My 923 to 923A1 Spare Tire Conversion

After reading 05blackduramax's thread on converting to an A1, I decided to post some pictures on how I accomplished mine. I installed an A2 spare tire carrier and boom assembly with minimum modifications. The first picture shows it before I cut and rewelded the grab handle. It has to be moved forward since the intake snorkle was swung forward to gain more clearance for the wider spare. Picture # 4 is an upward shot showing how I spaced the forward diagonal brace with longer bolts and spacers to allow the tire to ride as far forward as possible. I also removed the hooks for a soft top since mine is a hard top cab. Not necessary but I did. The last 3 pictures show where I cut about 3" off of the aft brace mount for clearance for the bed since I couldn't use the diagonal brace anyways. The A2 carrier bolted right in place of the old one. All in all, I spent more time looking and thinking then actually work on the swap. I have raised and lowered the spare a few times and am happy with it. This post is also for Karl Kostman whose thread prompted me to do this. Many thanks to Acme66 too for some of the ideas I used.

This is great,looks real good. What are the differences in the A1 and A2 spare tire carrier and boom assembly. Did you have to cut the length any?

Without having an A1 carrier, I honestly don't know if there are any differences. I would guess that they are the same. No length was cut at all. Only the ear for the aft diagonal mount was trimmed. Five of 6 mount holes lined up perfectly so I bolted it in with the 5 with the 6th one being on the bottom so I left it out.

The A1 tire carrier is 90" long and 15.5" wide, the A1 carrier I have has a tool box mounted on the passenger side.

Here are the pictures that you wanted 05duramax. The A2 carrier measures 53.5" long. The original A0 was approximately 55". It sounds like you have one off of a tractor.

Andy that turned out very nice and your idea of using the A2 Davit was definately a good one! Now of course I have to complicate things a bit more on my truck since I have an LWS on it, I am most definately going to have to trim the lip of the bed off and reweld just the curved part back on, the rear legs of the LWS take a fair amount of room behind the cab, BUT you have given me the inspiration (kick in the butt) I need to get this project done. Again Andy congrats it looks very well done and thanks for texting me the pics and posting the info!
I will post when I get done Andy
Karl

Thanks,Andy yes the one I have is off a tractor,I will just have to trim it down a little.

Thanks for posting. I am working on mine now, but plan on keeping the A0 carrier for now. I cut some angle iron brackets to support the 395-85-20 where it sits so the tire doesn't sit on the vertical edges of the narrow A0 carrier. It will cause the tire to sit about 2" higher than it would on an A1/A2 carrier. If I don't like it I can change it later. Either way I have to move the air intake, the grab handle, and cut off the soft top hooks for extra wiggle room. These 395's with run flats are heavy pigs, but they are nice to have. Removing rims isn't much of fun though. Luckily I conned Silverstate55 into doing a few.

I have a question...

To install a sparetire carrier on a 5 ton truck, how much distance is required for the bed to be setback from the back of the cab? I am about to get a bed installed on my M54A2 and want to leave enough room to keep a spare tire behind the cab in the future. Also I need to mention that my bed will have a hoist to make it dump capable so it may need a bit more clearance than standard?

Is 16" enough or should it be more of a setback?

steelcaptain said:

I have a question...

To install a sparetire carrier on a 5 ton truck, how much distance is required for the bed to be setback from the back of the cab? I am about to get a bed installed on my M54A2 and want to leave enough room to keep a spare tire behind the cab in the future. Also I need to mention that my bed will have a hoist to make it dump capable so it may need a bit more clearance than standard?

Is 16" enough or should it be more of a setback?

Click to expand...

What size spare tire are you going to be carrying? Are you installing an A0 or A1/A2 spare tire carrier?

well, my spare is an 11.00x20

steelcaptain said:

well, my spare is an 11.00x20

Click to expand...

I measured my 923 and I have 18" between the back of the cab and the further-most-point on the bed. 16" may be tight.

thanks...that's what I told my fab shop to go with.