How can I protect the spare tire a criminal can easily access under the Expedition?

The Expedition emergencyehicle has been parked at hospitals in some bad areas of town.
Can I buy Spareshield and install it myself?
Any other ways? (I haven’t looked closely to see if I could make a piece of black pipe or something work.)
Thank you.

Really I think if somebody is going through the trouble of crawling under your Expedition, they’d be much more inclined to steal your gas–more valuable and easier to transport.

Unless you have “blinged out” rimzz on your ride, I wouldn’t lose sleep over this.

Unless you have "blinged out" rimzz on your ride, I wouldn't lose sleep over this.
Just wondering - not worried. You're right. Just the 17" steel wheel and 5 year old original spare - nothing worth stealing. But would the low-lifes steal first and see what they have later?

Unless stealing spare tires is popular there, don’t worry. Battery powered grinders are quick to cut right through metal.

Keep the undercarriage a bit muddy, park next to a fancier car.

Somehow, I feel stealing the whole car should be a bigger concern.

Theives want something that 1. is easy to “flip” for cash and 2. is hard to trace.

A spare excursion tire only has value to a fellow Excursion owner, so would be labor-intensive to fence and not pull in much money. Gas, by contrast, is something EVERYBODY needs, and is ready to pay for! Almost as good as hot booze+smokes for a good payday.

Under your SUV, I’d worry about 1. gas 2. cat converter (distant 3). everything else.

If you’re that worried…put it inside.

If you're that worried...put it inside.
Inside what? Arrived 11 p.m. at a hospital for an emergency transport and waited 2 hours for the transplant item to be harvested and prepared for transport. Years ago working at the same hospital, someone took the bungee cords from my Kawasaki 650. (The SUV is parked in our garage with key under the seat and doors locked.)

…inside the vehicle.

Don’t know how it’s held, if it’s a threaded bolt drill a hole toward the end for a small padlock, would discourage many, I’d think. Of course, DON’T LOSE THE KEY. And the lock could be pretty hard to open once it gets grimy/salted up…

...inside the vehicle.
Good idea! Considered that but it will get in the way of blood boxes. Also had considered removing the rear seats which fold down to make some room. But they may be needed when transporting medical personnel. (I'd like to remove those rear seats anyway to get rid of needless weight.)

To do something rather than nothing, get some moly-disulfide grease and apply it to some strategic places on the tire mount metal. Some chassis greases are impregnated with moly-disulfide as are CV joint greases. The stuff makes your hands and clothing incredibly dirty and it is difficult to remove. You might want to check your application in a half year or so and maintain as needed.

I guess you gotta think like a thief. We had a small parking area behind our office building. One morning there was a car parked there up on blocks. All four wheels and tires were stolen but the spare was fine. Why would they want a spare and leave the other four alone? They’re much more likely to block the truck up and take all four than the spare. Now that should worry you more. Good thieves can get this done in less than 10 minutes. Then again why bother with the wheels when its easier to just take the whole truck?

tale the spare tire and wheel out of the cradle and put it in the back of the Expedition cargo bay. It will take up space, but you have plenty of room to carry the blood, body parts, etc. You’ve been doing theses runs for years, why the concern now?

... why the concern now?
News reports about more of these thefts occurring. Also hospitals in some bad areas are having me stand by inside, longer. I have even slept in the Expedition waiting for them to call me in.

I agree w/ UncleTurbo, if this is a concern, just move the tire inside the vehicle.

If it were my car though, I’d leave it where it is supposed to be, and if worried about it being stolen, use the oldest looking piece of junk for the spare tire and wheel possible. I’d go to the junkyard if need be to buy a wheel that looks so bad nobody would want to bother to take it. After all, it isn’t seen unless you get a flat anyway.

Here in northern Calif, me, I’ve never heard of a spare tire being stolen. It must happen, but I’ve never heard of it. But I hear of catalytic converters being stolen almost every week in the newspaper. Makes sense. What’s a spare tire cost vs a new cat? And there’s a big market for cats, as folks can’t register their cars until they pass emissions testing, and if a new cat is needed to get the car registered, and you need the car registered in order to get to work to pay your bills to put food on the table for your family, and it is the end of the month and don’t have much money, well, that chain of events creates a big demand for stolen cats.

I would get a roll of razor wire or barbed wire and rig it around the spare tire. Or get a car alarm.

Usually, spare tires need to be lowered by a crank. Mine has a special key to fit the reciever of the crank to keep thieves from lowering it. At the least, they need a crank handle or a commitment to make lots of noise while prying out the lifting bar. If I’m worried about it, I have way too much time on my hands.

Take a deep breath, Robert. Think about global population growth, environmental warming, aging, spoiled food, fracking, and your spare tire. In the big picture, it’s nothing. Pay your insurance, kiss your wife and carry on.

If you put the spare inside the truck, build a mount for it. If it moves, the spare might damage the medical supplies you are carrying. Anything that you transport is important eno ugh that. You don’t want to take chances. And if the spare moves, it could hit you, too.