The spare tire drop

Before you build a floor, you need to know what’s under it.

The Ford Transit carries its spare tire in a cradle underneath the cargo area, right where you’d want to mount a water tank or a storage box or anything else that hangs low. You can lower it with a long tool that threads through the bumper, assuming you can find the access point and the mechanism isn’t rusted shut.

Mine wasn’t rusted. Yet. But it also wasn’t going to clear the skid plate I plan to install, and I’d rather deal with that now than after I’ve built a floor over it.

The process

Drop the spare. Unbolt the cradle. Clean the frame rails while you’re under there because when else are you going to do it. Decide whether to relocate the spare inside the van (takes up cargo space), on the roof (requires a beefy rack), or ditch it entirely and carry a plug kit and a compressor (the choice most van-lifers make, eventually).

I haven’t decided yet. The spare is in my apartment closet.

What I learned

The fuel tank is bigger than I thought. The exhaust routing is simpler than I expected. There’s a wiring harness for the factory upfitter switches that I’ll use later. And the frame rails have more mounting points than the manual shows.

Next: homework and parts hunt.