spare tire holder arm is too long?

[racerecchs]

hey there,
Here's one for ya'll. The Spare tire arm was held up by wire and twine by PO.
I was attempting to remedy that and mount a spare tire (that has been taking up space in my cargo area)under the 'ol girl and I noticed two things: 1) the tire was about a 31" and was too big, and 2) even without the tire, the arm that would have held the tire seemed to be too long. It butted against the rear diff when I tried to bolt it up. My fix was to simply bolt it to one of the chain holes in the hitch. Did I miss something? Did these babies come with doughnuts for spares? As a side note, I'm looking for a jack and tire iron...what the PO is doing with those, I'll never know.
Thanks.

[racerecchs]

Can no one answer this perplexing problem?

[Woody Mammoth]

Stock full size should fit fine, not sure about 31". As far as the arm goes, it is OE. This arm should hang on a bolt, which goes through a hole in the rear frame(under tailgate)and plastic nut inside frame rail. You may be in the same situation as mine, where a Class III receiver cover up the hole, so can't use OE spare tire arm & bolt. Your PO simply strap it up. I took my spare tire arm off all together. My spare is sitting inside my cargo area.

There is factory class II ball hitch, that will enable you to use the spare tire setup.

[mtn goat]

I dunno, a 31 fits in mine just fine. maybe its the reciever thing stated above.

[irbob]

The arm has an adjustment in it. Mine almost rubbed a hole in my diff cover. It's not even close now with the lift. I think it has something to do with the leafs weekening. If you have the stock leafs it's sitting lower which puts that mount closer to the diff.

Right in the center of the rear x-member there is a hole. That is where the mounting bolt goes. Like said in the above posts, it may be covered by the hitch if you have one.

Do you have a body lift? If so it increases the depth of the spare compartment. I wedged a temporary 2x4 between the spare and under-body so I could tighten in up.