Getting the spare tire off a Dodge Caravan

I have read several people's ways of getting tire off after it has been hung up on the safety release. I attached a coat hanger to the mechanism and pulled toward the rear, but could not release the tire. Here is what worked for me.

I backed my car up on my ramps that I use for changing my oil. I wound the spare tire wench down do that about 2 inches of the aluminium cable was showing beneath the tire. I got under the car, and lifted the tire up against the floor of the car using my sissors jack on the front end and a 2x4 that I cut to hold it up on the back end. I sprayed the black steel tube and the mechanism inside it that I could see with WD40.
I pushed the plastic T to the side, looked up through the hole in the middle of the spare tire wheel where you will see two prongs inside the square metal tube coming down from the floor of the car. The two prongs hold the plastic sleeve that runs along the aluminum cable in place. I took a long screw driver and tapped on the prongs. I hit the one on the right side a few times, then the one on the left. Then back to the right and then to the left. After several taps on each side, the prongs started to move upward and then the plastic sleeve was free and the tire dropped down.  The jack and 2x4 kept the tire from dropping on my face.  When I took the tire off the cable, my safet mechanism had deteriorated so that the spring was no longer attached and the piece of steel holding the prongs was partially eaten away.
If your safety mechanism has not deteriorated as much as mine maybe this won't work for you.
If you try getting the coat hanger through the hole in the safety mechanism sothat you can pull toward the rear of the car, it might help to let all of the air out of the spare so as to get yourself an extra one-half to a full inch more of slack between the tire and the floor of the car.