Changing tires

Just read the thread below about the boys nowdays not knowing how to jump start a car, and the resulting posts about changing tires, etc. Thing is all of that info is in the owners manual if someone takes the time to read it and can follow instructions...and it's a good thing.

I say this because a year or so back a guy of I know through work called and asked me if I'd run right down the road from my house and change the tire on his wifes SUV. It was raining and she and a friend were "stranded". Being an equipment mechanic by trade I figured this will be a snap, no problems, I'll even take my service truck and floor jack to simplify things. So I hop in the truck and off I go. I get there and she calls her husband to let him know I've arrived. In the meantime I find the spare under the back.....BUT HOW THE HECK DO I GET IT DOWN FROM WHERE IT'S HANGING???? There's no nut, nothing, just a flat plate with what looked to be a cable running through the middle of it. You don't know how embarrasing it was to have to ask for the manual to figure out how to remove the spare. Turned out there was a plugged opening with a odd ball sized square drive shaft in it, that only the tire tool would fit, that you turned to lower the tire down from where a winch had it hanging. Easy as pie to do but nearly impossible to find the plugged port, etc without the manual. I don't usually do newer cars...guess I'll know next time...

Forgot to mention I'd never met his wife before so she didn't know me. The funny thing was she was still on the phone with my buddy when I asked for the manual. He told me several days later that when I mentioned the manual she asked him just what kind of dumb a$$ mechanic did he call to change her tire, that had needed a manual to do it...

My truck has one of those cable rigs under it. Since the rod that fits it is long gone I carry a pipe wrench now to get it to come down. Of course, Im always 'borrowing' that pipe wrench when I cant find one...........

I was a dumass the other day and was screwing around in my truck, lost it, spun around 180 and hit the curb. A small peice of ice got wedged between the rim and the bead so it started leaking air.

I parked it by the apartment I live in and got out the jack and other tools from under the hood (88 F150) where they've been for 21+ years and had never been used before. I was able to figure out how it worked easily enough. It wanted to roll because I was on a slight slope and I didn't have any wheel chocks. I improvised and used 2 of the receiver's I had in the cab to block the front tires. About an hour later, (it was cold and BLOWING) I had the spare tire on and all was well. Only thing I was really thankfull for was that the spare tire was in the bed, and not under the truck. It was taken down many years ago by my dad and the hangers were rusted then. Ussually I leave it out for hauling stuff, but I try to keep it in. I ended up slicing into the sidewall on a front tire this fall so it was a good thing I had another tire off of the truck remounted on the rim so I still had a spare to install.

Got the other tire fixed for free by the guy that works on my truck. Popped the bead off that side, heated it up with a propane torch to melt the ice, and put it back on. Just gotta put it back on the truck now and throw the spare back in the bed.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Something interesting about "low profile tires"
I have a BMW Z3 Roadster with large high performance low profile tires. I got in the car Thursday and drove it about 12 miles at 70mph. No indication that anything was wrong, handled pretty much normal. I was told by another motorist that I had a low right rear tire. Pulled into a gas station and added proper air pressure.
When I got on the highway, the car vibrated and handled like the tire was flat. Stopped and checked, looked good. I drove home, about 5 miles at 40 mph and removed the tire.
Broken cords all on the inside tire wall. And by the way, I could see scuff marks on my concrete drive that were left when I left in the car.
Tire was almost flat when I left and gave no indication. The dealer said this was something that happens quite regularly, with low profile tires, and he suggested to check tire pressure regularly and to inspect tires before every drive!
I never saw this in the owners manual or have I ever heard of it.
These tires are rated for 160mph and cost close to $200.00 each.
I learned an expensive lesson about tires!

My wife and I were on the way home one night in our 84 Chrysler fifth avenue when we had a flat. I rummaged around in the trunk trying to find a jack when I found this scissors jack but I didn't know where to put the darned thing. I still had bumper jack mentality in my head at the time so I was a little lost. Then a neighbor came along and told me to look under the side of the car and there will be a place to put the jack so I could lift the car from the side. Boy did I feel dumb. I'd been changing tires for years before that on cars that still used the old bumper jack but this one was a new one to me. Jim

How many times on here does somebody ask a question and get the RTFM (read the ahem manual) reply?

LOL! Don't feel bad. I'm not afraid to change a tire and found myself having to do that early one morning along the road on my girlfriend's '97 Audi. All I can say is that the jack that comes with the car is the oddest-looking thing I ever saw for a car jack in my life -- like one half of a scissors jack. I looked around quite a while for a base or some other piece and finally (Mother, pin a rose on me!) got the book out of the glove box, and what I had was all there was. Be darned, it worked and worked well.

A smart man will read the directions before he breaks something. When all else fails first!

bought this GMC new in 1989. Original spare tire had never been lowered. Last summer I decided to drop and check it out.

It has the cable operated by sticking the jack handle into an oblong tube via a hole in the bumper. The tube had come loose and swung to the side.

Had to get someone smarter than me to get up in there and figure the dang thing out.

A year or so ago, I was driving home in my 95 Dodge truck.

Just happened to look in the left side view mirror and saw my spare tire crossing the street.

Luckily there was no traffic and it rolled up into a bank's parking lot and fell over on the sidewalk.

That was the first time the spare had ever been on the ground!

Even if I could have figured out how to "mount" it back under the truck, there was no way I was going to take that chance again.

Bought a length of chain and a lock and "mounted" it on the toolbox.

Has not come loose since!

My '08 Dodge Grand Caravan has the spare mounted under the body between the front seats! I did read the manual, and it's still hard to get to the lowering device under the center console.

Used to work at a GM dealership and seen more than a few of those cables broken....

My first S-10 was like that (sos the current one) but the dealer had traded with a city dealer to get it. The spare was padlocked onto the frame, and nobody had given me a key, so when I needed the spare I couldn't get it off the hanger. So I used a can of instant spare and drove it to the dealer, where they cut the padlock off. The instant spare was coming out the sidewall, so that tire simply got replaced.

My wife called me and said she had a flat on her s-10. I asked her why she didnt put the spare on cause she does know how.she said she couldnt get it down from under truck. So i shut the tractor down jumped in my service truck and went to see what the problem was.I ended up using a torch to cut the spare out from under there. What a dumb design.

Whenever I trade vehicles I think I should change a tire on it so I know how if I should have to sometime in the rain or cold. Never do though. Bernie Steffen