1996 3500 spare tire crank and cradle best setup?

[ollie]

Hi - I had a flat on a front tire yesterday and don't have the factory crank setup.

I thought I could use a 20" 1/2 extension which I had in the truck with a breaker bar for the lugnuts but it won't go down the hole. I also noticed the crank hole has a hex pattern at the orifice.

What's the best set of tools to have onboard to crank the spare up and down? Lot of confusing info online.

I might run by picknpull to see if any Ram trucks still have the factory set under the seat, but have heard they're not ideal so would prefer something a bit more robust.

TIA

 

[Pedro Farias]

Good night
"I want to replace the multimedia system in my 2020 Ram 1500 Hemi 5.7. What's the best one?"

 

[Tank Guy]

Hi - I had a flat on a front tire yesterday and don't have the factory crank setup.

I thought I could use a 20" 1/2 extension which I had in the truck with a breaker bar for the lugnuts but it won't go down the hole. I also noticed the crank hole has a hex pattern at the orifice.

What's the best set of tools to have onboard to crank the spare up and down? Lot of confusing info online.

I might run by picknpull to see if any Ram trucks still have the factory set under the seat, but have heard they're not ideal so would prefer something a bit more robust.

TIA

I’ve only used the stock tools to lower my spare and stow the failed tire a couple of times in the twenty seven years that I’ve owned my 98 Ram 2500, and I don’t recall having an issue with them. If you can find a stock set at a junk yard or anywhere else, grab it and call it good.

 

[ollie]

I made this to lower the tire, it's just a 7/16 bolt with a couple of nuts and a locking washer crushed between, which I ground down so I could get a18mm socket on the two nuts.



Works fine, had to clean some stuff out of the crank orifice so the head would fit cleanly.

I'm keeping this and the socket in the truck with a breaker bar and another cheapo impact socket size like this for the lug nuts.


I got the damaged front tire off and the spare on with the 10 ton bolt jack I keep in the truck, plus a 3 ton floor jack to lift the IFS suspension arm up.

Couldn't have done it without the floor jack, the ifs arm was too low.

Thinking I should keep a small bottle jack that would fit under the ifs arm in the truck too, anyone got any better ways of doing this?