The Great Spare Tyre Debate: Why I Chose an Ultra Swing for My L322
It’s finally time to address the elephant in the boot, or on my roof rack, my spare tyre. If you’ve been following my YouTube channel, Overlanding4WD, for any length of time, you’ll know that this seemingly minor detail has stirred up more debate than just about anything else I’ve done to my L322 build. And yes, I get it the spare tyre isn’t full-sized. It's an emergency spare from an L405. Cue the collective sigh of the internet.
Apparently…. small snippets
“I’m “stupid” to even attempt to go off road with that tyre”
“Going to ruin my diffs”
“Good luck driving that thing off road with that @£$% spare” (insert your favourite four letter swear word)
There are some many of these comments raced up.
Let’s get one thing clear: the reason I’ve stuck with an L405 emergency spare isn’t laziness it’s practicality. I’m not exactly driving the canning Stock Route, if I do run into trouble, I’m probably no more than 50 miles MAX from help and a garage to get a new tyre, or fix a damaged one. I do carry a tyre repair kit, with plugs, and a can of easy fix, just in case.
The tyres I ran, Cooper AT3’s were 275/55/20, were fantastic for overlanding. But they simply do not fit in the factory wheel well under the loadspace floor. Technically, you can deflate them and just about wedge it in, but what's the point of carrying a flat spare? That’s hardly ‘ready for action’ if you need it fast in a remote spot and that will require a compressor.
Originally, the emergency spare lived in the boot. It wasn’t ideal, but it worked. Until it didn’t. As the rear of the vehicle evolved with a fridge slide, kitchen drawer, dual batteries, and water tank, accessing the spare became a complete a performance, and was made worse when the rear seats came out, I can remove everything to get to it in about 30 mins. So, it came out and took up residence on the roof rack. That worked, for 3 years.
Then the Alu-Cab LT50 rooftop tent arrived in the winter. Brilliant piece of kit. But it couldn’t lift with the extra weight of the spare tyre on the roof without strut upgrades. So, off it came. Back to square one. The loadspace.
At this point, I was left with two options:
1. Modify the L322 to fit a Terrafirma Discovery 3/4 swing-out carrier and hack it into the bumper, not a clean solution, and it’s permanent.
2. Go hitch-mounted, cleaner, removable, and easier to manage.
Option two it is.
Enter the Ultra Swing. Made in the US by RIGd Supply, it’s a hitch-mounted swing-out tyre carrier that has been used and abused by off-roaders across North America. It’s tough, modular, and doesn’t require cutting up the Range Rover rear bumper. It ticks every box. Currently, it’s in the 8–10 week production queue before it ships over to me. And yes, I’m bracing for import taxes and hoping some sort of miracle US–UK Free Trade Agreement will ease the pain on my wallet.
Once it arrives, the plan is simple. I’ll mount a full-sized steel 20" wheel wrapped in a Cooper ST MAXX 265/60/20 tyre, my current tyre choice. Yes, at long last, a full-sized spare on the L322. I can almost hear the applause from the armchair off roaders. Better still, I’ll be carrying two spares, as the emergency one stays in the loadspace, just in case.
Here’s how I plan to use it. For day-to-day use no Ultra Swing. Just the emergency spare in the boot. Lightweight, simple, and clean. But when it’s time for a proper adventure, the Ultra Swing gets bolted up, full-sized spare goes on, and off I go. At least that’s the plan.
One thing to note: fitting an Ultra Swing to an L322 does require a hitch extension. The design of the rear bumper means you need that little extra distance for clearance. Also, I’ll be using a 7-pin to 4-pin trailer wiring adapter. Why? The Ultra Swing has a mount for your number plate and its own light, which needs power, hence the adapter, which again, is removable when the carrier is not needed.
So, there it is, the long-overdue explanation. My spare tyre setup has evolved like the rest of the vehicle: trial, error, and iteration. It’s never been about cutting corners. It’s been about making the right decisions at the right time, and now, finally, it’s time for the full-sized spare to have a permanent (but removable) home.
To those of you who stuck with me through the years of spare tyre purgatory — thank you. And to those still commenting: the Ultra Swing is coming. 😅🙌
