I did some work on the spare tire mount yesterday. I wanted to use the factory spare tire mount location, and now that the bed floor is raised, I have a little more room to tuck the tire up and out of sight. I don't like the look of the spare tire hanging down when it's up and installed. I also never cared for the clunky factory spare tire bracket and how much of a pain it is to take the spare in and out.
The first step was to blow out the rivets on the two spare tire crossmembers and remove them. One of the crossmembers is the small u-channel one on the top of the frame, and the other is the thin sheetmetal one about 12" back from the u-channel. This now makes an open space that if you place your spare tire winch correctly, you can stow a 27" tall tire between the frame rails.
I went to the local wrecking yard looking for a suitable spare tire winch, and unfortunately, our yard likes to use the area where the winch is to prop up the trucks, so there were hardly any that were accessible. Lots of guys have used Ford Ranger winches, but I could access any, so I wound up using a mid-'90s Blazer unit.
I built a simple bracket using a section of 1.5 x 1.5 angle iron, and I welded in some tabs on both ends. I wanted it up as high as it could go, so I made it level to the tops of the bed floor crossmembers. I went a little over-kill on the bolts (1/2" diameter, 2.5" long, Grade 8).
I mocked it up, using the two aft bed floor crossmembers as the supports. I could have mounted it one of two ways. Either with the jackscrew facing aft, or facing to the side. I would have preferred to have it facing aft and have the end of the shaft extension wind up behind the license plate, but that wasn't possible. When I raised the bedfloor, the bedfloor crossmembers went up 2.75", but all the other crossmembers stayed in the same location. The jackscrew shaft would have had to change direction a few times in the 18" distance for it to work, and even with a flexible shaft, that wasn't possible. So, I decided to move it to where the jackscrew faced to the passenger side. The reason for the passenger side is because if I ever have to change out a tire on the freeway, I don't want to be laying out in the road trying to get the spare tire out. I wound up using a factory GM flexible shaft from a mid-'2000s Chevy/GMC truck. I haven't built the bracket to support the end of the shaft yet, and I'll do that today. It'll be a bracket that will bolt to the passenger side frame rail with a tube welded to the top. The tube will have a .750 inner dimension, and the extension will slide inside it. The end of the extension will have a 3/8" end on it where I can use a ratchet to raise and lower the tire. Here's a picture taken from the passenger side.
Driver's side
From the rear looking forward
Here's a picture from underneath. It's a bad picture, but you can see that the spare is completely tucked out of sight. The bed floor crossmembers are now the "stops" for the tire. The tire sidewall is even to the bottom of the frame rail. You cannot see the tire at all unless you get on your ear and look up. Disregard the old tire and wheel. I found one in my pile that had the size I needed, and this was only used for mock-up. You go with a large as a 27" tire. You could probably go a little more if you trimmed the frame rails.
Next step: Building a trailer hitch. The hitch crossmember will also restore the frame strength that was lost when the two spare mount crossmembers were removed.