Spare tire

[Petey]

Are there any tricks to free up the spare tire hoist's secondary latch? Every time I take it down to inspect things the secondary latch gives me trouble, I mess around with it and get it freed up and working only for it to stick again. I'm not totally sold on the idea of grinding off the secondary latch because I like its purpose, but inorder to get my tire down I have to lower it down to hang on the secondary, get a floor jack to push the tire back up to the frame, then take a long screw driver to push in the latch fingers.

Has anyone found the golden ticket for maintaining it?

Second

It may be time for a new (used spare wheel). I'm finding some have/had aluminum spares.

Why did some get them and others steel?
Are they compatible with the 17" wheels?
Do the Aluminum spares start leaking around the tire bead too?

 

[Mooseman]

The secondary latch on these is overkill. Back when OEM's started putting spares under vehicles in the 80's, they first made the cables from ordinary steel and would rust and break. The cables on these are stainless. I haven't heard of a single failure of these cables. I flipped my spare around, disabling the latch. The Dorman replacement winch actually did away with the latch, however, I DO NOT recommend them since they are made of regular steel, despite the rust preventive coating.
Dorman now has spare tire hoists

If you absolutely want to keep it, all I can recommend is that you lube it to hell after cleaning it and do this once a year.

 

[Matt]

I beat the shit out of it with a hammer so it doesn't work now.

 

[RyanEAS]

I took the grinder to mine and removed the secondary latch. I have an 04 and had about 140k on it at the time. Thank God for my mechanic friend and the use of his lift. We struggled for awhile just to get the damn thing freed up enough to remove the spare. I agree with Mooseman and don't get the doorman hoist if it isn't stainless steel cable. I know you're concerned about grinding it off, but I figure if just the cable alone has been supporting the spare for the past 14 years with no problems, you shouldn't have to worry.

Something else to think about, do you really want to be struggling with the P.O.S. secondary latch if you're stuck on the side of the road trying to change a flat? Food for thought!

 

[Sparky]

I had to replace the hoist on mine because of that latch and the cable was all bound up. The new one I regularly coated the thing in grease each year and it never gave me trouble.

The latch on my Silverado's hoist was seized when I got it but the cable was OK. I got it down after fighting, and seeing the rest of the hoist was fine I just took a grinder to the latch and called it a day. The stainless cable was in perfect shape.