Ram 3500 - Spare tire options for 37s.

[Longship]

Hello to all,

I have a Ram 3500 with 37" tires and I'm trying to find the best location for my spare tire since it doesn't fit in the standard location. I want the bed to be covered and I'm probably going to install a rolling aluminum bed cover from truck covers usa. This decision disqualifies a lot of tire storage options that place the tire vertically in the bed. At this point i'm considering two solutions.

Option one is to buy the rear bumper from expedition one and store the tire on the bumper. Does anyone here have experience with this bumper or expedition one, in general? How's the integration with the rear cameras and sensors? Any comments on adding that much weight behind the truck? I've seen good and bad reviews of expedition one, but i don't really trust reviews.

Option two is something from nuthouse industries. Their offerings would integrate the bed cover and place the tire horizontally above the bed on a large shelf, blocking the rear window. I don't currently need a roof top tent, so the nuthouse racks are not part of the solution right now. But in the future, i could see adding a rack to attach bridging ladders, tools, and other things needed while driving. Any thoughts or comments on nuthouse?

Are there other bumpers that carry 37s or other leading rack companies that i should consider?

Thanks a lot...

 

[ttengineer]

The cheapest option besides storing in the bed would be to add a hitch mounted tire swing like the Ultra swing.

Or you could just carry the biggest spare you can fit under the bed and just run it till you can get to a tire shop in the event of a non trail/roadside repair patch. As long as you run the smaller spare on an unlocked axle you’ll be fine for short distances. I think a 35 will fit under the bed if it’s deflated.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[chet6.7]

I would start by doing a search of the expedition one bumper on this site.
I think I saw(years ago) a tire mount that used the 5th wheel hitch location for a horizontal application.

 

[SDDiver5]

RIG'd or Wilco make hitch mounted options that can carry a 37. That's really the only other option than swing away bumper or roof mounted on a roof rack(?)

 

[Trestle]

I have a RIG'd on the back of our 100 that works well. You can add other items to it, like a drop down table, etc. if you want to as well. The amount of weight the RIG'd system plus tire would add compared to a full blown swing out bumper system should be less, but the difference it probably not that much considering you're driving a 3500 instead of a Tacoma. You can still tow up to 10k with the RIG'd unit per the sticker on ours. Not sure if that is higher on the larger version that would fit a RAM or if it is the same across all of their options though.

 

[Longship]

Guys, Thanks for the replies; I'll look into those options. Have a good one.

 

[No Ma]

I run the Rig'd UltraSwing on our 2022 3500 with 37s. It is limited to 10,000 lbs towing like the smaller ones. It works very well but, at least for me, takes a few tries to get it all lined up as you torque it to spec.

For our needs, it works very well. We added their drop down table and Sidehack with a 10 lb propane bottle and shovel on it.

 

[Kingsize24]

Had the Expedition One rear spare bumper since it came out nearly 5yrs ago.

THE BAD:

Rear backup sensors NEVER worked. Ever

Rear backup camera relocation is useless in the place it is re-routed. You mostly see the spare tire and anything you carry, only the bottom half of the screen is visible for much of anything due to it being inset vs anything else on the bumper. The wiring must be split in the loom from inside your tailgate from the lock mechanism, and the wires are prone to pinching when moving the tailgate up an down in its motion.

I had to have my entire bumper re-powdercoated when it arrived due to the porosity in the coating, and the flaking on arrival due to inadequate prep.

My license plate didn't fit the space made for it. Had to slightly shave the top and bottom of the plate to fit.

You have to cut your factory wiring to wire in the 50 cent LED lights provided for the plate light that will go out within the first year.

The bearings that hold the swing arm for the tire failed in the second year. I replaced them with a Timken equivalent of the Chinese brand used.

The lock latch for both swing arms failed within the first year. And the one for the spare failed and allowed the spare tire to swing back around and cause body damage to the truck bed.

THE GOOD:

It is a VERY STRONG heavy bumper.

It holds a spare tire well once the bearings are replaced.

 

[RCP]

I have held off on moving up to 37's because of the limitations for mounting a spare. In the bed is not an option, I have the Retrax tonneau cover with the Leitner ACS so I cant mount it vertically like those with the AEV tire holder. The bed space is needed for mountain bikes so laying the tire horizontally in the bed doesn't work. Rear tire carrier is out of the question due to the aforementioned mount bikes hanging over the tailgate. Using a hitch mounted bike rack is not an option since I tow a travel trailer and I am not willing to mount the bikes on the rear bumper of the trailer, hence over the tailgate. My only real option at this point is on top of the Front Runner rack that is mounted to the Leitner ACS, but I am hesitant to add 100lbs that high up on the truck. I have seen others with bikes mounted to a receiver rack on the front bumper but with the Power Wagon having a winch up front that option is eliminated.

