Front Mounted Spare Tire

[Christopher Thwaites]

I'm planning to fab a spare tire carrier that will mount into my front receiver. I have a stock bumper. My question is whether anyone has done this and if they experienced any airflow/overheating issues? I want to be able to carry 2 spares on some trips based on my dual blowout in Death Valley last Spring.

[warholic]

hey chris -
I have no knowledge about your topic, but here's my thought on it. Since you're mounting it to a carrier on a stock bumper, I figure the sidewall of the tire is sticking out about a foot from the grill. But that tire throws a big shadow relative to the grill. I think you have a diesel, right?

I think it would impact airflow/cooling, so the only question is under what conditions will it cause you a problem. Someone on this forum has to know.

[warholic]

chris - I just realized .... the height of the tire would make a difference tho ..... maybe it's low enough that the air passes OVER the tire (enough), and SOME goes around it, that it might not be a problem?

[pjpvi]

If you just watch where you are driving the dual blowout shouldn't be an issue.

(I would insert an appropriate smiley, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how. It can't be rocket science, or can it?)

[carringb]

The V10 has plenty of extra cooling capacity.

The transmission does not. If you put anything in front of the grill, it will interrupt the flow to the cooler, and it can run warm when towing.

Putting lights on my Buckstop made my temps go way up.


Easy solution is installing a Tru-Cool Max 40,000# cooler. It will mount in the stock location by trimming the passenger side support for the stock transmission cooler. Now it cools so well I need to install the Bypass valve.

[warholic]

carringb - good input. I also see chris does have gas engine.

You talking the off-road driving lights mounted on buckstop (front bumber I assume) caused temp to go up? Please clarify for me.
thx
warholic

[jage]

May not be relevant, but my Jeep has a tall winch and it impacts the cooling even though it only takes up a 1/3 or so of the lower grill.

On the other hand my SMB (diesel) has the Aluminess and those giant Lightforce lights and no issues with heat.

Around or "over" the tire may not be relevant, because a few inches in or out, or a few MPH difference could affect airflow and effectively push all the air out and away from your radiator.

It's been a long time since I flunked fluid dynamics, but without an wind tunnel for testing, I think your best bet is to add real temperature gauges if you don't have them and then move ahead and see what the effect is.

[Stumpalump]

My Jeep winch did the same thing. I wound up modifing the cooling system and adding hood vents to compensate. The spare I use in it is a 34x9.5x15 Swamper TSL. It looks like a pizza cutter but it's only a spare and I saved a lot of space and weight over the full size 35x13.50. Maybe you could go with two skinny tires and sister them together on back. Who cares as long as the height is close? It needs to be exact height if you run a posi or you will cook the posi.

[EMrider]

No question a spare tire up front will impact cooling. I noticed a meaningful change (for the worse) with just the addition of an aluminess front bumper. A spare tire would have a larger surface area than that.
R

[jage]

Originally Posted by Stumpalump

It needs to be exact height if you run a posi or you will cook the posi.

Worst case you can steal a front tire to match the posi and go mismatched on the front. Two spares, two fronts to swap... good times!