[fordnut350]

My company has about 10 E350's, 2004 and up, and I suggested that we have a rack built to store extra tires and rims (4-8) in case a vehicle gets a flat or has a tire going down. It seemed easier to grab a tire off the rack then crawling under the back to change a tire. Also a flat won't be put back under the van and forgot about. My question is the bolt pattern the same for 2004 and up E350's? I'm looking for the stock steel rims.

 

[MADVAN]

YES SRW
YES DRW


Bill

 

[fordnut350]

Thanks Madvan. I forgot to mention SRW or DRW. Most of them are SRW and thats what I'm building the rack for.

 

[AL_Fishing]

I have a new set of four steel rims, when I got my van new I took off the rims-wheelcovers and bought a set of Alcoa rims. I have the steel rims in the alcoa boxes.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

All E250 / E350 are 8 on 6.5". 92+ are 7" wide rims.

However there is no need to crawl under the Econoline to get the spare down. It cranks down on a cable and all you have to do is reach down, pull the spare backwards from under the truck and take the cable out.

If all the trucks are used locally, you might as well take all the spares out and keep them inside your warehouse. No sense having a (heavy) spare on the truck that you aren't going to use. And that way you can "use up" the factory spares rather than have them dry rot away under the trucks.

 

[AL_Fishing]

Dr_Roboto,

You are the Doctor for sure,

I have the spare under my van, full size, and I never removed it in 7 years. Do you think it's a good idea to buy a new Michelin to match the 4 new ones I just got?

I have a Powertank.com C02 air tank to fill a tire that may have a screw/;nail etc.

The idea is to fill the tire and plug it without removing the tire. I have a nice kit, camel tan/brown colored square plug stickey 2" or so on a strip type plugs.

I plugged a tire using this method one time with my old tires.

I am thinking about buying one of these new jacks,

http://www.awdirect.com/finditem.cfm?itemid=23670

and I could replace the tire if it's beyond a plug type repair.

The powertank will run a 1/2" drive air gun to remove the lugs quickly, I need to practice to remove the spare tire.

 

[Mr_Roboto]

Some of the newer vans have a "guard" in front of the hole for the spare. There is a plastic wingnut that you need to take out to remove the "guard". I assume it is there to keep the spare from being stolen when the van is new. The guard is best used for throwing practice.

The older vans use the screwdriver end of the lugwrench to drop the spare, newer ones use the "crank" for the factory jack. I don't know when they changed over. (In my business I have a special tool made which has the screwdriver end and a nut on the other end so I can lower those types of spares with my impact wrench. A similar tool is factory in the Chevy Venture mini-van tool kit).

Personally I don't see the sense in buying "new" tires for the spare unless you are going to do a 5 tire rotation. I DO recommend that you remove the spare, air it to 80 psi and put it back up. Tires are not airtight, and that 7 year old spare probably has about 20 - 30 psi in it by now.

If you can afford a Rak-Jack for a "just in case" tire change you're a better man than me. A "stubby" hydraulic bottle jack (with screw height adjustment) in conjuction with the factory mechanical bottle jack should be more than adequate. Remember to ALWAYS set the parking brake, the trans park mechanism is useless once one rear wheel is jacked up.

I recommend the 2 jacks because often with a flat on a vehicle with tall tires, the axle is too low to get a jack under, and if you jack under the frame you can't get the axle high enough to get the inflated wheel on. But you CAN jack the frame up high enough to get the second jack under the axle. A shortcut is to drive the flat tire up on a piece of 4x4 lumber or whatever is handy. This is particularly useful on very low cars (Taurus and Neon) where you can't get ANY jack under the car with the tire being flat.

*On edit* a story about those sticky plugs. When I was new in business, I bought a thrashed 92 E250. The tires on it were junk, but there were 2 tires with about 60% tread in the back. Turned out one had a 3/4" gash in the tread area. Well I packed about 4 of those sticky plugs in that gash, and ran those tires till they were bald. Not that I recommend such "repairs" or running them for that long, but it works.

 

[bork]

Good reminder to watch out for that cable lift for spares. I'll post a new thread to warn others.