we are talking about in this thread has the tire off to one side.

Maybe it is in the middle to help balance the weight load. Just a thought.

Gary521 · Nov 11, 2013

It looks like modifying the existing system is not too difficult. Maybe a winter project. Jim ( above ) has suggest a weight distribution thing. Can anyone else suggest why the spare cannot be moved to one side or the other? As noted, the BAL has the spare off to one side.

Bob Vaughn · Nov 11, 2013

The tire mounting plate is welded to the curb side of the carrier, I wish it was able to slide towards the driver side so lifting it would be easier....

BAL tire carrier

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