Anyone use a spare tire bike carrier?

[Humm3r_H3]

thanks for your replys guys.

After reading everyone's messages, I think I'm gonna go with the hitch mounted bike carrier. (gonna use a hidden-hitch). My other question is, will Thule or Yakima bike racks clear the spare tire. I noticed Ipedog uses a Yakima rack and it clears the spare just fine. Which model do you have?

[entheos]

Hopefully not too late for you, but I have the Thule Spare Me for my H3 with 33's and it won't work without an easy modification (drill 2 small holes). I will post a picture of the mod it if you are still interested. I looked and asked about bike racks (including this forum) for the H3 for a long time and was never able to find a hitch rack that allowed you to open the rear door without COMPLETELY removing the rack from the receiver. It is because the hitch is SO high and the spare comes down lower than the door. The swing down or away features of the racks out there all come up more than 4.5" (the clearance from the top of the receiver to the bottom of the swinging tire). Now there is a hitch rack available from the dealer that looks like it will tilt down and allow you to open the rear door (without removing the rack), but it costs nearly $400 and no one said for sure if it actually did this. My dealer isn't real interested in selling accessories anyway. Of course someone on this forum did say to get a roof rack. They don't seem real convenient to me.

Ironically one of the reasons I started to look at buying a new truck (which turned out to be an H3) was something that could accept a hitch rack.

Also the Thule is a nice rack and is solid, though Thule's cable lock isn't integrated like the Yakima's though the rack lock is good. It won't come off for me now that I lost the keys!

[evldave]

My hitch rack worked fine with the spare. It was ~1" out from the rear tire and would pivot out of the way (opposite the door) to clear the door with plenty of room to spare.

I googled it to see if I could find a link, but gave up. I got mine at GI Joes (Pacific Northwest outdoor store chain) and paid $70 on sale a few years ago. Might want to look for that, or you can go w/the smittybuilt spare tire rack.

http://www.truckstuffusa.com/outlandlockablesparetiremo...ierbysmittybilt.html

[Humm3r_H3]

Thanks!

evldave - which hitch rack did you have? did you have the factory trailer hitch? and did you have to use an extension? thanks

[Hal]

STOP THE MADNESS
I HAVE A "THULE SPARE ME" MOUNTED ON MY 33" SPARE ON MY H3 RIGHT NOW. I have used it a number of times, it stays mounted there ready to go any time, it's not in the way, it's not too heavy, it has its own lock so a thief that wanted your spare would have to break the bike rack before they could get at the spare tire. The bikes ride high off the ground so no clearance problems at all when off road. I can use my tow hitch for towing whatever I want with bikes mounted to the spare.
On the negative side: the fit of the rack to the 33" tire is tight. I use the rubber spacers that come with the rack and also before tightening the lugs on the spare it helps to lift up on the rack mounting plate. You need all the clearance you can get for the top bar of the bike rack to clear the top of the tire when the rack is extended and ready to load bikes. If you have the capability to bend that top crossbar of the rack to fit the curvature of the top of the spare tire (only 1/2" would do it) then the rack would no longer have such a tight fit to the tire. You could also air down the spare and get a better fit (if you have a way to air up again when needed, and I don't know what that would do to the pressure monitoring system). The rack is not big on bike space, 2 bikes fit very snug on the rack. Lastly, with bikes back there your bad rear view goes to worse.
Bottom line, mine stays where it is, looks good, works good, and adds security to my spare tire.

[Humm3r_H3]

Originally posted by Hal:
STOP THE MADNESS
I HAVE A "THULE SPARE ME" MOUNTED ON MY 33" SPARE ON MY H3 RIGHT NOW. I have used it a number of times, it stays mounted there ready to go any time, it's not in the way, it's not too heavy, it has its own lock so a thief that wanted your spare would have to break the bike rack before they could get at the spare tire. The bikes ride high off the ground so no clearance problems at all when off road. I can use my tow hitch for towing whatever I want with bikes mounted to the spare.
On the negative side: the fit of the rack to the 33" tire is tight. I use the rubber spacers that come with the rack and also before tightening the lugs on the spare it helps to lift up on the rack mounting plate. You need all the clearance you can get for the top bar of the bike rack to clear the top of the tire when the rack is extended and ready to load bikes. If you have the capability to bend that top crossbar of the rack to fit the curvature of the top of the spare tire (only 1/2" would do it) then the rack would no longer have such a tight fit to the tire. You could also air down the spare and get a better fit (if you have a way to air up again when needed, and I don't know what that would do to the pressure monitoring system). The rack is not big on bike space, 2 bikes fit very snug on the rack. Lastly, with bikes back there your bad rear view goes to worse.
Bottom line, mine stays where it is, looks good, works good, and adds security to my spare tire.

thanks Hal, I will have to try that spare me again then. have any pics of yours installed?

[dochummer]

pics plz...