Relocating 25FB spare behind axles under floor

[dkottum]

Originally Posted by thiel

Careful: more weight on rear increases sway.

More weight on the rear moves the center of gravity aft. If the weight was heavy, or positioned far back from the axles, it may be a concern. But here we have about 60 lbs mounted near the rear axle on a 7000 lb Airstream that is heavy in front by design. For example it would have far less effect than moving oversize batteries aft or using the Airstream Fiamma bike rack, which Airstreamers have done routinely.

[TRIPPPIN]

I will be back to the trailer in a couple of days and will get some pics.

My loaded tongue weight was 840 lbs without the spare mounted in the rear (removed completely at that time) and loaded gross 6400 lbs so I am OK in the recommended 10-15% tongue weight range. I am still working on reducing tongue weight because any extra cargo we may carry will likely go forward where most of the available storage is now and these changes give me more flexibility. I am underweight on TV loaded axle weights too.

[TRIPPPIN]

Here are the pics of the BAL tire carrier mounted to the side of the frame under the steps of a 2012 25FB EB. The opening side is the street side and is bolted to the frame with a piece of angle. You drop it down and it slides out from under the trailer then you unbolt the spare tire from the carrier.

[dkottum]

Thanks for the excellent photos and nice modification. Sometimes after years of travel all over the country and never having a tire issue, I think we could do fine leaving the dead weight spare at home and carry something more useful, using the old three-wheel Airstream method in the rare event of a flat.

But this modification is satisfying to this of us who may want a redundant system and frequently travel far and remotely from home. With oversize batteries already and we're thinking of mounting our Honda 2000 generator above the battery box, this is a decent upgrade.

Our Airstream usually loads to about 6500-6800 lbs for travel; we need no more than 700 lbs on the hitch for positioning the Airstreams center-of-gravity to reduce the effects of sway inputs, and our ProPride hitch needs no heavy weight its sway control system. This underbody tie mount looks like a good option.