Hi. We had an upgrade performed on our 150 series Altitude where our spare normally lives underneath. We did this so we could upgrade our caravan from 2,500 to 2,850 KG ATM and our Prado was 2,500 KG BTC - it's now 3,100 BTC. We were told at the last minute that our spare could no longer be stored below as the replacement towing kit has a bar going straight across where one edge of the spare tyre is located - unlike the original which is designed to go around it.
We've lived with our spare in the rear storage area for a while now but it takes up lot of space. I've contacted a custom towbar company who have said they could probably construct a custom-made towbar to suit and with the right towing capacity. My concern (apart from price!) is that Lovell's said that the upgrade components have been signed off as being compliant for those components only (I now have a 5T Hitch-Easy rather than the DO35 hitch for this reason) so it would seem that I would not be compliant if I went down this path even though it would be safe in that all components would be rated to be higher than that needed.
Has anyone come across this before? Or is there a better place to store the spare? I've seen the setup where the spare is held on an arm that swing away from the door but that's more expensive than the hitch replacement. Replacing the rear door with a non-Altitude door from a wreckers could be an option, so the spare is mounted on the door, although I'm not sure if they match in size/hing location etc. I'm new to Pradopoint and can't find anything in a search.
We've lived with our spare in the rear storage area for a while now but it takes up lot of space. I've contacted a custom towbar company who have said they could probably construct a custom-made towbar to suit and with the right towing capacity. My concern (apart from price!) is that Lovell's said that the upgrade components have been signed off as being compliant for those components only (I now have a 5T Hitch-Easy rather than the DO35 hitch for this reason) so it would seem that I would not be compliant if I went down this path even though it would be safe in that all components would be rated to be higher than that needed.
Has anyone come across this before? Or is there a better place to store the spare? I've seen the setup where the spare is held on an arm that swing away from the door but that's more expensive than the hitch replacement. Replacing the rear door with a non-Altitude door from a wreckers could be an option, so the spare is mounted on the door, although I'm not sure if they match in size/hing location etc. I'm new to Pradopoint and can't find anything in a search.
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