Fummins New Career?

[Fummins]

What you said about that spare tire......my *new* 2011 Sierra, replaced my Tacoma last year.
I found the lock you described while going over it last spring and got 3 skips tossing it into the lake.
Then found the plastic guide tube had become detached from the chain hoist, lotsa fun getting the crank handle into that!
Doused it with chain lube.
I'd like to kick the GM engineer that thunk that up right in his gooseberries.....
It's nice to get out, I managed 3 trips this year.

I didn’t know Toyota was into that too? I only got 2 10 day trips and went out again last long weekend. Might go out one last time in October, money and family dependent.
The guy we helped out was pretty hooped. His truck got broke into a while back and they stole the jack kit from it. He bought a replacement kit from a wrecker but it was from an 1998 and older truck that used a different socket to lower the spare lol.
Today I had to do some front end work on this thing. I gotta change rear shocks tomorrow so might have to dink with getting the spare down. Still, have no regerts.

[strawboss]

I wasn't clear in my post about the spare, the crank/winch on my Tacoma's spare was easily accessed,with no need for the tube used on the Sierra, I hate nasty surprises while dealing withbreakdowns in the bush,so any new vehicle gets a once over beforehand.
The Sierra is a nice truck,just uses a lot of fuel,but that's why I have the Mirage....

[7milesout]

I hate nasty surprises while dealing withbreakdowns in the bush,so any new vehicle gets a once over beforehand.
The Sierra is a nice truck,just uses a lot of fuel,but that's why I have the Mirage....

strawboss - I have a 2003 Sierra. I would imagine it is the same or similar issue. I'm not 100% sure I'm following the issue. Looks like I need to drop the spare tire, check how that works. I don't think the spare tire has EVER been messed with. Wouldn't hurt to check the mechanism and make sure that tire has air in it. I wouldn't want a nasty surprise ever.

Every time I use the Sierra, I like it more and more. It's very user friendly. The Mirage is a cute little clown car that is easy and cheap for everything. My Ram is like a Sherman tank. Loud, cantankerous, a chore to park, but can do everything a man might want to do. The Sierra is excellent middle ground. The 4.8L isn't too horrible on mpg, but plenty o' power.

[strawboss]

strawboss - I have a 2003 Sierra. I would imagine it is the same or similar issue. I'm not 100% sure I'm following the issue. Looks like I need to drop the spare tire, check how that works. I don't think the spare tire has EVER been messed with. Wouldn't hurt to check the mechanism and make sure that tire has air in it. I wouldn't want a nasty surprise ever.

Every time I use the Sierra, I like it more and more. It's very user friendly. The Mirage is a cute little clown car that is easy and cheap for everything. My Ram is like a Sherman tank. Loud, cantankerous, a chore to park, but can do everything a man might want to do. The Sierra is excellent middle ground. The 4.8L isn't too horrible on mpg, but plenty o' power.

The basic issue with the spare tire assembly is the tube that runs from the rear bumper to the mechanism that holds the spare tire.
GM decided to design a plug style lock that hides behind a flap next to the license plate, the key unlocks the plug, you slide the 2 piece bar that is used with the jack down this tube and it engages the slot internal to the cable winch and cranking the spare down.

The lock corrodes internally and the key no longer works, so no way to remove the plug.
I was lucky, my truck was a former company vehicle with a maintenance contract, so it got lubricated.
I still pitched the lock as how many thieves bother stealing spares?

However there's a plastic tube almost 3 feet long that guides the 2 piece bar into the winch, above the spare, out of sight.
In my case the tube got knocked free of the winch so the tube was guiding the crank bar to a dead end.
Took me over an hour to hit the winch's drive slot, purely by chance, all by feel/guesswork.
With the spare free of the truck I could now see what was wrong, it wasn't easy to fix but now it's all good.
I still don't know how the tube got dislodged or why it wasn't repaired promptly by the previous owner.

It's a case of a picture being worth a thousand words, but if I had not did my due diligence I would've been euchered trying to change a tire by the side of the highway, in the dark, in winter....the usual scenario for all my flats.....

Yeah I agree the 4.8 is a great engine, good power simple and reliable, my family had a 283 small block V8 in a sedan in the 60's that is the ancestor of this engine, it never failed us.
The only thing about my Sierra is the turning radius.It's Huuuge!
The Queen Mary is easier to park, that and the brake pedal sits too high in relation to the gas pedal, I'm still getting used to that.

[Fummins]

I wasn't clear in my post about the spare, the crank/winch on my Tacoma's spare was easily accessed,with no need for the tube used on the Sierra, I hate nasty surprises while dealing withbreakdowns in the bush,so any new vehicle gets a once over beforehand.
The Sierra is a nice truck,just uses a lot of fuel,but that's why I have the Mirage....

I misread your post. I read sienna not sierra. That little lock that’s in the tube wasn’t the issue. There is a safety latch built into the actual winch that will prevent the tire from being lowered. I don’t have a pic handy, shouldn’t be hard to find it online. I took a grinder to it on the work trucks after the first roadside flat.

I can’t remember what year they came out with that, the 99’s didn’t have it iirc but maybe around 03-04?

[strawboss]

I misread your post. I read sienna not sierra. That little lock that’s in the tube wasn’t the issue. There is a safety latch built into the actual winch that will prevent the tire from being lowered. I don’t have a pic handy, shouldn’t be hard to find it online. I took a grinder to it on the work trucks after the first roadside flat.

I can’t remember what year they came out with that, the 99’s didn’t have it iirc but maybe around 03-04?

A safety latch....wow.First I've heard of, I didn't find one on my '11 Sierra, thankfully
I would've made that disappear too.....

[7milesout]

The only thing about my Sierra is the turning radius.It's Huuuge!
The Queen Mary is easier to park, that and the brake pedal sits too high in relation to the gas pedal, I'm still getting used to that.

My Sierra (my dad's until he passed) is a SCSB 2WD. Full size trucks don't get any smaller as far as I know. It's very much like a sports car / hot rod of a pickup truck. It's what nastrucks are based on. It cuts / whips / dodges / perrys almost as good as the Mirage. I don't notice the brake pedal being too far back. But what I do notice is the brake pedal has some dead travel first. A little dead travel no problem, but this one seems to have to travel 3 or 4 inches before the brakes get around to doing something. However,

I had an idiot lady I was following (from a safe distance back) turn right onto a road ahead of me, quickly stop, slam it into reverse, and just come bull-charging backward RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME, as if I didn't even exist. I gave that brake pedal a stomp so hard I don't know how it didn't go through the firewall and impact the engine block. And as the truck was slowing, I swerved a bit to the left (toward a luckily vacant oncoming lane) and in my mind I was thinking, "this is an impact!" I don't know how that truck did it, but it stopped a couple feet short of her when she finally stopped right in middle of the road. She startled when she heard what little tire skid there was and saw a passenger window full of the GMC symbol on the grill. And then, she just sat there, like it was my job to move out of her way. At which point I gave her about a 10 second blast on the horn. She panicked again, threw it into Drive and went back onto the road she backed out of. I went on my way. So even though there's some pedal play, man that 4,500 pound truck stopped quicker than I thought it was going to, I was impressed. But I druther not do that again.

[Wallythacker]

Not for another $5/hr. Double that, and only when they beg.

that's exactly what I was going to suggest. great minds and all that stuff