To assure that you can lower and raise the spare tire on your Caravan when you need to, I suggest that every few years you lubricate and exercise the mechanism every few years.

I just bought a 1997 Caravan and tried to lower the spare tire. The lower/raise bolt turned a few turns then began to ratchet; I assumed due to rust. I sprayed “Liquid Wrench” into the space around the bolt. That freed it so that I could lower the tire the full distance.

To lubricate the mechanism, I mixed grease and gasoline to make a thin liquid and poured that into the space around the bolt. Lastly, I cranked the bolt full down and full up a couple of times to spread the grease around.

To assure that you can lower and raise the spare tire on your Caravan when you need to, I suggest that every few years you lubricate and exercise the mechanism every few years

Good idea. It's one of those out of sight out of mind situations for most of us.