I have a 1988 Club Wagon 250. It was a passenger van and the spare tyre was located laying down flat, under the rearmost seat. In a passenger van, this is out of the way but I've taken the rear seats out to convert it to a freight van. The spare tyre can't stay where it was and I can't help thinking that a van made as a freight van must have its spare somewhere else. I live in Australia and Econolines were never sold here so I can't just go and look at another one on any street corner. Can someone please tell me where else the spare tyre can go. I've seen pictures of them on the outside of the rear doors but the wheel and tyre weigh half a ton. Can the door really support that much extra weight? I was thinking of putting it inside the van, standing upright against the RH side, between the wheel well and the rear but the tyre would stand on the rear slope of the wheel well and be way above the window line and I don't like that it'd be visible through the window. Now, I'm thinking of underneath the rear fuel tank on a hinged frame suspended from the chassis. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Dave.

 

There was a spare tire carrier mounted under the rear of the van just in front of the rear bumper. It consisted of a winch type set up with a cable that when unwound would have a plate that went through the rim center hole and the jack handle went through a hole just above the rear bumper to engage the winch and you were able to crank the winch and raise the entire wheel assy up against the chassis cross member and it stayed locked there until needed. The pick up trucks used the same system to store the spare. The system worked pretty well if you kept the cable wound tightly and lubricated. If you can get a look at a Ford pickup you can see how it was mounted.