Spare tire wear

I recently swapped out my spare tire and noticed it had wear marks from rubbing against the metal housing underneath the bed. The pictures attached aren’t as bad as the ones I had stored there for 6 years, the wear on those was significantly deeper on the sidewalls.

Has anyone found a good solution to avoid this while still storing the spare under the bed?

I have 285/70R17 BFGs with a 2017 Tacoma Offroad

 

Rubber stall mat that people use for DIY bed mats, cut into a circle. Found at farm or tractor supply stores, or so I hear. There’s a rubber wholesaler down the street from my house so I use scraps I got for free.
I just lay two rectangles on the spare before I hoist it up, but there’s several users here that have made it much nicer.

Mention of it
Edit: I can’t find the posts, but have definitely seen people post pics of their rubber spare covers.
Also it doesn’t take much torque on the hoist to keep the spare securely in place. The spring on the lil hook doesn’t need to be even close to fully compressed.

 

^^ If you feel the need. Otherwise, there is nothing wrong with the slight rub marks on your spare.

 

Baja Champion eh...I mean, rubbin's racin', after all...

 

Absolutely normal on that type of spare tire carrier.

 

Part out its totaled

 

Just looked closer and realized those are the KO3s. How long have you been running them? Any thoughts/opinions on them yet?

 

I suppose I will be helpful; not sure where you live, OP, but I did have an instance where a cold snap dropped my spare tire pressure enough that it was loose on the chain. I had no idea, couldn't hear it at all, just happened to have an observant coworker behind me one day who asked if the hoist got stuck or something. Anyway, those marks are normal and won't hurt anything (except maybe 'denting' the sidewall a bit), but if it gets loose like mine was, it could eventually abrade some sidewall away. How long it would take for this to be an actual problem...too many variables to say.

 

Thanks for all the tips everyone. Some type of rubber cover sounds like a good idea, I’ll look closer into those options. Yeah the markings on the photos I shared are not too bad, had that spare installed only for a few days, but my old KO2 spare had much deeper grooves rubbed in, good to hear it should not be an issue.

As for these new KO3s, they’re very nice and cushy and very quiet. I’ve had two sets of KO2s previously, so far BFG has been excellent. I wish I could’ve found some with raised white lettering, but it’s no biggie. I highly recommend them.

 

Rubber mat cut into a circle, like @musicisevil mentioned, but can be thinner/cheaper: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Traffic...-in-Rubber-Deck-Plate-Mat-MT1003508/206414770

I carry my spare completely deflated for maximum cut resistance, so it's less of a problem on the top side as well.

 

It weighs less as well…….great idea!