[JayM5209]

DO NOT Google "Sierra/Silverado spare tire." You will be reading horror stories for ten months!

I have been driving GMC pickups since 1982 and have never had to use a spare tire. I know, only luck and the grace of God. But having read and heard some of these stories about the famed secondary locking mechanism, when I took my '08 Sierra in for an oil change this week I asked them to remove and reinstall the spare tire just to reassure me that all is well and I won't have to walk ten miles out a bush road next week to get help. Everything was free and worked fine after five years of no attention.

Moral of the story - I'm luckier than I deserve to be, but given the history of this tire hanger design it pays to check it out periodically. In the woods, in the dark, in the cold, in the mud isn't the best circumstances for a learning experience!