# Spare wheel carrier



## Tansy (May 11, 2005)

I read with interest what different methods of fixing spare wheels to the underside of ones motorhomes with interest.
I had the same problem and made up a bracket which bolted onto the Alko chassis using existing boltholes as near to the back axleas the radius of the spare wheel would permit. In the midedle of said bracket, I drilled a hole which not only went through the bracket, but up through the floor into the garage. I have a 7798F Rapido. The hole in the floor of the garage was " ovalled", so that a piece of 1/2" copper pipe curved at right angles could be fixed in with sikaflex, the rear of the bend pointing toward the rear wall of the van. I obtained a 12volt winch (cost 65 pounds), and bolted this hard up against the said wall and threaded the rope through the bent piece of copper and attached the free end to a special shaped bracket that fitted through the centre of the spare wheel. With the spare in its travelling position, I taped the wire rope a couple of inches from the end of the copper pipe to give a guide as to when the spare was up against the underside of the floor. The winch was wired directly to the leisure batteries via a fuse, and the winch control sits just inside the garage side door. To lower the spare, unwind the winch, and with the help of a stick or similar push the wheel out to the side of tha van where access to the special bracket is easy. When replacing the spare, just rewind the winch, and the wheel will automatically pull the wheel into thecorrect position under the floor. No bending down and pulling or lifting of the spare is necessary
I fixed this up in June of last year, and to date the spare has never moved.


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