CT Spare tyre.....Front or Rear ?

[albany_nomads]

What with the talk of Ball weights lately..plus getting ready for 3 week camper break at the end of march..its got me wondering if I should mount the spare tyre on the rear swing tailgate.
In front of my campers wheels are 40 litres of water, 20 litres of fuel....
Then on the draw bar I have a tool box which holds a smallish generator, battery, extension leads and tents pegs and chocks etc.
It then holds a 31 " spare tyre
Im thinking about shifting the spare to the rear but have concerns that the spare just hanging off the rear gate whilst on the front it SITS on the draw bar.
Any thoughts or photos of spare tyre mount mods would be much appreciated...much appreciated..John

[HEM19X]

John,

Having it on the tailgate certainly reduces the ball weight BUT unless the tailgate is strong enough and more importantly well hinged, you will create problems with opening & closing it.

Our Trackabout has three 30 x 30 steel tubes [2.5mm I think] which supports the rear wheel carrier along with very srtong hinges & we haven't had any problems so far.

Regards

Hem

[Jusel]

Really depends on the camper.  How you load the camper, axle position and drawbar length are all major factors. 

Take a reading of your ball weight when the camper is fully loaded before you do anything.  If its more than about 10% of the total weight of the camper then you could consider moving the spare.  Be careful though as the amount of weight that moving the spare to the back takes off the drawbar is not a simple equation as other factors come into play.

As has already been mentioned you also need to consider the strength of the rear of your trailer and tailgate to support the weight.

In saying all that I have a 2007 Complete Campsite and I have moved my spare to the tailgate as the weigth distrubution was terrible.  Which is probably why the new complete campsites have the spare mounted on the tailgate from factory 

[albany_nomads]

Thanks for that Jusel and Hem..
I was doing a few searches of the swag forum and it seems some members have heaps more in front of their CT wheels than I have 
Kind Regards

[Heiny]

I moved the spare wheel to rear of my EzyTrail, I just modified the existing spare wheel carrier and welded it onto the hinge side of the tailgate, we have been over some rough roads and its fine so far.