15jul2021
Posting as a reply to Sleeping Dog but of course for all forum members to read.
I received the LANDED GEAR Promaster Spare Tire Mount about noon today. Had lunch first and started on this project about 12:55. Add some small talk time and misc other, it was done by 3 but actual time for everything including putting the few tools required away and final cleanup? Just about an hour total. The job should be done with two people so my wife and I did this together.
Packaging inside the shipping carton, excellent. Small hardware in a box and inside that box, all parts were grouped in bags clear vision bags. The mount itself fit the carton with it's own simple packing that insured everything would ship best possible. Instructions included of course, along with an excellent template. A terrific start.
I did watch their video so I already had an idea of the process. The 3 pages of instructions are however, all you will require. Concise steps and illustrations leave no question what to do. The template was pre-punched with the locations to drill the door. In this case, I ordered the kit for the passenger side rear door so the template included in the kit was for that.
The first step is to remove the inner door panel, an easy and quick process to do right of the bat.
With a clean exterior door surface, I used some of the blue "paint" masking tape to secure the template which again the instructions clearly indicated where to place. I have a spring loaded punch so that provided me with the center to use a 1/8 inch drill bit. That was followed by a Step Drill which I had marked to use the 7/16 inch ring as the final size of the four holes. Step Drills leave a fairly clean hole but I have another bit for my drill to clean any of the minor burrs left by the Step Drill. I strongly recommend this is the only drill you use to make these holes, beyond the standard 1/8" drill bit for the starter holes.
The following steps in the provided instructions define what is also shown in the included illustration for stacking specific spacers and insulators on either side of the door for the upper and lower bolts. There are also door Stiffeners added to the lower bolts on the inside of the door. Once all of the components are installed and tightened, the frame of the spare tire mount is solidly mounted with what I feel is excellent engineering for load bearing the mount and spare tire on these doors. In the final steps, you place a door "check" strap to insure the door with spare in place does not swing to far open. After the check strap is in place, you align your 70 lb tire and wheel (standard cast wheel and tire for the Travato) on the mount alignment pins and then secure the tire with the also provided lug bolts. A deep well socket for the lug bolts is also provided in the kit!
This is one very well thought out and engineered product! And it was frankly a blast for my wife and I to install. Really!
Getting back to your question Sleeping Dog re what is the long term effect of a spare mounted on the rear door, in 2-3 years I might be able to answer that. What do I think? Bearing in mind the other poster that made reference to door skin separation and another that linked a video re adjusting the door alignment? Over time, any door can require adjustment. RE skin separation, I've never heard or seen a ProMaster door having skin separation. I don't imagine it would suffer any different than other brand/model van doors. They appear to be manufactured quite well to me. I can tell you this; I climb the Roof Rack ladder a lot. I mean a lot. Because I am a ham radio operator with antennas on the roof and in particular my HF antenna that I tie down for travel (still works in limited fashion) and put up vertical at every overnight and many day-only stops. 185 to 190 pounds of me going up and down for that and for oft-cleaning of the original single solar panel, now two up there. The drivers door is no worse for the wear or alignment for nearly 3 years of my climbing. I was only worried about the aluminum rungs on the ladder but these are fine so I stopped worrying about that. The ladder storage frame on the door is not as secure nor has the well spaced, weight distribution hardware that this LANDED GEAR Spare Tire Mount has. 187-ish pounds of me up and down or a 70 lb tire and lets say 5 lbs (guessing on the fly) of the tire mount itself. I think it will be fine. Granted, that 70 lbs is in place while trundling down the road with all of it's pot holes and bumps. I don't see the FWD PM and WB coach as an off road rig. If I did, then I'd expect the interior coach to be built way differently than the Travato and many Class B's regardless of chassis are built for. Buying the right rig for the purpose matters. My wife and I are mostly done with what I call "dirt" camping. Not an offence to that. We've done a lot of that in earlier years and now we simply road travel.
Obviously a solid frame mounted tire mount with an axle-like spindle for the swing away is the optimal solution if one knows their RV use is destined for rougher use. But for much expected use from sedate roads to some level of off road, my opinion is that the PM doors with this mount is up to the task. If I set it up correctly, you should be able to see my installation pictures at the link below. Apologies in advance if I muffed that and need to provide picture access another way.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/il5pl9s6o...5aoN3hfva?dl=0
For those that might like have what I did on my RAM Promaster 3500EXT/WINNEBAGO Travato 59K, you can find this tire mount at this URL below. No-- I don't work for them and never been to their facility. My wife found this mount online. Link below takes you direct to the Passenger side version but poke around their site for the Left door version or other stuff they have.
https://landedgear.com/collections/s...ight-hand-door
StoryRVwego
Landed Gear Spare Mount
Linear Mode
