I should be building a rollcage and installing power steering on my M-715. Instead I'm messing with stupid stuff.

My only excuse for undertaking a project like this a week before leaving for Moab is the steel for my rollcage hasn't showed up and I hadn't even called PSC Motorsports for the parts for my power steering conversion.  Part of the cage and seat install is gonna utilize the bed of the M-715, so the spare needs to move anyway.  Only bummer is that a 38-inch tires doesn't really fit in between the rear crossmember and the rear bumper.

Our Publisher, Jeff Nasi tipped me off to a tip the guys on the web site, www.m715zone.com figured out.  You remove the 8 rivets holding the rear crossmember to the frame rails and then move it up.  Only rivets are stubborn buggers.  I used the Miller Spectrum 625 plasma cutter with a gouging tip to nibble off the rivet heads, then I had to use a 3/8 drill bit to hollow out the rivet bodies so they'd collapse enough for the air hammer and 2-lb sledge to knock them out.

After moving the crossmember up 2.5 inches (I'll be able to fit a 39 or maybe a 40 under there now) I used the plasma cutter again with a cutting tip to blow holes through the framerails.  I then cleaned up the holes with a 3/8-inch drill bit and used Grade 8 hardware to secure the crossmember.

The stock spare tire carrier for my truck was long gone, so I made my own from some heavy wall chrome moly, some 1/4-inch tabs, and a length of .120 wall DOM I bent to fit the tire snugly to the top of the floor.  There are a couple brackets welded to the underside of the bed floor that hold the spare off the bed floor and that made the spare hand too far down.  I cut them off so the spare is nearly even with the bottom of the framerails.