Fitting a 33" Spare - aka 2012+ Exhaust Swap

I've seen all of this info on TW but never all in one place so figured it was worth sharing.

I recently moved up to Yokohama Geolandar G003 255/85R16 (33.2") from Falken Wildpeak AT3W 265/75R16 (31.7") and although the tire shop managed to wedge the spare into place it was not suitable enough to run long term. I had seen many posts about fitting a 33" spare without issue and so figured it'd be an easy fix. However, when I got into it I realized I was running into something I hadn't seen before but luckily had the parts for the perfect fix.

Here are some photos showing how my 33" fit without any modifications. ***It should be noted that in these photos the spare is not hoisted all the way into position. Instead, it's about 3" below where it should be resting.***

No rubbing at the trailer hitch, but pretty close:



Pretty big conflict with the exhaust hanger. This is the issue that I had not seen others have when they were fitting a 33" spare. As you can see here both hangers are sitting at least 1/4" into the tread of the tire. And no, there is not room to just move the tire towards the driver side. More on that below. And what you can't see well is that the tire was also rubbing on the small heat shield that is welded to the tailpipe.



Clearance at the differential. This didn't seem too bad. But I don't have a lot of experience here and not sure if there's enough movement while really flexing things for this to be an issue. I would love to hear your experience.



The passenger side tab that normally helps locate the spare. You can see it's preventing the tire from coming up any higher.


Here's the driver side tab. More room here but still not the 3" needed to get the tire all the way up. And the tire wasn't exactly level in these photos either. And, you can see how this tab is in a different location compared to the tire vs the tab on the other side - so it seems the tire is also not centered on the hoist that lifts the tire into place.



On the driver side the tire is pushed all the way up against the hanger for the leaf spring shackle. A little hard to see in this pic though.




Front and rear there didn't seem to be an issue so the only things to tackle would be up/down and side to side. Lets start with up/down. This has been well covered in many, many other threads. Basically, you take a BFH (hammer) and whack the tabs out of the way to give you more room to crank the tire up into it's little well. That's all I'll cover regarding that - you can search and find plenty of info if interested.

Next, I had to deal with the side to side issue. There wasn't much that could be done about the hanger for the shackle unless I was perhaps upgrading to Hammer Hangers or something. So, that left me with needing to address the conflict with the exhaust. I'd seen plenty of photos showing a 33" spare close to or touching the exhaust pipe but I'd never seen the hanger issue before. Perhaps most had just cut that part of the exhaust anyway for ground clearance so never dealt with this? Who knows.

I was lucky enough to have just picked up a 2012+ exhaust from another member. I bought the exhaust from him because I had intended to hack off my tailpipe for ground clearance but didn't want to cut my stock exhaust (I'm unsure how long I'll keep this truck so I plan to only do mods which I can easily reverse or are not noticeable enough to devalue the truck.) When I got it, I knew the rearmost hanger was different but I didn't care because I was going to cut that section off anyway. Well, turns out, the 2012+ hanger orientation is the perfect fix for my problem.


Here you can see the difference in the exhaust hangers. On the left is my original 2010 exhaust and on the right is the 2012+. Basically a 90 deg difference.



In order to get the exhaust to fit and give the final bit of clearance needed I was going to need to rotate the hanger that is welded to the frame.



I used an angle grinder with cut off wheel to remove the hanger.



Quick mock up to see where the hanger needs to be welded back on. In addition to rotating the hanger ~90deg I also had to put it into a vise and bend it a little. These pics are from before I did the bending. Essentially, I didn't like how it was fitting with the original curvature. That gap here is not just for photos, it's how it most naturally fit. If I pushed the hanger up to the frame then it wasn't great fitment with the exhaust piping. A couple quick bends allowed me to basically make the hanger taller to bridge that gap.




I had planned to use weld-thru primer here but my can was clogged So, I just went for it as I didn't want to wait for a new can to arrive. Feel free to talk shit on my welds as I don't claim to be a pro or even a great amateur. That said, I was actually stoked with how the welds came out. I didn't have anything to practice on in order to dial in the right settings, welding in a tight space sucks and is really tough, welding thin metal to thick metal is always tough and the last time I welded was 6 months ago and 3yrs prior to that project. It ain't pretty but it's plenty strong.



Couple quick coats of Rustoluem primer and semi-gloss black. I didn't have any satin on hand but I'm sure it'll weather with a little time and no one will be the wiser without a pretty close look.




Now, the results...

Following the same order as the previous pics. Here's the newly created clearance at the exhaust - at least 1/2".



A better shot showing the clearance at the heat shield.


Clearance at the differential. This pic really starts to show how much further up the exhaust is compared to the other pictures. Looks like there's a decent amount of room here - but again, I'm not sure how much movement to expect. Let me know what you think.



Passenger side tab: As you can see, I bashed it a bit too far - oh well.



Plenty of clearance to the brake lines as well. These are Wheelers extended brake lines and since I don't have a massive lift in the back they stick out a bit further than stock.



Driver side tab. Same thing, bashed it a little too far.



Shackle hanger. Here the tire is still right up against the hanger. Technically, the tire could go a little more to the passenger side in order to make some clearance here but I didn't feel it was necessary. There isn't a lot of pressure so it shouldn't cause any wear or issues. Not ideal but I'll tolerate it.



A better shot - from below, looking up at the shackle hanger. The tire is just barely touching.



Clearance at the trailer hitch. Seems like a decent amount. I had seen other threads where people moved the hoist that lifts the tire rearward to give clearance. Some said they were moving it back as much as an inch. I don't think I could move mine back that far, or anywhere near that far. I did manually pull the tire back a little to give max clearance at the differential. And I may go back to see about moving the hoist back a little but at this point I doubt it's necessary and I probably have bigger fish to fry elsewhere on the truck.



Well, that's it! A fun little saturday afternoon welding project.

 

Well done.

 

Good write up.

Those tabs take some patience when hitting them with a big effing hammer. They don't go back into place as easily as they are bent out.

My 33" spare has been resting against my exhaust for about 7 years, and over 100K miles. The exhaust isn't hot enough there to be an issue.

The only thing you really want to avoid is having it get wedged up above the diff - you'll have no rear up-travel then.

 

Excellent writeup, thank you for taking the time.

 

One thought… Why not deflate the tire? TPMS?

 

I beat the tabs about halfway down and cut the exhaust off after the axle.

 

Partly personal preference, I prefer a fully inflated spare for quick and easily installation as needed. I have a compressor I bring on wheeling trips but I don't carry it every time I drive the truck so if I got a flat on the freeway just running an errand I'd be shit outta luck.

That said, I had my spare sitting here in the garage so figured I'd deflate and see how much of a difference it made. And, it's much less than expected. Much more pliable obviously but the diameter decreased by less than 1/4", really closer to 1/8".

 

Wow lot of reading..... lol

I just went the easy route. Hammered the spare tire fingers in.

Chopped my tip right after it sweeps over the axel tube facing down

Crank the hoist, then ran a ranching strap around the tire to pull against the tow hitch w/factory bumper it sits tight. (When I had it stock)

Now I have a aftermarket bumper and same deal hugs the bumper.

Now it clears my pumpkin when froading, no contacting muffler and chopped tips look better I'm happy

I'm running a 285/70 btw

 

I had the same issue clearing a 33" spare and always wondered how people were able to just hoist it in no problem - maybe it was a 2012+ vs 2006 issue - good to know!

I've since gone back to a 32" which now fits just fine