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I've been busy on other things, and haven't spent much time on the truck, but was able to do a a little yesterday. I continued with the spare tire mount, by creating a way to lock the tire on the mount. I used some 1/4' bar stock I had laying around.
The cross bar will be held in place by lug nuts to keep it secure, and from rattling.

Interesting that there's no room with the short bed to put the spare tire ahead of the wheelhouse. Likely I would have rotated 90 degrees and mounted the tire to the front wall of the bed. My J20 had one of the Valley spare tire mounts on the passenger side at some point. Gone now, maybe I'll fab a replacement. The long bed allows the spare to mount up against the bed rail.

IMO a mount directly behind the driver is the right location. Minimizes the blind spot.

Truck looks good!

tgreese wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2024 6:05 am Interesting that there's no room with the short bed to put the spare tire ahead of the wheelhouse. Likely I would have rotated 90 degrees and mounted the tire to the front wall of the bed. My J20 had one of the Valley spare tire mounts on the passenger side at some point. Gone now, maybe I'll fab a replacement. The long bed allows the spare to mount up against the bed rail.

IMO a mount directly behind the driver is the right location. Minimizes the blind spot.

Truck looks good!

I originally had it mounted against the front of the bed, but could not safely see out the rear window when backing. Even though the current set up isn't optimal, as you mentioned, it doesn't create a blind spot.

Angle mount it in the front of the bed, so the top round of the tire, is low enough to see out the back window. Or.....angle mount off the top of the roll bar, so you would have more room under it in the bed.

I'd think an angled mount like that would work well for a pre-runner or race truck, but I'd also expect it would take a lot of bed area. How much higher would the spare be if you lifted it enough to sit on top of the front edge of the wheelhouse instead of on the bed floor, and then moved it toward the outside? Looks like the roll bar would not interfere very much if you mounted the spare higher. A slight tilt for the spare would be ok, if not aesthetically a problem.

I thought about both those options. The roll bar prevents it from sitting vertical as you mentioned, and probably be some what of a pain to hold up while trying to get the lug nuts on. The pre-runner style was a considered option, but I thought it would take up too much space, and I didn’t want to drill more holes in the bed floor. Ultimately, I was hoping to mount it in the stock location using a modern crank type cable style holder, but the tire is too tall to fit between the frame rails.

I also, thought of a swing out carrier for the rear bumper from Buckstop, but it’s a little a little spendy for me right now.