While I could throw a full sized spare on a rear hitch carrier or in the roof rack if I go on some pure offroading trip, any way of carrying one for daily use or for hunting or shooting trips where the roof rack is loaded with all my stuff and I'm in and out of the back hatch a bunch all day is going to be a PITA. For something I hopefully won't need to use (haven't needed to use the spare in nearly 10 years so far) I don't feel it justifies being such a PITA on a daily basis.
The sensible thing for me is to stick with a spare in the stock location. But I figured I might be able to improve upon it a bit so it didn't ruin so much ground clearance. So I came up with this compromise.
I selected this tire because it's one of the few available in that size and it has some decent offroad tread. It's about an inch shorter than stock but more importantly it is 2 inches "skinnier."
This helps it tuck up noticeably better underneath the vehicle:
The pics don't quite do justice to how big the difference is. Sure, it looks a lot better with nothing there at all but this gets the entire thing above the rear axle so it won't drag in deep snow or mud and makes the rear hitch the clear limiting factor of departure angle. It's obviously still a compromise but it makes the spare a likely non-factor for all offroading but the most extreme rock crawling while being out of the way for daily use.
I'll use it as a "donut," mounting it on the front in 2WD and driving pretty darn slowly on any pavement, but I'd do that with the stock one anyway as it's now enough smaller than my 33's that would be prudent. However, compared with a donut this is a real tire and compared to the stock spare this thing actually has some tread that might do OK in an offroad situation.
Anyway, I figured I'd throw this one out there for anybody else who may be interested. I know I can't be the only one who doesn't like the stock spare hanging down but doesn't want to carry around a full size somewhere else 24/7.
New England road salt awsome stuff.
