The front locker was the traditional place for the spare wheel and it helps keep it clean and accessible. The wheel is heavy though, and can make the nose weight too high.
I tend to keep a spare kept away from UV for 6-7 years providing its not been used. Periodically I spray it with Rubber/Vinyl protecterant such as Autoglym or Armorall.My current van (Swift) has it's spare wheel in the front locker , and apart from pressure checking has not (fortunately) been out of there. My van is 5 years old now, and I was due to put new tyres on this year, but with corona being 'about' decided to wait 'til we know what/where we're going. It may as well stand on old tyres as new ones! So waiting to see? PS. How long does a none used tyre kept in the dark (mainly) last? As nominally the spare is brand new?
I had a Cornice 15/2 in the 90's where the spare was in a small locker in the rear panel of the caravan. Bad principle I know but with careful loading no problem. Some vans later the Burstner had the spare in the front locker as the illustrations above and it was a bit difficult to get the nose weight right, but either solution was far far better than the Alko carrier.This is the spare wheel on my old Swift Corniche, why designers can't do this now!!View attachment 286
Easy to get nose weight.View attachment 285