It's tucked, my spare that is.

[fisherman]

Finally finished the mounting. After removing the round rear crossmember and replacing it with some 2" x 3" square tube, gusseted to make room for an xl 11 x 16.




I used a one ton chevy spare tire cable hoist to lift the tire/wheel up under the bed. The factory spare tire stops were shortened to allow the spare to tuck up completely to the bottom of the bed.
With the receiver hitch there the tire is completely protected and will not touch the ground if the rear end drags in climbing a hill, the receiver will touch first. There is plenty of room for the rear axle to cycle upwards and not interfere. I re used the spare tire sling that was factory and relocated the mounting point and bolt point. Everything looks pretty much factory, but functions much better.

The last picture shows the small hole in the center of the back of the bed. There is a half inch socket adapter to use a wratched to lower/raise the spare tire. Undo factory sling, and wratchet the spare down. Reverse order to raise it. I've done it in the shop now about 6 times. This is my favorite Modification thus far. A lot of planning and head scratching and measuring went into this, and it does work. Now back to finish painting.