I know this may have been discussed, but I couldn't find any threads on it through the search. Tried searching "spare tire loose", "spare tire wobble".

Problem: spare tire is loose or wobbly . When the truck goes over bumps or road imperfections, the wheel swings in the back, as seen in the video below. It seems to have way too much movement for a 35-50lb object. It only seems to wobble side to side. It doesn't have any issues front-to-back

The carrier chain, to my knowledge, is tight up against the frame. I've tried tightening it (gently, didn't want to break anything) with the tool, but it won't go up any further. I went under the spare tire and pushed up, and it wouldn't go up any higher, so it makes me believe the wheel is all the way up as high as it can go.
The wheel is facing upwards.

I looked at the Nissan dealers parts page, and can't find any brackets or wedges that might prevent this.

Is there a spacer or a rubber wedge of some sort that is supposed to prevent the wheel from wobbling side to side? When I dropped the wheel, I didn't see any mounting bracket or a place where a wedge would have been.

If there is no wedge, other than relocating the spare wheel, what have others done to "fix" this?

Flip the wheel face down and see if it will secure, if that works then the chain mechanism simply isn't pulling all the way up. It may be jamming or kinking for some reason at the top of its travel. Depending on your tire size, the tire may be wedging against the frame and body front-to-back, but there's really nothing to wedge against side-to-side. So if it isn't coming up tight against the body, it's going to rock.

You may want to inspect your chain assembly better. I have two and both doesn't have that problem.

silverarrow27 wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 09, 2024 2:46 am

You may want to inspect your chain assembly better. I have two and both doesn't have that problem.

+1. It's a "continuous feed" mechanism with no mechanical stop except for the tire hitting the body, so something else like a bent link has to be stopping it.

if you cannot figure out a solution just put a scrap of wood or something between the wheel and the body.

I apologize for the LONG LONG delay in response. Have been trying to find time to get underneath the truck to address some of the suggestions and advice given here - I've just kept getting sidetracked and making excuses (it's been hot the past few weeks ; central california area). But excuses aside, here's what I've tried so far, and some observations:

VStar650CL wrote: ↑

Sat Jun 08, 2024 6:01 am

Flip the wheel face down and see if it will secure, if that works then the chain mechanism simply isn't pulling all the way up. It may be jamming or kinking for some reason at the top of its travel. Depending on your tire size, the tire may be wedging against the frame and body front-to-back, but there's really nothing to wedge against side-to-side. So if it isn't coming up tight against the body, it's going to rock.

I tried flipping the tire with the wheel facing down, rather than up - which is how it seems to be from factory, given the protective mat that is still intact.
Depsite flipping the tire, it still has the same wobble

VStar650CL wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 09, 2024 6:19 am

silverarrow27 wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 09, 2024 2:46 am

You may want to inspect your chain assembly better. I have two and both doesn't have that problem.

+1. It's a "continuous feed" mechanism with no mechanical stop except for the tire hitting the body, so something else like a bent link has to be stopping it.

I hope it's not something with the carrier assembly. I dropped the spare wheel recently, and did more of an inspection - this time taking photos.

What I'm guessing is that those two "prongs" (for lack of better word at the moment) at the forward-of-the-well and rearward-of-the-well (Prongs are highlighted with red markup in photos) might be too low. When I wind up the spare-wheel until it stops, the tire-sidewalls are indeed in contact with those two foward- and rearward prongs, and I cannot wind the carrier assembly any further. In the photo of just the spare-wheel, the indentation of the forward prong can be seen - so as to indicate how "tight" the wheel is pulled up by the carrier.

Then there are "railings, highlighted with yellow markup, which run to the sides of the spare-wheel well. That is where the wheel is allowed to wobble side-to-side.
So either the prongs (red) are too low, or the railings (yellow) are too high/recessed. I'm hoping there wasn't some sort of collision to the rear that may have buckled the spare-wheel well, thus causing those two prongs (red) to be lower.
I'll try to bend/push those prongs(red) up to see if I can make it align with the railings(yellow) to reduce the wobble.

While I had the spare wheel down, I did hit the carrier assembly with some brake kleen and sprayed some white lithium grease up into the assembly.

AS_The_Crow_Flys wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 18, 2024 9:29 am

if you cannot figure out a solution just put a scrap of wood or something between the wheel and the body.

This is what I've done for now. I put some rubber foot mat scraps that I bought for the interior. I placed these scraps where the sidewall would make contact with the railings (yellow). It's helping a little so far, but I used the rubber scraps, as I worry if the truck is jarred or jolted (eg. pot hole, poor road surfaces, etc), it may dislodge the makeshift wedge. That way, if it's soft-rubber scraps, it wouldn't damage any cars behind me. So, if bending the two forward and rearward prongs (red) up doesn't help, I'll have to find some permanent method to fasten the wedges so they don't fall out and run smack into a car behind me on the roadways.

All of the contact points appear to be attached to the frame so if you don't see any damage its probably not that. It does look like one of the ears (you marked in red) - the one on the diff side has contact marks where the dirt is rubbed clean but the one on the bumper side does not. It may be that you just need to wiggle the wheel into the right place to get it fully seated.

That being said, if none of that works, you can probably just adjust those ears provided it doesn't bring the wheel in so close that it is pressed against any bolts.

Yep, looks like you may have to wiggle your wheel. Get under there when it's nearly at the top and inspect the areas around the wheel. Sometimes I slowly crank it up and get back under there and wiggle it around til it "falls into place". 33" tires are able to fit into that area.