As we all know as soon as you go above stock tire size the underbed spare becomes useless. Rather than lug a useless donut around I was wanting to turn it into a storage area. Anyone have success putting door on that space? I figure it would be good to stuff heavier recovery gear etc in.

 

I'm not aware of anyone, the most I know of anyone doing with that space is either an aux tank or train horns. It is an interesting idea though. What year truck are we talking about?

 

No reason you couldn't do that
Storage box could be frame wide but opening at the top should be smaller than the cut out hatch in the bed so water can run out and not into the storage box, lol

Need to add cross braces frame rail to frame rail, but storage box can act as cross bracing , and re-enforce the hatch so it won't deform if a heavy load was on it

Depth of the storage box may be an issue off road so don't make it too deep

 

I have a 98 B4000
Auxilary tank sounds interesting. What would fit?
Train horns facing backwards for tailgaters sounds fun too.

 

Well I said aux tank because some early (80s) Rangers had a second aux tank in that location. Those components aren't available new any more and are near impossible to find in good used condition. Usualy when it's done aftermarket someone is installing a fuel cell there as their main tank. There's a thread talking about this idea over on TRS right now IIRC.

I actually think your idea of storage might be a better use of the space if you can come up with a good access method. That's why I was asking about the year, to find out which style of spare tire carrier you have and let ideas start bouncing around in my head. My stipulation would be that I wouldn't want to cut the bed floor so I'd be more looking at a storage space that was accessable from under the truck. Maybe build a custom box that can winch down like the original spare and fit in the same space. That said, what would you even put in a storage location like that? It would be impractical to access for most things and only makes sense for the spare due to infrequency of use.

 

I did not know some of the early ones had an aux tank. That would explain the second hump in the bed which I assume was for the filler tube.
Right now it is an idea I am toying with. No sense lugging that tiny spare around but I have to see the space go to waste.