Bal spare tire carrier

Thought I'd pass along alittle helpful info. On my 2015 Bighorn, I have the BAL spare tire carrier underneath the rear frame. If you have the BAL style be sure to occasionally check the black knob release to ensure you can lower the spare tire. Just to check the air in the spare I recently had to heat mine with a torch and break off the knob and take mine apart with channel locks. The cause; corrosion. It rusted and seized. It's a simple design and easy to release when needed but the bolt should have been stainless. I would recommend to you to either replace this simple knob with a stainless bolt and nut or at the least remove the knobbed bolt and coat the threads with "Never Seize" to prevent you having a problem when trying to release and lower your spare tire when needed. Glad I was not on the road and needed to use the spare.

Wow, good to know! This reminded me of our very first tire issue. We needed to put the spare on and we had a cable lock on our spare tire.... but the lock had corroded such that we could not make the key unlock it. Tried all sorts of things, ended up buying bolt cutters and cutting the cable. luckily, our tire issue was discovered at a rest stop, not on the side of the highway.


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Even with the OEM undercarriage spare mount, it pays to operate it occasionally to be sure it will work when you need it. Same for your TV spare.


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I had this problem. I wrecked the plastic knob trying to take off the bolt (It had seperated from the bolt). When we were at the rally in Goshen, I mentioned it to the tech and he said that when the bolt gets rusted like that, then tear off the plastic knob (not hard to do) and use a wrench or socket to loosen bolt. We had also used pentrating oil and that didn't help. I can tell you though, if you have to, you can unbolt the hinge side (driver's side) and get the tire off in a pinch (be safe though!). With the new knob supplied by Heartland (yea!) I now use vasoline on the threads every time I remove the knob.

Hey thanks for the heads up.
I check mine and it was fairly seized up, I was able to get it out with WD-40 then put never seize on it and reinstalled.

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Another thing I did with mine was to drill a hole by the black knob so I could install a pad lock to secure the carrier. To easy for someone to take a tire while the RV was vacant or unattended....

Piperflyer said:

Another thing I did with mine was to drill a hole by the black knob so I could install a pad lock to secure the carrier. To easy for someone to take a tire while the RV was vacant or unattended....

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That was one of the first things I did as well. Make sure to use a good quality pad lock and check it periodically for proper operation. The rack's location makes the pad lock subject to corrosion and binding from road debris.

I need to still do that on both of mine. I have the tire rack and the Little Giant ladder box to lock up. It has been on my to do list since I installed the box.


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