Carrying spare tire

[Rosie]

Where's the best place, structurally, to carry the spare tire?

[willy510]

On the hood is the easiest place.

[Leslie]

There's the bonnet mount (on the hood), which is the 'quintessential' location for a Rover; there's the back door; and then against the tub-bulkhead behind the front seats (thinkin' for an 88"... for a 109" pickup, it's off to the side over the wheelwell).

The answer to your question, which is the most 'structurally sound' location, is against the back of the bulkhead behind the front seats. However, this eats up cargo space in an 88".

The rear door isn't ideal; but you can add a 3rd hinge to a rear door to improve its stability. Also, the original location for the spare on the rear door was low, maximizing visibility out of the back window. If the back-door mount is mounted higher, it's a bit more stable, won't hang so low, but it will partially block visibility out of the back window then.

The bonnet is the 'cool' place. However, it does make it heavier: this can be good, in that it helps keep the bonnet down (lol!), but, it makes it harder to raise for maintenence.

Another option, is to mount a rear chassis-mounted swing-away tire carrier. This can be made much stronger than any of the three factory locations.

[SafeAirOne]

I was going to add that the high mount spare on the rear door makes opening the rear door a pain in the butt, but looking back at the photos of your rover, I see it's a low-mount spare.

Edit: Looking back further at the photos of your rover, it would appear that you have some of the bits to mount your spare in the "coolest" place, the bonnet, but are missing some of the other necessary parts...

[zayante]

The low-door position is problematic if you have a trailer hitch or want to use your hitch plate as a recovery point.

[yorker]

The answer to your question, which is the most 'structurally sound' location, is against the back of the bulkhead behind the front seats. However, this eats up cargo space in an 88". .

That is the place I prefer. I don't find that it eats up that much storage space really, it keeps the tire safely secured inside out of the salt spray and away from direct sunlight etc. The biggest problem is getting it out when you are loaded for a trip and happen to get a flat.

The back door mount sucks IMHO. All the crap that gets sucked up in the vacuum of the flat back aerodynamics of the LR lands on it, and it can get catch on something like a ledge when offroading and bend your door...

The bonnet mount is ok. looks cool, is a pain when lifting and or removing the bonnet to work on the engine.

[Tim Smith]

I've found that with an 88" the balance gets thrown off a bit with a spare on the hood. Makes it nose heavy-ish which effects bumpiness in the back. Also, if your spare is over sized a bit, it can be a bit difficult to see over in normal driving and a down right pain while offroading.

Since loaded mine in the back and although it takes up a bunch of space, it rides smoother. Of course, I also have the winch up front with about 100' of steel line so I'm sure this is effecting my balance as well.

I'm hoping to mount it off the back one of these days but would like to weld up some nice way of securing it off the frame. Ike (pangolin) has shown some wonderful ideas on this and I'm probably going to come up with something similar when I get around to it.

If you are putting it inside the truck, you should secure it! I once had a car jack exit the vehicle through the front windscreen (non-rover). Scary!

[Andrew IIA]

I've found that with an 88" the balance gets thrown off a bit with a spare on the hood. Makes it nose heavy-ish which effects bumpiness in the back. Also, if your spare is over sized a bit, it can be a bit difficult to see over in normal driving and a down right pain while offroading.

I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about Tim Pic attached.

If you have a Dished Bonnet (especially if its a Deluxe Dished Bonnet) then that is the only place for the spare ! It is THE look, recognized the world over. If it's not there it looks like you forgot something.

It does block some of your vision if its a big-ish tire like mine, which also affects handling (think: handles like a fully-loaded shopping cart), but I don't care