Best place for the spare wheel?

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cambolt

cambolt

New Member
Posts
190
Location
Kent
Hello everyone,
I'm just wondering where the best place to put the spare wheel on a defender 90 is. I'm told that mounting it on the bonnet introduces bonnet release and visibility problems, door mounted ones cause the door to fall off, and swing away mounts are expensive and you can't see out the back. What in your opinion is the best place for the wheel?
 
[JP];1206323 said:
yep, you are right on all those points...

Im going to fit mine inside, against the the back of the seats
Click to expand...
If youre going touse your vehicle for any serious off roading the wheel is best bolted behind the front seats.My memory is that the real old sries 1 that were pure off road/working vehicles had the wheel here.You wont tear off the bonnet or door.the weight is very central and the wheel is clean and dry if you need to change.:)
 
My swing away carrier leaves plenty of space to see over, depends how big your spare is...

Sod to fit mind...
 
Turboman said:
If youre going touse your vehicle for any serious off roading the wheel is best bolted behind the front seats.My memory is that the real old sries 1 that were pure off road/working vehicles had the wheel here.You wont tear off the bonnet or door.the weight is very central and the wheel is clean and dry if you need to change.:)
Click to expand...
i do p+p ,winch challenges,punch challenges,laneing etc,and ive never had a prob with mine being on a swingaway carrier
 
cambolt said:
Hello everyone,
I'm just wondering where the best place to put the spare wheel on a defender 90 is. I'm told that mounting it on the bonnet introduces bonnet release and visibility problems, door mounted ones cause the door to fall off, and swing away mounts are expensive and you can't see out the back. What in your opinion is the best place for the wheel?
Click to expand...
dont cause me any visibility issues.i much prefer to see where im going not where ive been:D

Photo0564.jpg
 
I've had mine on the bonnet for a few weeks now, plenty of milage on her and greenlaning and never had an issue. The internal frame on the bonnet copes with the weight as well as the rubber feet positioned on 4 points spreads it well.

As for the bonnet release, remove the cable and use your finger at the front of the bonnet to manually move the release across, job done.

Only issue i've had is when the bonnet is propped open you get a twist in it as the brace is only on one side, but it hasn't caused any lasting damage and if need the bonnet open for any length of time i just whip the wheel off.

Here's how i did it:

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/1184945-post46.html

and fitting the feet:

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/1187706-post64.html
 
wiltshire landyman said:
i do p+p ,winch challenges,punch challenges,laneing etc,and ive never had a prob with mine being on a swingaway carrier
Click to expand...
Never tried a swingaway carrier but it must be good. Idid remve a back door awhile back with the wheel on the door itself,two hinges broke,Ihad hit much harder than expected.Not really had much to do with modified triallers etc. just standard/lightly modded work and play vehicles.Surely its good to keep as much weight between the axles in any case?What is a punch challenge?Bit after my time,used to be inAWDC 20 years ago but they only had trials and safari then I think.:)
 
Paul, it does cause damage...

Mine had the wheel on the bonnet when I bought it, and the bonnet is slighty twisted when I close it...
dont have a clue for how long the previous owner had the tyre on the bonnet, but I think it was for quite some time
 
Ok, thanks for your responses everyone, and nice truck wiltshire landyman. But just out of interest, does anyone know why the military (generally) chooses to place the wheel on the bonnet and not on a swing away carrier or inside?
Again thanks for your responses
 
[JP];1206935 said:
Paul, it does cause damage...

Mine had the wheel on the bonnet when I bought it, and the bonnet is slighty twisted when I close it...
dont have a clue for how long the previous owner had the tyre on the bonnet, but I think it was for quite some time
Click to expand...
I would agree totally.The bonnet and the wheel together must be 100kg+and this is held at the back by two little plastic bushes which are mounted on the bulkhead,not itself always the strongest on rusty old girls(the 90s not the wives).One of the beauties of LR is that it adapts towhat you wantand requirements of a farm vehicle like mine are different to if you need to carry wife and kids but in the long term its bettr off the bonnet.In response to cambolts q.its because they dont care.The top brass are spending taxpayers money,the mechanics have time to fill and the vehicles are replaced when knacked.Not like a fanatic owner running and maintaining their own machine:)
 
[JP];1206935 said:
Paul, it does cause damage...

Mine had the wheel on the bonnet when I bought it, and the bonnet is slighty twisted when I close it...
dont have a clue for how long the previous owner had the tyre on the bonnet, but I think it was for quite some time
Click to expand...

The twist is likely to be have been caused by the person before you leaving the bonnet open for a length of time with the wheel on, the weight will cause the bonnet to twist and continuous use like this will warp the metal.

With the weight of the wheel and properly secured i can't see how it can induce a twist in the bonnet, the force is downwards, coupled with adding the ladder sections back onto the underside ( after moving like i did ) you are not removing any strength as such.

Mine has been fine, i've not noticed any warping and the bonnet is straight and true with the wheel removed, when my welding skills improve i shall be adding some extra steel brace's just to be sure ;)
 
I had mine on the bonnet for a while - just a standard sized wheel. I was always paranoid to stick my head in the engine bay with it hanging over the back of my head! Once I'd fitted bigger wheels/tyres the bonnet was out of the question anyway - I'm 6'5" and still couldn't see over the top of it. One of the online shops was doing Bearmach swing-away carriers for a good price so I went for one of those.
 
I had mine on the roof rack but then it left no room up there for anything else! I then decided to take the old three prong mount from the back door and drilled through the bulkhead behind the seats. The plate mounted perfectly behind the seats and is nicely out of the way. Highly recommend this way and as long as you have the old mount it costs nothing to do.
 
Andy Land said:
I had mine on the roof rack but then it left no room up there for anything else! I then decided to take the old three prong mount from the back door and drilled through the bulkhead behind the seats. The plate mounted perfectly behind the seats and is nicely out of the way. Highly recommend this way and as long as you have the old mount it costs nothing to do.
Click to expand...
This is just the same as what I did and you can rest your left arm on it when youre reversing onto a trailer:D
 
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