New spare tire carrier from SMB

[kmessinger]

SMB has a new spare tire carrier for the Sprinter. Looks real good - solid and close to the door.

I saw one Saturday at the Mercedes show in San Francisco on Treasure Island (photos on my blog).

I had my spare mounted underneath because the tire carrier available at the time was so ugly. That cost me a reasonable size grey water tank. Now we'll go back to SMB and put the spare on the new carrier and fix the size of the grey water tank.

BTW, they have a lot of new pics, etc. on the SMB web site.

Regards,

Keith

[geoffff]

I assume you mean this one, near the bottom of this page: http://sportsmobile.com/2_sr_options_ext.html.

[jage]

Looks heavy. I open my rear doors all the time and I wouldn't want to be leveraging that thing back in place every time.

Does the door clear it when it's folded down? It seems like the whole point should be to retain the 270º swing of the door or you might as well have a swing out.

[kmessinger]

No, I don't think it is on their website yet. The one pictured has the bar that holds the tire on the outside. The new one, the tire holder is A shaped and the metal is on the inside.

I use my back doors often also but mostly the one on the right so it may work. I didn't check out exactly how it works but it did not use the trailer hitch. I'll try to find out more about it and post it.

Regards,

Keith

[kmessinger]

I have found this information on the tire carrier . . .

• The tire swings away to open the door, but does not have to lower. It is only necessary to swing the tire away when opening the driver’s side rear door.
  Price: $724

I am waiting for pictures.

Regards,

Keith

[Blackeye]

The last time I was at Sportsmobile West, I saw the swing-away tire carrier for the Sprinter that Aluminess built. It was another piece of awesome Aluminess engineering. It was easy to operate, very unobtrusive and lightweight.

Keith, I am not sure if that is what you saw. Regardless, the Aluminess version is worth checking out. What was cool is that one of the Aluminess reps was there when the customer took delivery and they were already looking for ways to improve upon the design.

[kmessinger]

Yep, it looks like the Aluminess. I didn't notice it hanging outside the line of the vehicle. Not sure I would go for that. I am sure I would find a way to walk into that at night.



The Alaska trip convinced me we had to move the spare and if possibe have a place to carry water/fuel. We aren't going to do anything until next spring so hopefully by then I'll find something perfect (IMHO).

Regards,

Keith[/img]

[Blackeye]

Keith,

I can say from experience that if you have an idea, or want something created that works, bumper, tire rack, fuel / water storage, whatever...call Dave at Aluminess ((619) 449-9930). They fabricated our full-coverage roof rack and it exceeded our expectations.

Blackeye

[monkeyboy]

Originally Posted by kmessinger

The Alaska trip convinced me we had to move the spare and if possibe have a place to carry water/fuel. We aren't going to do anything until next spring so hopefully by then I'll find something perfect (IMHO).

Keith

Just wondering what the issue was with the spare... clearance? (if in the standard underneath location) Or something else?

thanks
Jonathan

[kmessinger]

Originally Posted by monkeyboy

Keith

Just wondering what the issue was with the spare... clearance? (if in the standard underneath location) Or something else?

thanks
Jonathan

We found we needed a larger grey water tank - I think ours is about 6 gallons so the spare has to move. I would have done it originally but the old spare rack SMB had was real ugly and had the tire about 6 inches further out than this one.

Regards,
Keith