Cobra Trailer Spare Tire mount failure

I did the under-side mod this weekend as well. Made up a backing plate to help spread the load on the inside of the trailer. I mounted mine just behind the axle to avoid interfering with the surge brake mechanism. 4 grade 8 bolts poking down through the floor locked in place with jam nuts and fender washers on the bottom. Rim goes through the lug holes and held in place with 4 more nylock nuts with washers. Bought an aftermarket spare tire cover to keep everything from getting too messy - we'll see how/if that hold up. While I don't love the idea of crawling under the trailer, I figure that the flat tire can temporarily sit in the front of the trailer until we get to a convenient location to repair and put everything back where it belongs. In 25 years of trailering gliders I've only had 2 flats while on the road (maybe I've been lucky?), so hopefully it's a rare event.

Just to close the [recent] loop, I mounted my spare flat on the floor under the nose of the glider. BTW, I was able to "reuse" the hole in the trailer floor where a bolt securing a bracket under the floor was already secured. The bracket is a simple strut that supports the brake rod about half way back from the coupler to the axle and keeps it from flapping around. I noticed that the bracket had been bent back by a previous collision with something under the trailer, not seriously but enough that it would have given me pause to locate the spare tire there. There's not much load on the bracket or the spare tire.

I have 13" wheels but went up one size in tire the last time I bought them to get more ground clearance (don't recall the size). As a result, the tire is JUST small enough to lie flat between the wings and not interfere with the spar dollies rolling in and out. Conceptually, the factory mounting the tire above the nose cone gives a lot more flexibility because there's more width there (due to the wing root shape) and the dollies are irrelevant. But obviously the load on the mount is a lot higher.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
U.S.A.

And, yes, getting at the spare will require pulling out the fuselage on the side of the road. But that's a reasonable price to pay for me even though I've had more than a few trailer flats over the years.

Chip Bearden
ASW 24 "JB"
U.S.A.