External Spare Tire

I moved the spare tire from under the port berth to hanging from the rear door. But the problem is that Roadtrek no longer sells the Continental Kit. So I had to get one somewhere else. It proved to he harder than it should be. Trying to find a spare tire rack that fits on a full size Dodge van door is rare. I finally found a website for a company in Los Angeles.

Mounting the thing was an ordeal. It doesn’t look as nice as the original Roadtrek kit. But, that is all that is available. However, the quality was lacking. The bolts didn’t line up perfectly to the nuts that had been welded on. I ended up drilling out the nuts and installing the bolts backwards.

I finally got the damn thing on. I then bought some locking lug nuts so that no one can steal (well, easily steal) the spare tire.

Now, this adds a lot of weight to the rear door. In turned out to be more weight than the arrester can handle. A gust of wind caught the rear door, and the stop pin bent. The door was able to swing open almost 180 degrees. The rear tire slammed into the port rear corner of the van, putting a nice dent in there I took the van over to a friend who owns an autobody repair shop. He said that because the dent is on the corner, fixing it is going to be a big job, perhaps a few thousand to repair. So, the Halcyon II is going to have a little battle scar on her for her travels.