Spare Tire wobbles inside the fiberglass cover

[Dirt Duff]

Please view the two movies attached below.  The spare tire in my LE2 is lose and wobbles.  I assume that the large "wing nut", when tightened, should be snug against the surface of the spare wheel.  However, rather than being snug against the wheel's surface, the wing nut is snug against the two nuts on the threaded post.  This results in a 1/4 gap between the spare wheel and the wing nut.

Is my lose spare tire typical of other Olivers?

Is there a remedy? 

Thanks

IMG_4584.MOV

IMG_4588.MOV

Edited Saturday at 03:22 PM by Dirt Duff

[Townesw]

I have hull 313. This is what my spare tire mount looks like. It looks like you have an extra nut.
 

Those two pieces of UHMW plastic keep the spare from rubbing and staining the gelcoat.

 

 

I use a disk cut from a bucket lid to make the large ring that secures the spare easier to tighten. 
 

 

Bill

Edited Saturday at 03:36 PM by Townesw

[rideandfly]

@Dirt Duff

No that is not typical. 

On our Ollie the fit is snug when the wing nut is tightened.

Is this mounting plate tight against the fiberglass hull?

 

[rideandfly]

7 minutes ago, Townesw said:

I have hull 313. This is what my spare tire mount looks like. It looks like you have an extra nut.

 

 

I use a disk cut from a bucket lid to make the large ring that secures the spare easier to tighten. 
 

 

Bill

I like the pads (assume) you installed on the fiberglass. Ours has two nuts on the stud, but I like the single nut with disc on yours, too.

 

 

Edited Saturday at 03:41 PM by rideandfly

[Townesw]

10 minutes ago, rideandfly said:

I like the pads (assume) you installed on the fiberglass. Ours has two nuts on the stud.

Yes I put those on there. I got a roll of stick-on UHMW from Rockler. People put it on tablesaw fences. 
 

Bill

Edited Saturday at 03:49 PM by Townesw

[Townesw]

5 minutes ago, rideandfly said:

Ours has two nuts on the stud,

 

 

Ok now I’m thinking that the second nut is a jam nut to hold the first nut on and both have backed off somehow. I would remove both nuts and see if the aluminum cylinder is threaded on that rod and check for something that might have loosened.

Bill

[rideandfly]

6 minutes ago, Townesw said:

Ok now I’m thinking that the second nut is a jam nut to hold the first nut on and both have backed off somehow. I would remove both nuts and see if the aluminum cylinder is threaded on that rod and check for something that might have loosened.

Bill

Yep, That sounds right, it's not likely the elastic locks nuts loosened clamping the plate to the fiberglass hull, but still check when the spare is removed. Good advice! 

 

 

Edited Saturday at 03:53 PM by rideandfly

[Hokieman]

24 minutes ago, Townesw said:

27 minutes ago, rideandfly said:

I like the pads (assume) you installed on the fiberglass. Ours has two nuts on the stud.

Yes I put those on there. I got a roll of stick-on UHMW from Rockler. People put it on tablesaw fences. 

I did something similar but less elegant to keep my hull from getting scuffed.   I used 4 plastic adhesive door stopper discs from Home Depot. 

[Dirt Duff]

Always comforting to know that I am not the only owner with a wobbly spare tire. I go with either the Home Depot and Rockler pads.   Thanks 🙂

[Townesw]

1 hour ago, Dirt Duff said:

Always comforting to know that I am not the only owner with a wobbly spare tire. I go with either the Home Depot and Rockler pads.   Thanks 🙂

Mine wasn’t wobbly. It was very secure. Always has been tight. I just didn’t like the stain that the tire was leaving on the gelcoat. 
 

@Dirt Duffyou’ve got something else going on. You need to determine what is loose. 

[Hokieman]

4 hours ago, Townesw said:

Mine wasn’t wobbly. It was very secure. Always has been tight. I just didn’t like the stain that the tire was leaving on the gelcoat. 

