Spare tire lift-There has to be a better way

I am going on a long trip and decided to check the air in the spare. What a PITA to try and get the rod end into the crank piece (I have curved type which fits into a "slit"). There simply has to be a better way to do this. It took me 10 minutes of screwing around to finally get the parts lined up so I could crank the spare down. There seemed to be no way to line things up except by trial and error. I have had other vehicles with crank type spares and never had this issue.

Is there an aftermarket tool, or some trick that I missed that would make this go easier?

 

Next time flip your tire over do stem is facing down. That way you can just go undernath and check or add air

 

A you can tell I need a new phone.

 

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/technical-chat/4838-cheap-free-mods-51.html#post3571643

I haven't done this yet but it is on my to do list.

 

Yeah try doing that at 4:00am in the mountains on a dirt road in the middle of the forest. Used the bottle jack too...

 

I would have rather Toyota made you crawl underneath the truck and unscrew the spare tire manually than design such a piece of crap mechanism for getting the spare down. I have never seen such a poorly designed way to get to the spare tire. The rod to lower it is weak and trying to find the notch to put it in is a pain in the ass, and that is in good weather. Next time I take it down I will do the PVC pipe mod, but Toyota should have designed a more user friendly way to get to the spare tire.

 

Easier for you means easier for thieves.

 

I use a flashlight, it allows me to see in there and I can line them up pretty quicly

 

Do the mod, and flip the tire. Works great.