Happy Sunday to all of you. I was sitting around yesterday staring at my truck getting annoyed by the 265 tire sitting on my spare, and then looking at the 35" tires on the rest of the truck.

I tried to pull off one of the spare tire deletes I've seen since I had some black enamel and diamond plate sitting around the shop. I've seen it in pictures, but never in person. Now that I see it in person I'm not sure what to think one way or another. My friend said "I didn't want to tell you, but it looks stupid, like you're definitely trying to cover something up" so that's one opinion.

It still ever so slightly off level, I need to open the holes up a tiny bit to level it off, using the spare tire mount as a template was hard as hell because the holes on it are not perfectly symmetrical to each other and not all the same size/shape.

Here's a couple pictures.

 

put a 1/4" radius on the corners, straighten the plate with the body and paint the bolt heads to match the plate. Should look a lot better then.

Oh, you do have a rubber gasket under the diamond plate right?

 

Maybe it's just what I'm used to seeing, but no spare on the back just looks wrong.

Why not put a 35" spare on there? I've seen other posts where people have done it...

 

Yes, I made a gasket out of weather stripping to place around the vent. When you say radius do you mean like 1/4 inch rubber bushings or what?

As far as adding a 35" tire to the spare, I want to, but I paid $400 for all four tires lightly used from a close friend, so I didn't have the option to just run out and get one.

 

Just so you know. The vent on the back is an intergral part of the cabin heating, cooling and ventilation system of your H3. If it is not alloed to breath you will encounter problems down the road.

Look on craigslist for a 315 for your spare.

 

Really? It's been covered with Dynamat for almost a year now, woops. What purpose does it serve exactly besides venting air when you close the doors?

 

Two things:
1) Running around without a spare is risky
2) Hummer H3's look stupid without the spare tire on the rear. It's part of the H3 look.

 

No, I mean to get out your grinder/sanding disk and round the corners off . You could use a dime as a pattern for the corner radius. It's the details that take it from amateur to pro (well, if you paid a monkey he would be a professional too, right?) A good cork or rubber gasket cut to the dimensions of the plate will keep the edges from vibrating on the paint and give it a more finished look. Much nicer than just getting 1/4" edge strip and running that around the edge of the plate. Another nice touch would be to use allen or torx head bolts with a round head instead of a regular hex head bolt and the raised diamond plate "ribs" ground flush under the bolt heads. Sorry if you've done all that already, I can't see from the photos what you've done with the details.

 

That is one of them. Where do you think the pressure goes when you close the door now that you have sealed up it's OEM designed excape route? Maybe thru the heating and cooling system vents which have doors on them that open and close electroinicly?

 

I agree they look funny without a spare, it's part of the H3 look. But, the guy with the camo wrap H3 that took his spare off and bolted on a cake pan with his CB antenna on top pulled it off alright.