We call the second cover a Frisbee. It hide's the ugly mount, add's some inner support to the elastic cover & protects the camera. I carry a socket & ratchet for it. Never had the outer cover.

In all fairness to the dust getting in, when was the last time you took it all off and hosed it down? It does blow in from the backside through all the holes in the wheel. Every couple of washes I'll take it all off, clean and wax the paint behind the spare, check the mounts nuts, etc...

Post up a WANTED to Buy ad. They do come up from time to time and sometimes for free. :grin They go for $180-ish retail.

 

Thank you. Protecting the camera does make sense, as well as carrying a socket for it.

I have owned the FJ for 5 days, so who knows how long it was collecting dust.

I'll keep my eyes open for picking another one up. I did hate breaking it off, but it beat using the inreach to try and figure out a ride.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a matching aluminum wheel on the spare. I had just assumed it would be a steelie underneath there.

Thanks!

 

5 days, Welcome to the party Pal!

No biggie, learning experience.

https://www.sparksparts.com/?p=catalog&mode=search&search_in=all&search_str=FJ cruiser spare cover

Buy a plug kit and a small air compressor, toss em in a bag in the back w/ some basic hand tools. :bigthumb:

 

I see you painted your frisbee too, the silver just doesn't match the AG.

Sent from my XT1565 using Tapatalk

 

Fine Texture bed liner on the Frisbee, wings and valance.

 

whoah.

brilliant.

way stronger than the plastidip I have on mine.

My plastidip is already starting to peel off .... I mean it's been there a year and it's not long term until I can install new bumpers... but still.

 

A debatable advantage of having the cover is UV protection for the spare. In my lifetime, I have yet to come across a spare failing on me because it was exposed to the elements. Is it worth taking the chance, though? For me, I prefer to have it mainly because mine won't be set up for any serious off-roading and want the BU camera protected. If I had your setup and spent all that time in back-country, I'd leave it off.

 

A debatable advantage of having the cover is UV protection for the spare. In my lifetime, I have yet to come across a spare failing on me because it was exposed to the elements.

Protection from UV/the elements was always my understanding as the purpose of any spare tire full cover. I use the 5 tire rotation so that issue is moot. I'll replace every 4-5 years anyway.

I like the full FJ cover and planned to leave it on until I bought new tires. They were A/Ts in the stock size but the cover wouldn't fit anymore so I left it off. I like the look better anyway.

Leaving only the silver frisbee on was never a consideration. I didn't think about painting it black. I'll have to consider that.

 

"Original as possible" went out the window a long time ago. Original pieces are keeping each other company and gathering dust in the garage. :grin

I have looked at the after market spare covers on Amazon.

 

I use mine to put stickers on! But I echo what others said. It protects the backup camera and is a very "minor" theft deterrent for the spare. I always carry a toolbox with me, so taking off the cover is never an issue.

 

If I can get the cross-threaded bolt functional again I'll probably replace the cover. I'll also have to see if I can find a replacement tube wrench for it, or just keep the right size socket in the spare kit.

I knew when I was breaking it off that It'd be an expensive decision. Oh well.

 

The 2007 FJ had sonar backup system and the spare tire cover was an option (er... unless the Toyota Marketing District specified that it be included). Mined was ordered and came without the spare tire cover. From 2008, and on, the backup system was a camera, and the cover was required to mask the camera and its mount.

I'll bet you can fabricate something to hide the camera for a lot less money than the spare tire cover.

My spare tire has been hanging on the back since Oct 2006, and it has a 2006 DOT. Yes, this is a concern, but the tire doesn't show any signs of UV damage or cracking. Grant it, if I needed to use the spare, I would drive slowly until I reached a tire store to repair the flat or replace the tire. The repaired tire would go where it came off, and the temporary tire (2006 DOT) back on the spare tire hub. If tire replacement was required, I would buy two and mount both on the front of the vehicle (equal amount of tread), rotate as necessary and put one of the less old DOT dated tire as a spare. The original 2006 DOT tire would be deposed at that point.

I have never regretted for a moment that I didn't get a spare tire cover. In fact, I have a Yakima bike mount that bolts to the center of the FJ spare hub. My sonar sensor works just fine when I don't have bicycle on the mount, but is disabled when the bike is mounted, as the bike interferes with the sonar sensor. However, I'll bet you could re-position the camera mount to include a Yakima bike mount with a little engineering.

Folks that have over-sized tires and spares cannot use the spare tire cover. I vote to 86 your spare tire cover.

 

When I got my FJ I took the cover off there was a mouse living in it. figured he needed a new home. plus the cover was full of dirt.