I currently have mine mounted on my '87 4Runner but.....
what if you could take off the spare tire "drop down brackets" to gain about 2 more inches of tuck for the spare. Of course the "stock hand crank" would have to be aborted and some sort of simple bolt on mount fabbed up. The problem I am running into is the rear tailgate torsion bar (4Runners only).
Has anyone figgerd out a way to work around the torsion bar set up, or use some sort of different counter weight for the rear tailgate?
<img border="0" alt="[Nerd]" title="" src="graemlins/nerd.gif" /> Any ideas?

What drop-down brackets? My 34x9.5 snugged right up against the crossmember...

At some point I replaced the things that bolt to the crossmember with some straight 3/4" tubing, but I don't think that really changed how high it tucked.

I removed the tailgate spring thingy (the tailgate is kinda heavy, but no big deal) because I was planning on torching out the stock crossmember and putting in a lower-profile one that would move the spare up several more inches and then hold the tire under there with a bar under the tire like you see on older Ford trucks...

However plans have changed and I'll probably eventually fab up a spare tire mount on my bumper and put my gas tank in the old spare area.
The tank in its current location is gradually holding less and less gas... (rocks have had their way with it on more than one occasion). I found out that my formerly 17 gallon tank can't hold a drop more than 14 gallons. <img border="0" alt="[Hillbilly]" title="" src="graemlins/notooth.gif" />

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">Originally posted by ErikB:
[QB]What drop-down brackets? My 34x9.5 snugged right up against the crossmember...

At some point I replaced the things that bolt to the crossmember with some straight 3/4" tubing, but I don't think that really changed how high it tucked.

I removed the tailgate spring thingy (the tailgate is kinda heavy, but no big deal) because I was planning on torching out the stock crossmember and putting in a lower-profile one that would move the spare up several more inches and then hold the tire under there with a bar under the tire like you see on older Ford trucks...

QB]</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, Helv, Helvetica, Sans">There are these two kinda drop down brackets that bend down to about 2" below the crossmember.They run lengthwise on the truck. The tire will not touch the actual cross member. It sits about 2" below it. The problem I see is that this 2" space is needed to even attempt to get the hand crank in there. So did you end up aborting your hand crank?

I really don't want to take off the rear taigate spring if I can somehow modify it or fab up something else. Any Ideas??

I think the 'bar across the tire' is a great idea, now about that spring.....

You mean this cradle thing right?

<img src="http://pics.montypics.com/robinhood150/2003-02-28/cradle2.jpg" alt=" - " />

This is off of a 2nd gen, but it's probably similar?

Steve

That would be the cradle thingy. But it looks like it hangs lower on the 1st gen.
I fabbed up a rear bumper/rock slider out of 2" receiver tubing and it tucks up really nice and high, about 1/2 inch below the bottom of the rear tailgate seam. So the 33x9.50x15 spare is now easily the lowest hanging thing in the rear. But if I could move it up.........

<small>[ March 01, 2003, 07:34 PM: Message edited by: Lou Bell ]</small>

Do you remember if the original spare set flush against the brackets? If the spare did then there shouldn't be any problem with clearance for raising/lowering the spare. What I had planned to do for my spare on my '90 truck was remove the old bracket and cut in half, then bolt/weld on a peice of metal to extend it to fit the 33's, drill new holes and mount it back in place. While measuring under the truck I noticed the space would be perfect for some 2 gal. air tanks. Since I hadn't had any real problems with clearance out on the trail, I went with the air tank idea. However from the measurements at the time the idea I had appears it should have worked. Something similar may work for your Runner if there is enough room under there.