Spare tire with drop spindles

[Extrawubbs]

Going to put some drop spindles on the truck and i started thinking way ahead… ive heard that drop spindles require atleast an 18” wheel or something like that. Well iin the inevitable event that i catch a flat my spare donut is NOT atleast 18” so im wondering do i need to buy like a 20” spare wheel. Im only asking because ive never heard anyone ask this before. Also ive thought about rotating the wheels so the spare is at the back but with only one jack on the side of the freeway then how would this work? Is it possible to jack the truck up from the side lifting two wheels? Can my jack even handle that? IDFK

 

[Hipster]

On the side of the freeway is not where you want to be doing tire rotations. lol It has to fit on, it helps if the tire is close to the same diameter, but it doesn't have to be fancy.

 

[Drunkcanuk]

With Belltech spindles at least, as long as you trim the control arms, the 15" wheels will work.
I have heard of people running the space saver spares from Denalis, Escalades etc, as they are 17" or bigger. And obviously need to match your bolt pattern.
I have seen the question asked here before, so that's where I got my info from.

 

[someotherguy]

With Belltech spindles at least, as long as you trim the control arms, the 15" wheels will work.
I have heard of people running the space saver spares from Denalis, Escalades etc, as they are 17" or bigger. And obviously need to match your bolt pattern.
I have seen the question asked here before, so that's where I got my info from.

Thank you.. was just gonna say, trim the control arms.

Richard

 

[Extrawubbs]

With Belltech spindles at least, as long as you trim the control arms, the 15" wheels will work.
I have heard of people running the space saver spares from Denalis, Escalades etc, as they are 17" or bigger. And obviously need to match your bolt pattern.
I have seen the question asked here before, so that's where I got my info from.

Wouldnt trimming the control arms weaken them? I know it is common to do this when people want 15” wheels but im not sure how well they would hold up as the roads here in south louisiana are horrid.

 

[Drunkcanuk]

I've never heard of a single failure....and I've been into these rigs since 1988. If there were any., I'm sure it would have made the rounds on the Internet by now!

 

[someotherguy]

Wouldnt trimming the control arms weaken them? I know it is common to do this when people want 15” wheels but im not sure how well they would hold up as the roads here in south louisiana are horrid.

I had a '92 C1500 extended cab longbed that the previous owner had done a horrible, ugly job of trimming the lower control arms. It looked like they did it with a torch. I put about 50K-55K miles, hard miles, on that truck with no issue out of the control arms. No telling how many miles P.O. had put on it like that, too. I finally rebuilt the suspension at that point due to everything being worn out at around 225K miles. Since I was swapping to poly bushings I just picked up used lowers at the boneyard and put the bushings in those. I was already running 20's so I didn't need trimmed arms.

The amount you need to remove isn't much.

You must be registered for see images attach

Richard

 

[retorq]

Wouldnt trimming the control arms weaken them? I know it is common to do this when people want 15” wheels but im not sure how well they would hold up as the roads here in south louisiana are horrid.

No, the arm itself is super thick steel and the amount you have to trim is really not that much. Also the area you are trimming isn't in an area where there is a great amount of stress. It can be done with an electric cut off wheel or a grinder.