Check your spare tire.

Coming down out of Mesa Verde, CO. our spare tire just dropped out and fell to the ground. Fortunately, my wife noticed it as we were cornering on a switch back. Not sure why?? We just picked it up and put in the back of the truck and continued on to Moab.:eek:
 

rebnga

Member
How do you get the darn thing off? And, how do you tighten it? I'm pretty good at mechanical issues, but this one has me stumped.
 

Uncle Rog

Well-known member
There should be a crank handle that inserts into a hole and connects to a keyway / gear unit to raise and lower the tire. I had mine installed, under warranty, as the dealer, Richardson's RV, told me that SPARES were no longer standard equipment. #@&*@@# those guys. The shop installed ours up front, most seem to be mounted in the rear. I prefer the front so if it drops you can feel it when you drive over it!
All kidding aside get to know your spare and the procedure for changing out a flat. We have had two with the Trail America brand, the first was I-5 @ Lodi, easy to call AAA. The second one was in Death Valley, AAA was no where to be found......
 
Slide the plastic storage bin completely out and set it aside (the one next to rear entry steps). Reach under and grab the spare tire rail assembly and slide it toward you. There is tool that came with your unit that has a hook that you can grab onto the rail with but I just grab it with my hand. Now you can attach the crank to tighten it up or let it down.
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
Something else folks forget about, me included for a while, is to regularly check the air pressure in the spare. When I finally remembered to check it, the valve was on top:eek: making it pretty hard to do on a regular basis. I flipped it over and made sure the valve could not be damaged by dragging the tire on driveway inclines. Now it's part of our pre-travel routine.
 

Hart

Active Member
We had the spare tire drop down on our North Trail just 10 days after taking delivery. Luckily, we were at the house unloading from first trip before taking the TT to storage. We don't know how many interstate miles we drove with it hanging on a slant. Scary thought! It did crank up without a problem but something is not right!
 

Fire123

Member
Hart,

Try this. Suggested by another NT owner. Will do mine this weekend!


"I drilled a small hole through the lifting rod and add a clevis pin. This will keep the tire from dropping down while driving. I may replace the clevis pin with a small lock."
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Country

Well-known member
That clevis pin is a good idea. We've never had ours uncrank though.

We had a problem with ours was after dragging it coming in and out of entrances. The two rails that the spare and bins slid on bent and bowed out to the point where the back of the bins were falling out and hanging down. The spare was also about to fall out as well. Our dealers fix was to bend the rails back and bolt the spare carrier to the rails. This reinforced the rails and we haven't had a problem since, but the spare will no longer slid out. You just have to lay under, crank it down and slid it out on the ground. No big deal.
 

Fire123

Member
Ours has never uncranked either, thank god. Sounds like several people had too close calls though. I'm not going to give mine the chance!
 

truknutt

Committed Member
Something else folks forget about, me included for a while, is to regularly check the air pressure in the spare. When I finally remembered to check it, the valve was on top:eek: making it pretty hard to do on a regular basis. I flipped it over and made sure the valve could not be damaged by dragging the tire on driveway inclines. Now it's part of our pre-travel routine.


Ray,

I took your advice and last night crawled under the Cyclone. Yep, the tire was valve stem up.

I couldn't get the unit to slide until I realized the tire was trapped between the 2 angle iron cross braces for the rear gray tank! I have to either drag the grinder out and trim the ends or lower the tire 3 inches or so to clear the braces before it will slide. Will need a looong ratchet extension unless I want to lay under the beast on the side of the road. Wait, isn't that what DW just paid Good Sam's ERS for! Nah, I can't be like that to the service responder...guess I'll add that to my winter projects list!

Thanks again for the gentle reminder.
 
We lost ours on the highway along with the bins (we have a 3950) and didn't even know until we got to the dealer (we were taking back for repairs on other things!) The bolt broke and we lost the spare tire and the bin. Pretty scary to think something like that can happen so definitely look at your spare tire.
 

escs36

Member
My spare tire just fell out and I have no idea where. I sure hope it did not cause a big wreck on the interstate. I know it was there for the first 2 trips. on the 3rd trip I noticed it was gone while walking the dogs. Not a good feeling knowing that I may have caused a wreck and not having a spare tire. My bins seem to be intact.
 
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