Spare Tire problems of the 2002 Toyota Tacoma

Sometime in 2012, my spare tire and rim were lost on the highway due to a failed spare tire carrier. The lift plate on the spare tire carrier, failed due to corrosion and released the spare tire (and rim) on the highway. No crash of incident occurred because no one was following the vehicle at the time.

This is in response to the new Toyota recall on the sienna Mini-vans spare tire. I own a 2002 Toyota Tacoma, in which the frame was recently replaced due to rust perforation in certain states. I am the original owner and back in 8/2007 I had a flat tire and had to change it. The spare tire resides under the vehicle and is secured by a cable. When I went to access the spare, I noticed the whole cable and the surrounding pieces were severely rusted and was very difficult to separate the tire from the cable. After hearing about the recall on the sienna for the spare tire getting rusty, and possibly falling loose while driving, I realized that my Tacoma, and possibly other vehicles that use this method, and are exposed to extreme climate conditions, could trigger a similar event.