Spare tire location and orientation

[JKLNHYD]

I'm a firm believer in rotating my matching spare throughout the life of my tires. I bought a matching TRD wheel and will be mounting my spare KM2 on it and I plan to stow it in the factory location. Ultimately, mounting the spare somewhere else is a future solution but in the meantime, it will have to go underneath.

My question pertains to orientation of the spare; face up or face down? I want to mount it face up, but I'm not sure if the wheel face will make contact with anything like the bottom of the body or any chassis bracing, lines, plugs, etc. Can anyone confirm?

If I leave it face down, I may risk it getting rock chipped or worse, dragging it across something when I'm off-roading.

Thanks for any feedback...

 

[pobando]

Face-up

Face up is aok. I believe that is how it comes from the factory, and thus that is how I've always replaced it when doing a 5 tire rotation.

On that regard I've had the hardest time getting the tires rotated in order by a national tire retailer. Sometimes the listen and pull the spare out and put it in the mix sometimes they didn't, and I've had to go back.

There are a few threads on the pro's and con's of a 5 tire rotation.

I'm a firm believer in rotating my matching spare throughout the life of my tires. I bought a matching TRD wheel and will be mounting my spare KM2 on it and I plan to stow it in the factory location. Ultimately, mounting the spare somewhere else is a future solution but in the meantime, it will have to go underneath.

My question pertains to orientation of the spare; face up or face down? I want to mount it face up, but I'm not sure if the wheel face will make contact with anything like the bottom of the body or any chassis bracing, lines, plugs, etc. Can anyone confirm?

If I leave it face down, I may risk it getting rock chipped or worse, dragging it across something when I'm off-roading.

Thanks for any feedback...

 

[JKLNHYD]

Face up is aok. I believe that is how it comes from the factory, and thus that is how I've always replaced it when doing a 5 tire rotation.

On that regard I've had the hardest time getting the tires rotated in order by a national tire retailer. Sometimes the listen and pull the spare out and put it in the mix sometimes they didn't, and I've had to go back.

There are a few threads on the pro's and con's of a 5 tire rotation.

Thanks for the reply! My dealership is pretty good about rotating the spare in when I have them do a rotation. They've never given me a hard time about it. I was concerned because the factory spare is a steel wheel and it likely wouldn't matter how it sits (face up or face down). Kinda tough to damage a steel wheel. Since I plan to roll on the spare for a few thousand miles in between rotations, I wanted to make sure I can keep the spare wheel as nice as the other four.

 

[pobando]

additional coverage

Thanks for the reply! My dealership is pretty good about rotating the spare in when I have them do a rotation. They've never given me a hard time about it. I was concerned because the factory spare is a steel wheel and it likely wouldn't matter how it sits (face up or face down). Kinda tough to damage a steel wheel. Since I plan to roll on the spare for a few thousand miles in between rotations, I wanted to make sure I can keep the spare wheel as nice as the other four.

I wonder if you could cut a trashcan lid to fit the size of the tire or rim with a hole in the middle, thread the spare tire chain through and it would cover the rim as it sits face up in the well. Makes sense? It would add just a bit more coverage.

I don't recall ever seeing anything glaringly wrong with the spare when I pulled it out for use.

 

[Saker]

I'm a firm believer in rotating my matching spare throughout the life of my tires. I bought a matching TRD wheel and will be mounting my spare KM2 on it and I plan to stow it in the factory location. Ultimately, mounting the spare somewhere else is a future solution but in the meantime, it will have to go underneath.

My question pertains to orientation of the spare; face up or face down? I want to mount it face up, but I'm not sure if the wheel face will make contact with anything like the bottom of the body or any chassis bracing, lines, plugs, etc. Can anyone confirm?

If I leave it face down, I may risk it getting rock chipped or worse, dragging it across something when I'm off-roading.

Thanks for any feedback...

The tire is what makes contact with the frame.

 

[JKLNHYD]

The tire is what makes contact with the frame.

I thought that was the case but I wasn't sure! Thanks!

 

[pobando]

Space

The tire making contact & leaves a fair amount of space before the rim would make contact with anything damaging.