I have a 1” RB body lift, which was installed a couple weeks ago. I wanted to make everyone with a 1” or greater body lift aware of something that I ran into this weekend. When the body was lifted, the angle of the spare tire crank-down changed. Therefore it took great amounts of force to get the spare tire down. In fact, anything above 1” and it might be impossible. I just don’t see how a small petite woman would be able to do this, which obviously is a safety hazard.

Check out picture number 1. Look at the angle of the crank-down tool:



And now from the underside. See how it fits into the receptacle?



Lucky for me, I was just doing some spare tire maintenance and a bumper modification. Right now, I do not have a solution for the problem. Just a heads up. I already contacted RB about this.

Not sure if this would affect Taco owners.

-CD

 

Yea, I've seen other people make note of this... good reminder though.

 

I was wondering if it had been addressed. Oh well, search is weird lately, and like you said its a good reminder.

 

I have a 2" RB body lift and what I found was the easiest thing to do is pop off that top plastic "black" bumper piece, it comes off/on pretty easily and is pretty flexible and then you have a nice big gap there to get the correct angle to the spare tire crank. Since I carry my spare in the cargo area, it's no big deal, and since you don't use one that often even if it is down there, popping off that plastic bumper piece is not hard, i.e. a petite woman could still pop it off as it doesn't take a whole bunch of force.

My pennies!

 

Yeah, that's what I was going to do. Sounds like you have confirmed that it will work. Cool thanks!

(Its so hard being a petite woman these days :pat: )

 

PoBoy had an easy fix for that. Maybe he'll pop in here...

 

If memory serves me correctly PoBoy made the access hole bigger in the bumper so the increased angle wouldn't matter...

 

Any chance this could be fixed by smacking the back of the spare tire winch with a hammer to 'gently' angle it upward a bit?? I have a 1½" RB lift and knew about the spare tire issue, but haven't done anything to resolve it yet. Just a thought...

 

No more than you need access to the spare tire, ripping off that piece of plastic when you do need access seems the most logical fix to me, especially if you might sell or trade down the road after taking off the body lift...thus no permanent mod to the 4Runner.

 

I actually tried the smack-it-with-a-hammer method, but I didn’t like what it was doing to the receptacle. It almost appeared to be separating – I actually thought it might bust off. For now I am going to pull that plastic piece. Besides, I am only 1”, I was more concerned with the rigs running more lift.

 

Christian,
Since you are getting a welder try this:

Buy a 1/2" u joint (you know for sockets and ratchets). Cut the metal bar and weld in the U-joint. Then you could crank it down at an angle..

Wouldn't this work?

 

Roger and I are shooting that very idea back and forth on email right now. I like it.

No welder yet though!

I am still going nuts about what to get.

 

I addressed this issue a while back and was able to come up with a solution for it. Basically I just enlarged the hole under the body. Here are some pics:


I used a hack saw blade and made two cuts. Then I pryed off some material with a pair of linesman and filed the hole smooth. This allowed the crank bar just enough angle to slide into the spare tire horn thingy. This works for a 1" BL. I'm not sure that it would work for anything more than that.

 

Utt ohh...someone didnt read AdamF's directions!!!! Hahha, anyway looks like ya'll found my solution :

A 1/2inch driver extension and a socket wrench make it VERY easy to drop it down. Yes you have to get under the truck and slide it in at the "recpticle". Still, with a body lift, there is lots of room to get to it and damn easy with a socket wrench. I used just a 3 inch extension and it was cake.

 

What about welding in a flex piece like this:



It is pretty stiff so you wouldn't need to get under the truck to get it lined up.
No lady is going to want to get under the car to change a flat.

 

If you`re lifted and have bigger than stock tires on the spare wouldn`t really matter anymore. That is why I removed my spare and gave it to my cousin.

 

My spare wouldn't fit under there anyways so i don't worry about it but i never thought about that.

 

i have a 1" body lift. i used some washers to "re-angle" the winch crank and a heavy duty file to file the opening.

basically, get under there and mess with it. thats what i did and know it works great.

 

Has Roger developed a body lift for the 4th yet?

Doug