Same with mine.   I just put the rub pads on to prevent the tire from scuffing the gel coat.   My wheel fits firmly.  It’s in storage so I couldn’t tell you if it has one nut or two, but I vaguely recall just one.  The pads won’t help your wobble, something else isn’t right. 

[jd1923]

6 hours ago, Dirt Duff said:

Always comforting to know that I am not the only owner with a wobbly spare tire. I go with either the Home Depot and Rockler pads.   Thanks 🙂

Don't get too comfortable! 🤣

4 hours ago, Townesw said:

@Dirt Duffyou’ve got something else going on. You need to determine what is loose. 

I see two things that are wrong...

First the wire harness should not be fed through the wheel. When you do get your spare tight the tire will be jamming the wire harness against the hull making the spare sit on a tilt. The wire harness should sit outside of the tire but make sure you push it inside the fiberglass cover in the end. 

Secondly, your lock nut is keeping the large circular "wingnut" from tightening your tire against the hull, hence the wobble. I just checked and mine does not have a locknut. If I had one, it would certainly be in the way of tightening down the spare. The nut is greater than 1/2" tall and there is about 3/8" of space on ours. 

It's likely one of those things where OTT did not stick to a standard hull to hull. I believe @rideandfly's spare is new, not original so perhaps his fits. IT does really depend on the tire width.

I also have a large concave washer not seen in anybody else's picture. This supports the fiberglass on the spare cover when tightening the outer locknut. In my picture, the fiberglass cover fits in where I created a space on the threaded shaft, all hardware is mounted in the order shown.

@Dirt Duff, I suggest you remove your locknut, feed the wire harness correctly, crank 'er down and you should be fine! 😎

[rideandfly]

On 6/20/2026 at 9:16 PM, jd1923 said:

 

It's likely one of those things where OTT did not stick to a standard hull to hull. I believe @rideandfly's spare is new, not original so perhaps his fits. IT does really depend on the tire width.

 

Yep, My original spare tire was a 215/60R/16, even though the DOT tag states spare tire size of 215/70R/16 and my current spare tire I installed is 225/75R/15 to fit in the fiberglass housing. The 215/60R/16 fit tightly against the fiberglass hull like the current 225/75R/15 with two nuts on the stud. Oliver made a change to 225/75R/16 spare tires with larger spare tire housings later after our Ollie was built. Now Oliver's current spare tire is 225/75R/15. 

@Dirt Duff, you have some good suggestions here to check out that should correct your issue.

Edit: For those that have not removed the spare tire cover and tire:

 

Edited Monday at 02:17 AM by rideandfly

[rideandfly]

Removed Ollie's spare tire housing again and firmly pulled across one area of tire tread to see if the spare tire had complete contact against the fiberglass hull. It moved a little, not as easily as @Dirt Duff tire. The wing nut was causing friction against the wheel, I thought the spare tire was tight contacting the fiberglass hull completely with the 225/75R/15 spare tire. Believe the same thing was happening with the original 215/60R/16 spare tire, too. Both tires were contacting the fiberglass hull previously in areas, but not completely.

Cleaned the area on our camper where the spare tire contacts the fiberglass hull and installed four 3 1/4" diameter 1/4" thick door knob pads for the tire to contact like @Hokieman did on his spare tire. With two nuts still on the stud and four 1/4" thick doorknob pads installed on the hull for the spare tire to contact when tightening down the wing nut, the tire contacts all four pads with clearance left between the wingnut and two nuts.

I'm keeping two nuts on the mount stud, but in some cases there could be contact between the second nut and wingnut on other Oliver spare tire installations like it would be on @jd1923 trailer, possibly due to small variations of wing nuts, mounts, wheels and tires. 

Really like the plastic disc @Townesw installed for the wingnut to contact when the wingnut is tightened against the wheel.

 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by rideandfly