Chevy avalanche/spare tire remove

If you are having problems getting the safety interlock to disengage, this is what I did to get the spare down on my 03 that I got about a month ago. I don't think the spare was ever brought down, so everything was rusted. I tried what the manual says: Use your ignition key to open the tube on the right side of the license plate. Then take the two jack handle extensions, and put them together. Put the open square end into the tube until it stops. Then use the lug wrench/ jack handle on the exposed closed square end and turn it counter clockwise to lower the tire. If this only gets the tire to lower a few inches then stop, turn the handle clockwise until it is tight and clicks twice. This is supposed to release the safety interlock, if repeated attempts of this procedure don't work, you are supposed to use the jack to push up on the center of the cable end until you hear a pop, with is the latch releasing. If this does not work, you can try what I did. Let me suggest also that if you have an older vehicle, it would be best to see if you can get the spare down at home, in your garage or driveway, before you need to do it on the roadside. I'm glad I did. I used two jacks to hold the tire all the way up as if it hadn't been lowered at all (you could also stack up some blocks of wood under the tire before you lower the cable). Be sure to leave yourself access in the center of the tire as you will need to get in under the hub. Now, if you haven't already, lower the cable about 8-10 inches so that everything is slack (the tire should not move!). Look up at the safety interlock, it is something like an upside-down "T". You should be able to rotate it around the cable now. The middle of this upside down "T" is rounded, but has four sides. One of the sides has a hook on it, and that is the safety catch. Two sides should be painted black, and two are plated (or rusted!). You need to figure out which side is the side that has the hook on it, it is one of the plated, not painted sides. Once you know which side has the hook, you can use a long screwdriver to push it towards the center, which will stop the hook from catching and allow you to pull the safety interlock down and free from the lip that it was caught on. Now you just need to lower the jacks or kick out the wood blocks and you can remove the tire. I soaked the whole works with penetrating oil the night before I did all this (when I discovered that I couldn't get the spare down). Once I got everything out, I soaked it with more oil and cleaned it the best I could. I'm not sure if the safety interlock will work again, but I cleaned and painted the cable end, and will make it a yearly thing to check and maintain the cable and end so that the cable doesn't fail and I don't need to worry about the interlock. Hope this helps.

Minus 35 celcius, blown rear tyre, no chance of changing it at night.
drive home to confirm the tyre is wrecked, park till the morning, attempt the stupid manual method of getting the bloody spare down, smash fingers, they wont hurt till they thaw out, get hacksaw, cut cable, change tyre, throw rest of safety coupling, linkage or whatever the idiot calls it, at the nearest chevy dealers head, smile and return to a noraml life, take three pints of Stella as medicine.

First, as with all flat tire changes, refer to the owners manual. Second, you will find that GM engineers are clueless about having to personally deal with changing a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. According to the owners manual, there is a safety interlock that prevents the spare from accidently coming loose. You should first look to see if there is a secondary cable attached to the tire. If you don't see a second cable, then you should crank the winch clockwise until you feel/hear 2 clicks. (You can't over-tighten the winch.) Then you need to crank the handle counter-clockwise 3 or 4 turns, then crank the handle clockwise until you feel/hear 2 more clicks. This should release the spare tire and you should be able to lower the spare to the ground. If this doesn't work? Then you need to follow the above proceedure again. If this fails again...Then you will crank up the winch clockwise until you feel/hear the 2 clicks again and then crank the handle counter-clockwise 3 turns, carefully place the jack on top of the wheel chocks as shown in the manual (The chocks don't interlock with the jack so, Good Luck!) then you use the jack to push up on the cable/spring assembly until you hear a pop. According to the manual, that should release the safety interlock and the tire should then crank down once you remove the jack and chocks. Please note! The owner's manual states that after that procedure the spare tire winch unit will need to be replaced at the dealer. In reality: After you have exhausted all of you energy fighting with this for 3 hours, and still are unable to change your flat tire...You'll call a tow truck to help you. They will show up with the tools & knowledge (3000+ tire changes under their belt) and spend the next 2 hours fighting with this STUPID GM designed piece of **** which is jammed because of dirt/salt/rust, etc. They might end up repairing the damaged tire if its just a nail in the tread or towing you to a dealer. Either way you'll end up spending a minimum of several hundred dollars for the call and still have a flat. Should have bought a FORD. Good Day!!!

The sparw tire is under the bed the spare accesories are under the rear seat you need to take 2 of the posts and lock them together and slide it into the pop up under the license lamp rt side slide it all the way and start turning it counter clockwise the spare will come down now i am soory chevy use lock cylinders so use your key and you will get cylinder out then procede from the begining/Please rate my response thank you very much

These are great solutions!
The info at this link worked for me:
http://www.fixya.com/cars/t4375415-not_lower_spare_tire

I posted some pictures there also.

We had to cut the spare loose by with a torch.

I followed the Solution # 3 by dbdsgeiger and it worked great I had to work the latch back and forth once and then it came loose the secondary latch pivots one side to the other. Thanks alot!

I know what everyone is going through having just spent two hours on the side of the road in minus 15. That wheel comes down a few inches and no amount of up and clicking helps as the manual says. The bracket that holds the spare up has a little nubbin like hook at the top where the cable comes down through and it actually hooks onto the winding machanism. What I eventually did after breaking the plastic mud guard off the side of the winding mechanism and the rubber boot off the top of the wheel bracket just to see in there was to lift the wheel and the bracket at the same time and unhook it. Thanks a lot GM, what would someone who is not mechanically inclined do.

Now I understand why GM went bankrupt. It is because they produce untested ****. The secondary spare tire safety release never works and becomes seized. Pray to god that you never get a flat tire becasue you and your family will be stranded. I had to do something similar to the previous suggestion. Prop up the spare tire. Lower the winch so it is loose. Get a sawsall and cut the piece of $%$% off!