G'day all,

Now my van is starting to get towards the pointy end of the build, I'm left wondering what I'll do for two items - the spare wheel & battery.

Normally the spare wheel is clamped behind the passenger seat, and the battery similarly clamped behind the driver.

Problem is, I don't have the spare wheel clamp OR the battery mounting stuff (which includes a tray for the battery to sit on, and then a cover over the rest). The wheel clamp looks NLA even from the UK! Easy enough to make one you reckon? Anyone got one spare?

I'm not doing an original resto, so I don't need "as per factory" solutions. I quite like the idea of a fully enclosed battery box for the van, anyone had experience with what will fit in the original space?

Looking for people's experiences so I don't re-invent the wheel...

cheers,

Jacob

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'72 Clubman Van - 1022cc, 295 head, 731 cam - Daily Driver
'69 Morris 1100 S - Dinged by a bus, in shed under repair
'64 Morris 1100 - Early 1100, long term project

There is a great Clubman Estate project/ on the migwelding.co.uk site. He's build a space for a fuel cell and battery box into the rear floor. It's a really interesting project so the thread is worth a read (My Estate is on page 1), so might give you some ideas which might work in your van.

very nice, but way above my abilities to fabricate from sheet metal. I was looking for something a little more "off the shelf" rather than cutting up the load bay

cheers,

Jacob

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'72 Clubman Van - 1022cc, 295 head, 731 cam - Daily Driver
'69 Morris 1100 S - Dinged by a bus, in shed under repair
'64 Morris 1100 - Early 1100, long term project

A spare wheel bracket should pop up, theirs a few still around but you can get away with out it.
The battery is the problem. A off the shelf battery box will not fit under the load bay (I'm pretty sure). A couple of webbing straps should hold it tightly in place and you may be able to find a lunch box or Tupperware container that can act as a tray under the battery. Or you could mount a small one in the engine bay above the clutch. Where are those pics of the old "black van with the turbo" that has a battery in the front, it was only posted up recently...

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Respect mine and I'll respect yours.

I have two van spare wheel clamps spare.

In my van (sold since) I made a small hatch behind the drivers seat and mounted a slimline battery under there. You could not see the hatch until you pulled up the carpet.







Cheers,

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

I have put the spare wheel in a carrier under the rear subframe of one of my vans. I went to pick-a-part and found a suitable one from a Daihatsu Handi van or something similar. Re-routed the exhaust around it, the muffler has a few wraps of heatproof fibreglass matting around it so it doesn't cook the tyre.



Moving the spare wheel outside the cabin gave more room to store other things under the floor.

i`m having similar problems with my van. the battery in it is to tall to fit under the shelf behind the drivers seat so i guess i need to find another battery.

the other problem is my passenger seat doesn`t come forward enough to get the spare wheel in. looking at the mini king book i have LS seats,would this be the problem ?

i was thinking about welding a wheel well into the rear floor,would there be any problems in doing this ?

cheers
jayson

I like the underfloor spare wheel carrier!! I wanted to do this with my van, but never got around to it.

Travellers have a spare wheel well in the rear subframe. Fabricating something similar is entirely possible. Check the current issue of TME for some great photos.

Cheers,

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

My spre wheel has sat behind the passengers seat for 5 years of driving and i've never had an issue with it moving at all. My battery is a Century maintenence free that is 19cm tall. the battery stuck out a bit so the terminals never got close to the metal. It has the following markings on the top
46
CCA 380
RC 75
Super Cheap, repco etc should have brackets that clamp the battery available. In the vans you should see there are some holes in the lip on the floor that sticks up behind the battery. mine just has a threaded metal rod that hooks into that and wingnuts to clamp the bar that goes across the battery down. Never moved. But as usual make sure you cover up the + terminal

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Yes when they made the traveller/countrymen/estate putting the wheel under the floor was a great improvement.

My spare and battery are both bolted to the floor in the back - the battery is in a plastic battery box.

It does cut down on your load space a bit, but they're quite convenient. I actually have a few tools/jack etc sitting in the spare comtessa and it stops it sliding around!

The problem with the traveller wheel well is that modern tyres are too fat, and the well isn't quite deep enough for the board to fit down flat over the top. I looked at deepening the well, but on my early car its sitting right down into the rear cross brace of the subframe. I had the same problem with my old van, it had alloys but the spare had to be standard mini wheel with a skinny tyre, so it would fit in the storage space behind the seat.

Tim

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1951 Morris Commercial J Type Van
1955 BSA C11G
1961 Morris Mini Traveller
1969 Triumph TR6R
1977 Leyland Moke Californian

Ditto. I currently don't have a spare wheel for the estate, so will have to think about that one. Cutting the well and welding in a strip might be the tidiest solution.

Clearly the original designers didn't consider the cars would become classics and the basis for a hotted up run-about.

I'm surprised that they hadn't done somthing about it by the time the last clubby estates were built. I doubt they still came with a cross-ply spare tyre in 1981.

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

I think the designers would be amazed that anyone would still care to be driving in a mini-van, let alone seek them out and modify them!

Thanks for all the ideas, etc so far, looking like there's more options that I thought (& I think I will dispense with the "need" for a wheel-clamp all together)

cheers

Jacob

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'72 Clubman Van - 1022cc, 295 head, 731 cam - Daily Driver
'69 Morris 1100 S - Dinged by a bus, in shed under repair
'64 Morris 1100 - Early 1100, long term project