Lifting a 45 to 50 kg wheel back onto the rear of the 4 W drive is a challenge as a person gets a bit older. I have a rear tow bar with wheel carrier from Kaymar and it has twin swinging arms, one carries the tyre and the other a jerry can holder. I made a pretty rough gantry with a small boat winch that can raise a complete tyre and rim onto a pack rack. But it can also be adapted to just swing a tyre on to the wheel carrier studs.

I use this gantry and it works fine, but if you only want to go as high as the wheel carrier, another way is to get a small table the same height as the bottom of the wheel when it is attached to your carrier. Put an 8 foot (2.4 meter) plank against the table, and just roll the wheel up. Kick the plank away and spin the wheel sideways on the table. If it’s the correct height it will simply slip on.

Now that's clever. I could never get the tyre back up there when I had a Fwd.
Will file that away for the one day box. Thank you.

Hi dieseltojo, that's a great system you've devised there, simple but smart. Do you take the gantry winch set-up with you on your travels? I've often wondered how one would get on either with the spare on the rear of the van or the rear of the tow vehicle if one were out past the black stump with a husband and wife combo as is so often the case? Sometimes it can be quite a wait for the next vehicle to come along……….

Hi webbo51,
I don't carry it on trips Steve, but I do use it at home in the loading process of the pack rack. I have done some remote trips and getting a tyre off the top by hand is no problem, but the wheel has to be thrown flat, so it doesn't hit the ground and then bounce into the truck. The lifter is easy to use to put a wheel back onto the rear holder as well, but I primarily made it to get a sixth wheel on to the pack rack. If made light enough though it could be carried on the pack rack as well, but for the amount of time that the normal vehicle gets a flat it doesn't justify the carrying.
Now if it was made from aluminium...........

Tks dieseltojo, you're right, aluminium would be ideal!
steve