Outer Limits 4x4 Board

hi, can anyone tell me what is the largest spare tyre i can fit in the back of a 91 SWB Vitara? This in turn determines the size of the rest of the tyres (thinking of 30"s)

do you mean ON the spare wheel carrier or IN the back of the vehicle cargo area?

i mean on the spare wheel carrier

soft top or hardtop?

soft top

I would not really worry about the size of the spare, unless of course you are going to extreme places, the stock spare will get you home.

I do not carry a spare, and I spoz stupidly, go alone, never tell anyone when im going, or where, as everyone that I know cannot follow anyways.

I air down to between 5-7PSI, never even contemplate trouble. I have had my girl up on two wheels often, sideways, yet never dun a tyre off rim.

Only ever done that on my Range Rover, suzi is a light thing.

My 225/75/15 sits on nicely, clears the top of the bumper by about an inch and the door by 1/2" so I would say that you could fit a 30x9.5 before running into problems.

i've modded my carrier to fit a 31 & i reckon i could get a 33 on it but my biggest concern would be the weight hanging off the tail gate.

atari4x4 wrote:i've modded my carrier to fit a 31 & i reckon i could get a 33 on it but my biggest concern would be the weight hanging off the tail gate.

I have no spare, because i want my girl as light as possible, nothing not needed, stripped bare.

I've had a 31"MTR on completely aired down and you have to give it a good push to shut the rear door. It's pretty easy to make up a bracket to take larger tyres though although the weight starts to have an impact on the carrier mount.

There are a couple of Factory mount variations and I can't remember off hand which one I had when I had the 31 on it.

as mentioned you don't need your spare to match the others. I reckon just get the tallest skinny tyre that comes somewhat close to what size you want to run. If it's out by an inch or so it's no great drama. I don't see the point in running the same size spare especially when you are going bigger on your tyres

I think it depends on what you are doing. Going out for a bit of play it may not be too critical but going away for a bigger trip and not being able to get it fixed might be a bigger issue. I have seen a 27" go on in place of a damaged 32" and with some snatching as it then had to be driven in 2wd, got back to the road then drove to a nearby town that luckily could fix the tyre overnight. That wasn't too bad as we were almost out of the bush anyway but in other circumstances it could have been a real pain. Horses for courses.

Putting a 30"on a Vit shouldn't be much of a problem.

I think the soft top spare wheel carrier is a little higher than a hard top.

This was my mod to clear the rear bumper before a made up a new bumper.

Running 30" MTR.

The answer to the question is a 30"x9.5

thanks folks for all your input. With the possibilty of running a LSD in the rear, id rather the same size tyre and it would be handy for longer trips. So anyways, looks like 30s will be it!

i have a 30 on my SWB vit and it just touches the rear bumper

suzukiboy wrote:I think the soft top spare wheel carrier is a little higher than a hard top.

This was my mod to clear the rear bumper before a made up a new bumper.

Running 30" MTR.

Thats a great idea, my 31" only just fits, it has left marks on the bar and makes it so you need to give the door a good shove to close it.

Sweet, takes the weight off the door.

i got 31's and 31" spare didnt move the rear mount but bent the rear bar support down a bit so the tyre fit nice, only about 10mm...

weight is an issue, even though it touches my rear bar the tail gate has pretty much started to fall apart, inside frame is all cracked and outside has cracks in the panel.. spare will break my tailgate soon and i will lose my spare..

got a new one, will look at the old one before i put the new one on and where ever there is cracks in the frame i will weld up some extra supports on the new one to beef it up a bit

if the mount is moved up higher it will put more stress on the rear tailgate.

With the rear mount the rear spare has a bit of spring when I hit bumps and I modified the door rubber mount as well so it does move around as well.

I had a custom bracket on mine to clear a 31" x 10.5 BFG muddy, but with the extra leverage on the door due to the different location of the centre of mass of the wheel, it put cracks all through the door.

So, I had a custom rear bar made (after a 2" BL) then used a standard carrier on a modified tail gate. Essentially, inside the tail gate there is a triangle brace made of square box section steel which runs the length of the gate. It is welded all along the bottom and up along the hinge side.

Haven't had a problem with cracking or alignment issues, tyre sits about 5mm off the rear bar. Door shuts with little to no effort (had a bit of fun adjusting it to do that, and be supported properly at the same time).

With a 2 inch body lift and a sagged bumper ( from bodylift ) i could fit a 31.5 inch tyre on the back just.