Nevada Backroaders

Hey all,

Im guessing at least some in the club has or have had a spare tire up on top of their rig. Anyone who has experience with this, can you comment on how it does. My only concern is making my Jeep top heavy in a circumstance where the Jeep is tilting to one side off road. Does it make it more dangerous having it here?

Thanks!

Kevin

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Kevin

2011 JKU Rubicon. Completely stock

Mine's on top of a GC for a specific reason: I can't get it anchored with the interior spare tire gadget...and mine's only 30.5" vs the donut spare that came with the truck.

Several issues:

Increased aerodynamic drag. Several college-educated engineers spent a lot of time at the wind tunnel optimizing the design. Now we have messed that up, and probably kicked our MPG in the fanny a bit, as well.

Convenience/Access. A little tougher to reach up and grab a full-sized spare on an oversized wheel and drop it to the ground with out damaging the paint, unless you're very tall and moderately strong.

Security. Your spare is a lot easier to steal off your rack than from inside the body or from the spare tire bay underneath the truck. This, of course, presumes a very tall and moderately strong thief. A bit of thought RE: securing to the rack is required. At work, I have to park in an outdoor lot directly on a major LV street. I put the spare inside, the better to still find it with the truck at the end of the work day.


Good things about roof-carriage of your spare:

Frees up internal weatherproof space for hauling. Grands are not noted for generous interior volume.

Easier to access when the truck is heavily loaded. No need to remove the tool boxes, sleeping bags, coolers and BBQ grill out on the trail, just to get at the spare.

Greater under-truck clearance. Especially on post-1998 Grands.

It really, really looks cool, and announces to all that YOUR SUV is not a sissy "Mall Runner," or, "Soccer MommieMobile." This may or may not be important to you.

(I made a joke...)

THE EASIEST WAY TO FIND OUT if you'll like roof-mounting your spare is to visit someplace like Harbor Freight. Buy a couple of husky Nylon/Dacron straps with BIG S-hooks on the ends. Grab your spare and fling it up on the rack. Strap it down and drive around with it that way awhile.

If it seems to meet your needs, you can make more elaborate arrange ments for roof mounting. If not, you're only out $12 for two straps, which you'll probably use somewhere else on the truck anyway.

On a Grand Cherokee, I wouldn't sweat the Stability issue too much, unless you drive WAAAAAAAAY faster than 75 MPH on pavement. My 1998 has pretty bad aerodynamics with the spare on top. I know this because I can hear a lot of wind noise at highway speed...beside the noisy CV joints, the pinion bearings whining and suspicious noises from the front ring gear... but it looks muy cooler than Joe and Molly Sixpack's grocery getter/brat hauler.

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The first rule of Intelligent Tinkering is: save all the parts!

I had mine on the roof for about a year with only minor problems. The biggest issue I had was with the factory cross bars not being stiff enough for the weight of the tire. The crossbars being weak would let the tire bounce up and down causing a annoying noise magnified by the roof ( only an issue on washboard trails ) With after market cross bars I don't think you would have any problems besides the gas milage issue U.B. was talking about. As far as your center of gravity being affected, unless you had a monster lift you will never even notice it's up there.

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91 XJ, lifted, locked, geared and trail rated . Member NBMC

Thanks for the replies.

Im probably going to either put a new full size spare up there, or try to custom something inside. With you two saying no worries on being top heavy, I feel better about it.

Kevin

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Kevin

2011 JKU Rubicon. Completely stock

If you look at the North American Grand Cherokee Association Web site <nagca.com> and go to the FORUMS, you might check out this URL: http://www.nagca.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27590

This is another ZJ/WJ spare tire solution. You can get Home Depot to cut the plywood and sell you the L brackets faster than you can set up the sawhorses.

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The first rule of Intelligent Tinkering is: save all the parts!

I haven't had any issues with clearance around trees or cliffs or other such obstacles. I'm able to go off camber at least 35 degrees. Havn't tried, nor needed to go further than that.

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Andy
"Purple is the new chrome"