Ugly ugly ugly. What was Westfalia thinking of. Mine was like that and the first thing I did was to ditch the box. My spare's inside.
It’s so funny I used to feel the same and then got Lily and it was love at first sight! Do you just Chuck it under the van when you camp? We had a hire Bay where this was the case. And how did you plug the holes in the front.
I'm seriously tempted with a rear mounted one now I'm doing an interior and won't really want to keep it in there anymore
I spent my entire bus owning life hating the spare on the front, then one day I saw the light, there really is no other sensible place for it. My first bus had a "loose" one we tucked under the bus camping - what a PITA - never again. Next was a Westy that was designed around the spare in it's well and with a full width bed/feet that end was fine. But unless you have that config, you really don't want it in the spare wheel well do you? Next buses used that wheel well space inside for the interior - there's so little space in a bay to start with? So where do you put it? On the roof? No thanks. A fancy wheel carrier on the back? I can't think of a worse solution for me, I hate tractor clips with a vengeance for starters! They get in the way of the rear hatches and frankly I couldn't be doing with moving them every time. The ones that hinge down - what's the point - now you're tripping over the damn thing while you're checking your timing. Now above here I'm reading that you'll spoil the bodywork putting it on the front but it seems like we're blind when doing worse putting it on the back, where it gets in the way. That only leaves the front. Fit and forget, never in the way, reduces understeer for lightweights like me and I'm not hopeless enough to bump it into things. Just don't let your trendy kids/mates sit on it - that's what wrecks the front panel (my theory )
And to fit the wheel on the front Westfalia chopped out the centre of the deformation panel with a gas axe. I removed the box, fitted a new deformation panel and the spare is now in the back of the garage.
At the risk of being flayed alive for suggesting it, what about a set of bull bars and fixing the wheel to the front of it?
Bizarrely, they're so big, I used to think they were for the propane tank. On reflection, probably not the best place to have a gas tank in a collision