In preparing for a fishing trip next week, I decided to put our TM's spare tire on a new rim that I purchased about 8 or 9 months ago. You see, we had our trailer's curbside tire blow out near the Calif. coast over a year ago. A tire dealer in Ft. Bragg installed 2 new Goodyear Marathons on our TM's axle. I asked the dealer to put the best intact tire on the damaged (but pounded out) rim and mount it on the spare tire's rack. I had not looked at the spare tire until this morning.
To my horror I discovered that I could not get the spare tire off the rack after removing the nuts on both of the 1/2" threaded studs. The 1-1/2" X 6" X 1/4" thick, steel clamping bar would not budge from the central stud. I tried prying it and hitting it lightly from the other side but could not move it more than an eighth of an inch. I then tried pulling it off with a gear puller but that only seemed to bend the ends of the bar outward more. I surmised that this clamping bar, which started out in life as a flat bar, might have been bent when the tire dealer screwed its nut on and then torqued it down with his pneumatic wrench. The hole in the bar probably was drilled at the TM factory to a 33/64" or maybe even a 17/32" diameter. This size of hole provided sufficient clearance for the 1/2" stud (to allow removing the bar) when the bar was flat. With the bar bent, however, the walls of the hole were now forced down on to the threads, locking the bar in place.
After 30 minutes work I suceeded in getting the clamping bar off by drilling 2 holes through it on each side of the large hole, then cutting it into 2 pieces with a cold chisel. Then I made a new bar but this time made it out of 3/8" thick steel and drilled a 9/16" hole in its center for the 1/2" stud.
I told my wife, "What if we had had a flat tire on the highways. We would never have been able to get the spare tire off and would have been in a fix!" (since I normally don't carry an electric drill and cold chisels in my tool kit)
My admonition to those of you who haven't taken your spare tire off in a while is to check and determine whether or not your clamping bar will come off easily. Perhaps you should take it off and drill this very tight hole larger or file it (with a round file) until it's at least 9/16" in diameter. Since this bar does not require a precise, tight clearance hole, a larger diameter hole will make it more certain that you will be able to remove your spare tire - when you really need it. :
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Spare Tire stuck on rack!
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