My spare tire has been scuffing on something for a while. Actually, the tire cover was getting abused by scuffing. The tire itself still looks great. Never could figure out where it was dragging - unless it's been when going in and out of the driveway. Our street is crowned and driveway elevated a bit, so the two might combine to cause the problem due to porpoising. I hope I remedied that today.
I have a low profile bumper mount carrier, and it has room for adjustment - but not enough. So, I had to use what holes I could to bring the mount up 3 or 4 inches. I had to raise it up far enough that the bottom edge of the mount came about half way up the bumper, with nothing to clamp/bolt it to secure it. I found some flat bar the same thickness as the mount plate, drilled a couple of holes and bolted it over top of the mount plate. It extends above the upper bolt in order to give it a little reinforcement at the bottom of the square tube - what I perceived to be a weak spot. I'm not explaining it very well, but here's a pic of the finished setup. (No, I didn't get any "before" pics, sorry. Didn't think about it.) The mount's square tube was down at the center of the bumper before I moved it. It's good and solid, and shouldn't shift to either side.
After the modification, the tire sits a suitable distance above the skids under the TT - I hope. If not, I can raise it a bit more. I hate to, because there will be even less mount plate on the bumper. It would take some welding to extend it for me to feel good about it. It's just a little 13" tire, but I still don't want to push it.
Linear Mode
