May 2023 ~ Westbrook RV Travel Log

The Winnebago Travato does not include a spare tire. We've gone two years and over 20,000 miles without needing one, but a flat in an out-of-the-way location could cause some trip delays, including a tow to a tire shop.

When a nearby Travato owner posted her Travato rims and tires for sale for $100 ea, I jumped on it. The next step is to decide where and how to mount it on the van. One company sells a rack that will replace the bike rack and use the same mounts - but we use our bike rack. Another solution is to add a tire rack on the left rear door, but this requires removing the ladder and moving the license plate holder and light. Another solution attaches to the left rear hinge and can provide a mount and ladder as well - but that is a costly solution. There are also hitch mount solutions, but that might require reinforcing the hitch. The solution I chose is to mount it on the roof - since it's not something we'll need very often.

To mount it on the roof of our 2022KL I needed to remove the rear solar panel. Since we have the lithium battery model, the solar panel is not as critical as it would be for the non-lithium model. I saw another member on the Travato Owners and Wannabees Facebook group had flipped the rack rails upside down to lower the profile of the spare. Since I had an additional rack cross rail that I had removed from the front of the van (due to the highway speed vibration issue), I decided to put three rails across to support it.

Unfortunately, that roof rail system doesn't make it easy to add bolts. Ideally, a 5/16" carriage bolt would slide into the rail and provide support to attach the extra rack. But that would require some major rack disassembly. I used some of the existing bolts, and added a few of the M6x20mm Hammer Head T-Bolts ($10 for 8). These slide into the slot and rotate into place. They aren't as robust as the existing bolts, but the load is spread over three rails.

While I had the cross rails off, I slid several 5/16" stainless carriage bolts ($9 for 8) into the channel to attach the plate and some tie down anchors ($9 for 4). The bolts are secured with a flat washer and nylon lock nuts. The hardest part is attaching the cross member back to the bracket. Since the bracket is now upside down, you have to blindly screw the bolt into the receiving nut in the channel. That nut can easily slide, so it took a little tape and patience to line it up correctly.

I purchased a spare tire carrier for roof racks ($45) and mounted that plate onto my three crossbars using the 5/16" carriage bolts I had placed in the cross members.

To lift the tire up, I used a rope and a ladder. By attaching one end of the rope to the rack, then looping the rope through the tire, I could pull it up from the roof. The simple pulley system halves the weight of the tire to less than 40 lbs. With someone else guiding it up the ladder (set as an inclined plane, it was quite easy. On the road, I'll only have the stock ladder, but with two people it won't be difficult to lower and lift using the rope system.

Once on the roof, the tire and rim are locked down to the plate with the supplied J-bolt. Here's where I had some difficulty. I first had the tire laid with the outside face down. The problem was the threads didn't go down the J-bolt far enough. I cut a wood shim, but the bottom hook of the J-bolt came up enough to interfere with that shim. So, I flipped the tire over and attached it that way.

I added a tire cover ($17) to protect the tire from exposure, then crossed some straps over, mainly to keep the cover from blowing off. The screw down arm sticks up a bit under the cover, but overall it should work well.

Total cost: $90 for the rack parts, $18 for a 10 meter rope, and $100 for the rim and tire. Total of $208, and we now have a spare on the road with us. And before you ask, I didn't center it on the roof, so I could keep a bit more clearance around the a/c for airflow.