Spare Tire Hanger Fail?

Yesterday I heard a horror story from another 1st-Gen tacoma owner,
he said he was driving back home late one night coming into California from Nevada and he felt an unusual thump from the rear of his truck.
He slowed and turned down the stereo, then after a few tense seconds of hyper vigilance he shook it off and resumed cruising speed.
All of the sudden (many days later) he realized his spare was missing!

Upon closer inspection it appeared the plate and cable from which the spare was hanging had pulled apart leaving a dangling and disfigured cable end!

Anybody else hear about this kind of thing happening?
or is this one of those life lesson kind of things that seem to haunt certain people ( you know who you are )

 

shoot now i gotta remember to check my spare's cable later today. good heads-up.

 

The Sienna minivans have a recall for a similar problem

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com.../04/recall-600000-toyota-sienna-minivans.html

But this is the first time I've heard of it happening to a tacoma.

 

It would be terrible...especially if you had a $250 33" Mud terrain

 

Shizzzaa!!! I'm going to go check mine right now haha

 

i dont have one

 

Is it rust that causes there spare tire cables to break?

My '03 has a nice undercoating of rust. In fact, the spare tire was rusted to hell and back. I figured that the tire had never been down. I dreaded the attempt to lower it only to have the assembly be jammed. I figured I was going to have to cut it off.

I obtained the lowering kit from a yard the other day (did not come with the lowering rods) and held my breath. To my absoute surprise, the tire lowered without any issue. I had to hammer the lower piece that holds the tire off because it was rusted onto the rim but the cable looked flawless. I was amazed.

Picked up a new spare from a wrecking yard that has no rust. The tire was the original spare.

This does not contribute to the thread much but I though I would share it anyway

 

Another spare tire FAIL...

Mine was that the damed thing uses the Lock Lug key to lower it. I've been wrenching 20+ years and couldn't figure it out (even with the key). The key's nut had a deep well socket looking shroud over it that will not let the key engauge the nut. I just unbolted the entire assy from the frame, removed the tire and swapped it to the other spare hanger which does not use a lock key.

 

that was an old tacoma urban legend from back in 2004... the original version "happened" on the I-15 south between Oak Hill and the Cleghorn exit...

although i suppose it could have happened in real life to someone...

i feel bad for whoever was driving behind him and got hit by that full size spare at 70mph...

come to think of it, if anybody needs a new spare tire cable, i think i still have mine attached to my truck...

 

that would suck

 

Man, I'm going to check mine now! By the way, anyone know where to get the spare tire kit that usually comes with the Tacoma? I have the Jack, and the long rod that stays behind the seat, but I think I'm missing the attachments that lower the tire down????

 

Would having the spare tire on the truck bed instead have any affect on the rubber due to dynamic environments?

 

i hope i never get a flat cuz i cant get my damn spare off so maybe if mine falls off itll help me out

 

Man that would be pretty shitty, especially cause i've got a matching spare tire/wheel. That'd ruin my day.

 

I found a little silver key thing in the glove box. The silver key fits into the lowering mechanism and the long rod fits into the silver key. I left my silver key on the long rod now and put it into my bag.
Also the jack was not tall enough, so I put 2 blocks into the jack storage area.

 

Yep...im in the same boat, I can't get the spare out either