If you’ve never had to do it before or never seen it done, you probably have no idea how to lower the spare tire on your Toyota tacoma.
Don’t worry, it’s easy and only takes a few minutes, but you need to be shown how to do it.
First off you will need the spare tire kit with the jack handle and lug wrench that came with the truck. Mine lives under the small bench seat on the passenger side in the cubby hole underneath.
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Tools Required:
- Just the spare tire removal kit that came with the truck. If you don’t have one you can get another off of Amazon: Spare Tire And Jack Tool Kit
Video Walk-Through:
Check out our step-by-step video tutorial first to get an idea of the process, then you can read the guide below and print it out if you want.
Step-by-Step Guide:
First, you will have to assemble the tire jack handle. Connect the 3 parts that make up the spare tire jack handle (the lug wrench will be left over and not used) and tighten the thumb screws.
Now you have to insert the hook into a small hole above your rear license plate and below the gate on the truck. Push it all the way in then twist it around until it seats correctly into the lowering mechanism.
Once you feel like its seated correctly, start to turn counter clockwise and the spare will begin to lower on a wire.
Keep turning the crank until the tire is on the floor and you can’t turn it anymore. Then lift out the bracket holding the tire in.
To put the tire back up, just reverse the process. If you are doing it by yourself what I do is hold the spare with my feet to keep it level while cranking it up until it seats correctly into the holding bracket. It looks a little goofy but it works.
Don’t over tighten the cable! Just until it is snug is all you need.
Hope that helped!
