21st Century Truck
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Starting today, I have a full regular OEM 20-inch wheel + tire mounted in the spare wheel underbody hoist, and a new Ford OEM spare wheel lock that protects access to this full-use spare, without yet another key to lose. My temp use spare wheel is for sale, listed elsewhere on the forum.
Several weeks ago on a sunny weekend, just because I had the time, I swapped my OEM regular wheel + tire with the OEM limited-use temporary spare wheel & tire. I thus confirmed the OEM regular 20-inch wheel + tire does fit inside the Lightning's spare wheel mount.
Afterwards, having by a lucky accident come into free possession of a regular OEM tire, I found and bought a matching OEM 20-inch wheel on EBay for a total of $300 or so. Then I had my local friendly Ford dealer's service guy order the new-style spare wheel lock and arrange its center-pattern tumblers to fit my truck's center-cut fob key pattern.
The new Ford spare tire lock + the tumbler work cost a total of just under $200 (in my case, a bit less with some FordPass points thrown in and other negotiated discounts). The service tech had to hunt around for two days before he found out from Ford Corporate that yes, a new-style spare wheel lock can indeed be ordered and then tumbler-arranged to work with the center-cut fob keys of our particular Lightning trucks... so it can indeed be done. The selling point for me with adding this mod is to keep my Lightning-related keys to just its OEM fob center-cut key.
The new design spare wheel lock, although it has a circlip on its back end like older Ford spare wheel locks, is now permanently affixed to its bumper trim fitting, so popping its back circlip off with a flathead screwdriver like countless youtube videos show, will (supposedly) not allow this new-style lock to just fall out of its plastic bumper housing and unlock the access hole... meaning, my now full-size OEM spare wheel appears to be decently protected against itchy hands.
Hope this is useful info for others here.
Several weeks ago on a sunny weekend, just because I had the time, I swapped my OEM regular wheel + tire with the OEM limited-use temporary spare wheel & tire. I thus confirmed the OEM regular 20-inch wheel + tire does fit inside the Lightning's spare wheel mount.
Afterwards, having by a lucky accident come into free possession of a regular OEM tire, I found and bought a matching OEM 20-inch wheel on EBay for a total of $300 or so. Then I had my local friendly Ford dealer's service guy order the new-style spare wheel lock and arrange its center-pattern tumblers to fit my truck's center-cut fob key pattern.
The new Ford spare tire lock + the tumbler work cost a total of just under $200 (in my case, a bit less with some FordPass points thrown in and other negotiated discounts). The service tech had to hunt around for two days before he found out from Ford Corporate that yes, a new-style spare wheel lock can indeed be ordered and then tumbler-arranged to work with the center-cut fob keys of our particular Lightning trucks... so it can indeed be done. The selling point for me with adding this mod is to keep my Lightning-related keys to just its OEM fob center-cut key.
The new design spare wheel lock, although it has a circlip on its back end like older Ford spare wheel locks, is now permanently affixed to its bumper trim fitting, so popping its back circlip off with a flathead screwdriver like countless youtube videos show, will (supposedly) not allow this new-style lock to just fall out of its plastic bumper housing and unlock the access hole... meaning, my now full-size OEM spare wheel appears to be decently protected against itchy hands.
Hope this is useful info for others here.
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