I considered crawling up on the rack, I know it would hold me, but I just stand on the tires. Its hard to stand on the tires and load up the rack and tie stuff down, you need to use one hand just to hold yourself up there. When my reciever rack is on I can also stand on that which has a lot more room than the rear bumper. I dont have a spare mounted up there. I bet that is fun to get on and off the rack. A ladder may work but how will you get up there to tie the ladder down ? LOL !!