Spare Tire Relocation

Note: this mod has been changed since this was posted

I've been rolling without a spare for quite a while now. Yes, you can fit a 37" tire under the bed, but it sticks out and at the very least looks dorky. Also, I need to fit a 40" spare without losing bed space. Note: at the moment, I still have a 37" spare, but will replace with a 40" soon.

I've been seeing a lot of people relocating their spare tire winch to their bed racks, but it's almost exclusively utilizing a dedicated part from Road Armor for their Treck rack. I needed a solution for a Rebel Offroad Xplor, so I got (mildly) creative.

First, I flipped the vertical crossmember and added a second crossmember running vertical. Then, using some spacers, attached the winch above those, leaving room for the cable between the slats. Just for good measure, I also used some door trim around the horizontal crossmembers to resist rubbing and rust.

Naturally, one of the downsides is that the rearview is now totally non-functional, but it wasn't fully functional beforehand anyway. Still plenty of room for camping gear in the back, too. The spare is firmly in place and I'm feeling good about this setup.