kim, i have one of these on my front.  welded, bent, and bolted on up.
holds my scorpio 15" rims with 215/75/15 bfg's.  i have to deflate the
tire a bit, but since i travel with a pump it doesn't make any
difference to me.  no cutting, no bending of the original bits.  i have
my old spare pan and trap wires/hinges sitting in my carport just in
case i ever need to use them for something else.

mine is based on the doug fitz-randolph model, and the primary
difference is that my hinge tubes are not old c-clamps, they're milled
steel rod.  doug's can be found at
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/yarmovar/lst?.dir=/Vanagon/
and just click into the "15 Inch Spare Tire Carrier" album from there.
also see this message from the syncro yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Syncro/message/10932.

best,
bill
'87 syncro westfalia
santa cruz, ca

On Monday, August 19, 2002, at 09:27 PM, Kim Brennan wrote:

> In a message dated 8/19/02 8:53:23 PM, jtharvey2@HOTMAIL.COM writes:
>
>> So now I need some input.
>
> Okay, as an alternative to the rear spare tire carrier, how about  a
> custom
> spare tire carrier, in the stock location, that could fit the larger
> 15"
> wheel/tire combos? When I was looking at it while working on my heater
> valve,
> I saw that it consisted of a wire frame, to prevent the tire from
> going up to
> high, plus the lower carrier (which was hinged on the wire frame).
> Seems like
> a modification could be possible to extend the hinge downward, with an
> extension to the latch as well such that the larger tires could be
> accomodated.
>
> Of course, it would be nice to have the carrier itself replaced with a
> slightly larger diameter trough to accomodate those larger tires...
>