re: Changing a tire. Can you do it?

I've never done it, but I could probably figure it out. I don't know shite about vehicles, but changing a tire seems pretty easy.

I learned how when I was 9 or 10 and my mom got a flat with me in the car and my dad over an hour away.

quote:

---

I've never done it, but I could probably figure it out. I don't know shite about vehicles, but changing a tire seems pretty easy.

---

I'll give you $100 if you can change a tire on my van using only the manufacturer's tools...and no owner's manual..It'd take an MIT engineer, and then I would give him 50/50 odds.

Never was taught, but I can read a car's manual. Popped my first tire the other week and the book taught me in 5 minutes. Anyone who can't ascertain this knowledge from those books/the internet should not be allowed to reproduce.

I've attempted to change 10-12 in my life.

I've failed at doing 3 times.

It's simple and takes all of 5 minutes, 10 minutes max IF you can get the lug nuts off. That doesn't always happen considering they are typically machine tightened. Every car I've had has had that little piece of crap, metal stick with the spare and I've literally bent one jumping up and down on it trying to loosen a lug nut. Once I had to call a service and the dude had a four spoke one and still couldn't get the thing lose after 15 minutes of trying.

Anyway, it's simple if you have a donut spare, literally takes 5 minutes if you've done it before and know how to use a jack. But one machine tightened lug nut that is on too tight with that little metal stick can screw you.

I dob't hate the stick iron half as much as I hate the crappy twist-and-turn jacks a lot of cars come with. You're looking at three or four minutes just using that thing alone.

I agree that is a stupid commercail.

Yes I can change a tire. When each of my children started driving I made them change all 4 tires on their car, before I let them drive by themselves.. They didnt like doing it but several years later my son got a flat on the interstate and changed it with no problems.

I would recommend people add the following items to their cars. I was able to add them to the place where the jack is located in all four of my family's vehicles.

1. Pair of gloves- mainly to keep your hands clean after changing the tire.
2. Small towel to kneel on so your knee is not on a piece of gravel and to keep your clothes clean.
3. If the car comes with a straight shaft tire iron get a piece of pipe that will fit over it and is as long as the tire iron is. This can be used as a cheater pipe. This is very useful when you get a lug not that some a-hole put on with an air wrench set at 10,000 psi.
4. Good flashlight and extra batteries.
5. If possible a couple pieces of 4x4 that are cut into triangles and can be used to block a tire if you are on a slight hill and moving it to a flat area is not possible.

quote:

---

But some of these contraptions they put in cars that they call tire irons and jacks, and the maneuvers you have to pull to get them into service can make a man doubt his place in this world.

---

Last year my wife's 2016 got a flat on the interstate.

After about 30 minutes I finally was able to free the spare tire from under the car.

Once I had it jacked up and nuts removed, the wheel wouldn't budge. I beat the shite out of it to the point of almost flipping the vehicle over.

I said frick this, threw it all in the back and drove on the rim on the shoulder to the next exit. Called a tow truck. Took it to tires plus. Done.

They even put all that stupid shite back together for me. That alone was worth the price of the new tire and labor. I would never have gotten all that shite back together.

New cars just aren't meant to be fricked with by normal people anymore.

When my kid turns 16 he’s getting a 1977 Impala that only starts when you spray ether into the carburetor so he can be a man.