Boot mounted spare wheel for Berli / Cabrio / Hunter

[billjackson54]

Many vehicles these days have no spare tyre at all and many have space saver wheels. The problem with the latter, if it's all you've got on a Hunter, is where you locate the punctured Road wheel once the "spafe" has been fitted. The Hunters were all sent out with spacesavers and the boot lid spare wheel mounting bracket won't accept a full size road wheel as the studs are too short.
I'm planning to convert my car to carry a full size road wheel on the boot...so my questions are these: with a 15" wheel and a 195/65 tyre, do I need to use 4 bolts/studs (the space saver wheel mount has only two) and how long and what size do the bolts need to be? (I would prefer to hold the wheel with standard Ford wheel nuts from my somewhat extensive collection....).
Obviously I can research all this for myself, but I can't be the only Marlineer to have encountered this problem and I'm wondering if there's any hidden pitfall I haven't considered.

[John_Mulvaney]

Bill, my 205/65/15 spare is held down by two "bolts" almost vertically above one another (not quite otherwise the "TSW" logo is squiffy!) but located on four bolts:-
The hold-down bolts are made using wheel nuts welded to the end of screwed rod and a plain nuts are used on the inside and removed to release the wheel. Under the boot lid an aluminium wheel spacer spreads the load over the fibre glass and is held in place by two bolts and nuts fitted horizontally, these being just sufficiently long to locate into the remaining stud holes to hold the wheel when in is placed over them but do not hold the wheel down in any way. These bolts are sleeved with metal tube so as to be a closer fit to the stud holes and to not abraid them. Possibly not required, I also use four short lengths of polycarbonate tube slotted under the wheel and over all the bolts ( a bit of a fiddle positioning them on the hold down bolts even though my wheels have large apertures between the spokes) so that the wheel is fastened down positively rather than just distorting the fibre glass.
Proven to be effective on the hard shoulder of the M6 providing your navigator is prepared to tip out their sandwiches in order that you can borrow the lunchbox to avoid loosing any of the wheel nuts!
Hope this helps! John

[billjackson54]

Thanks John. I've got some threaded bar M12x1.5 as per Ford wheelnut spec and my friend Dave and I are working it out on Wednesday next week, before the shindig at Oakham. Maybe see you there?

[dcunn]

Info/pics from Danny Nelson :

This is the method used by Marlin on Factory built cars, the Cabrio boot lid has a raised moulding to land the spare wheel on so all that is required is a simple plate mounting with 4x bolts welded in place .
A small fixing m6 or m8 just to stop the plate falling into boot when all wheel nuts are removed. Plate size approx 150x 150mm. Corners cut.
The threaded part of the bolt protrudes approx 25mm from face of plate .
The plate is offered in from the back of the boot lid / 4holes drilled in the top moulding to suit.
The 25 mm dim may vary a bit dependant on what off set of wheels or width of tyres used.
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[dave_kitson]

I made an extension piece for the bolt on the cover, so that a full size wheel could still have the cover fitted. The cover obviously then sits proud of the boot, but the full size wheel would only be there until the tyre was repaired, and the space saver went back under cover. You don't want your passenger nursing either the wheel or cover while you get home on the space saver!

Additionally, I found there was space inside the hump in the lid to stash a bottle jack and brace - other things you need to change a wheel!
Dave