For now I am sticking with 35" tires until our setup changes. In the future I am looking at perhaps the PCOR flat bed giving me room to mount a 37" spare and two bikes in the bed with the small forward storage setup. This would allow us to still tow the trailer and bring the bikes/paddle boards etc that we want. If we move away from a trailer it would become even easier to switch things up, toss on a rear swing out bumper and mount the bikes on a hitch reciever.

I hope you find the solution that works for you, for now I am just going to stay on small tires.

 

[BikePilot]

In terms of weight hanging off the back I would not worry about that at all. Without towing a heavy trailer or slide in camper you'll never tax the weight capacity of a 3500. If you are towing then hanging a tire off the back is likely to be physically in the way.

I'm getting 37s fitted this weekend. My near term plan is to put the spare in the bed for long off road trips, in the trailer for road trips, and leave it at home for local driving. I'll still have the stock spare for emergencies. Eventually I'd like a better solution but haven't found any single solution that doesn't take up bed space or get in the way of a trailer (I don't want it on the roof).

 

[ramblinChet]

My plan is to stop by Wilco tomorrow to learn more about these two options:

Vertical tiregate


Prerunner tiregate

 

[CFMGarage]

Due to the fact that there aren't many tire carriers out there for these RAMs, I'm planning a custom carrier that's based on a design for an H1: https://www.rhinolift.com/default.asp

I also don't want to have to hoof it chest high to get the tire on to the carrier either.

 

[Inline6]

I ran the Wilco pre runner gate for years. Worked great, could re positing the spare inside the bed or behind depending on the need at the time. So overall no bed space was lost.
best pic I could find quickly

Switched to a flat bed, of my own design. Built a carrier onto the side of the bed. Works great for me at this time. I still have more work to do on the bed...ff

 

[Longship]

I have held off on moving up to 37's because of the limitations for mounting a spare. In the bed is not an option, I have the Retrax tonneau cover with the Leitner ACS so I cant mount it vertically like those with the AEV tire holder. The bed space is needed for mountain bikes so laying the tire horizontally in the bed doesn't work. Rear tire carrier is out of the question due to the aforementioned mount bikes hanging over the tailgate. Using a hitch mounted bike rack is not an option since I tow a travel trailer and I am not willing to mount the bikes on the rear bumper of the trailer, hence over the tailgate. My only real option at this point is on top of the Front Runner rack that is mounted to the Leitner ACS, but I am hesitant to add 100lbs that high up on the truck. I have seen others with bikes mounted to a receiver rack on the front bumper but with the Power Wagon having a winch up front that option is eliminated.

For now I am sticking with 35" tires until our setup changes. In the future I am looking at perhaps the PCOR flat bed giving me room to mount a 37" spare and two bikes in the bed with the small forward storage setup. This would allow us to still tow the trailer and bring the bikes/paddle boards etc that we want. If we move away from a trailer it would become even easier to switch things up, toss on a rear swing out bumper and mount the bikes on a hitch reciever.

I hope you find the solution that works for you, for now I am just going to stay on small tires.

I've gone through a similar thought process, rejecting all for good reasons. I have the Carli Dominator suspension on my truck and recently they developed a way to fit 37" in the standard location on Fords. Evidently it's impossible on rams.

Too bad there isn't a bumper option that doesn't come with several issues.

 

[Longship]

@Kingsize24 - Thanks for the details. If they've improved their game i'd like to give them a shot, but i have no time for that number of issues.

@ramblinChet - Those are good finds; thank you. Did you get rid of the original tailgate or keep it around?

@CFMGarage - I'd be open to a custom bumper if these guys can do it. I'm going to give them a call.

@Inline6 - Very nice design. I could see myself doing something like this down the line on a dedicated truck, right now i drive this truck around town as well so i don't want to chop it. What do you put on the left side with the vertical hitch

For some reason i don't really like the rear hitch mounted ones. I'm going to give them another look. Maybe i need multiple solutions. I might do the nuthouse mount above the bed and maybe a hitch mount for times that i have motorcycles.

General (potentially dumb) question - when does a bumper mounted tire interfere with towing a trailer. Is it on tighter radius turns or is the trailer not long enough to reach the hitch?

Thanks again