Don't ya understand? I wants me a tire!

[cinema guy]

...accessing the spare was a pain in the ass. On ours, it rode just ahead of the bumper, and was held in place by some sort of hand-crank mechanism. Since the tire was outside, it was usually covered in all sorts of mud and grime.

I had a car with one of those. It was a PITA. Had a flat and couldn't get it off. Fortunately wasn't very far from home. Had to go back the next day with a hammer and WD40 to free it up and change the tire.

[chainedbarista]

i get the impression that this genius was already using his spare; probably one of those little donut tires, which aren't meant for speeds over 45 mph, creating some issue requiring services. he just seems that smrt.

[Yarnil]

Or he finally found his spare, and thats why he cancelled the tow

Or is that too logical?

[protege]

Had to go back the next day with a hammer and WD40 to free it up and change the tire.

When in doubt, brute force always works

I once had a Tercel that required a hammer to change a tire. Found that out the hard way. Imagine my surprise, when I have the car in the air...and I can't get the damn rim off Apparently, it was common on those cars--the heat from the rear brakes would cause the alloy wheel to 'fuse' onto the steel brake drum. Pain in the ass, but a couple of well-placed taps with a sledgehammer was enough to break the bond. To prevent the problem in the future, I smeared copper grease all over the mating surfaces. No more fusion for me!

[TowelKing]

Guys a world-class douchenozzle. But I can see where he might not have had a spare.
I know I have a spare right now, but because I'm running larger tires, I can't use my spare unless I want to seriously damage my truck.
Doesn't excuse him though. Lol.

[PepperElf]

it sounds like one of those cases where...
what they want isn't possible therefore everyone else is stupid

and im betting you really wanted to say ... "No, YOU don't understand - what you want doesn't exist this time of night. Yelling and screaming and calling everyone ELSE stupid will not change this. Now are you going to pick what IS available or are you going to keep on asking the same stupid question?"

Guys a world-class douchenozzle. But I can see where he might not have had a spare.

Plus not everyone knows how to change it out. And sometimes the spare is a doughnut which shouldn't go past 45mph.

Last time I had to use one of those, I called AAA to get the spare put on, but I couldn't get a real tire on it for a couple of days. So when I went to work I took the back roads (35mph) instead of my regular route.

[Blue Ginger]

world-class douchenozzle.

Hehe.

My parents wouldn't let me drive on my own until I knew how to change a tyre.

So far 2 flat tyres that I didn't have to do myself. First time, I was literally around the corner from my cousins house. Second time, the guy who pointed it out pulled up behind me and helped me change it. That was on a really busy major highway, luckily near an emergency phone pull over part.
First thing I did, both times, was get the tyre fixed or replaced. I do too many kms on country roads to be without a spare tyre.

[kpzra]

Our truck hasn't had the spare mounted since shortly after we bought it in 2004. It's one of the underbed crank down ones, and it's currently frozen in the up position, so the spare is in the bed on longer trips. The Blazer has military runflats, so it's good, plus being 37" beadlock rims means we can't just replace the tire on the rim, it needs the insert.

[Shalom]

Found that out the hard way. Imagine my surprise, when I have the car in the air...and I can't get the damn rim off Apparently, it was common on those cars--the heat from the rear brakes would cause the alloy wheel to 'fuse' onto the steel brake drum.

What they used to recommend when this happens is to put the nuts back on loosely, lower the car back onto the ground, and bump your ass against the fender several times to wobble the car back and forth. This usually breaks it loose.

I've been changing my own tires since I was driving (heck, I changed my father's tires even before I could drive. Only once did I need to call the AAA for help.

This was back in '97, when I was on the I-81 just south of Syracuse and blew a tire. I jacked up the front end with the factory jack, had a hell of a time getting the flat off, and then found that even with the jack all the way up I was still two inches short of enough clearance to get the (full-sized) spare on. I scratched my head over this (it was 3 AM, so I wasn't thinking all that clearly); eventually figured out that under the shock tower isn't the right place to put the jack, despite it being a natural fit there: you have to feel for a hole in the frame rail and put the jack under that. Crank it all the way open and you have barely enough clearance.

Problem was I couldn't get the flat back on either, so I couldn't let the car back down to move the jack. (I realize now I could have put the flat sideways under the frame and let it down onto that, but it might have bent the aluminum rim and then I'm up the creek.) Had to wait for a cop to come by and call the AAA for me. I got a cell phone very shortly thereafter...

[Andara Bledin]

I've been changing tires since I was a teen. At that point I was easily the strongest of my family unit barring my dad, so I got to do a lot of the "heavy lifting."

I've has someone change my flat for me twice. The first, I was on an incline, and didn't want to chance it with the crappy jack I had. The second was after I tried, then my boyfriend tried, and neither of us could get the lugs to turn. The tow driver looked at us like we were idiots... until he couldn't get them to move, either. It took all three of us, working in tandem, to loosen each one. >_<

^-.-^

[Kogarashi]

I like where the spare is stored in our Jeep. It's on the interior of the storage area, vertical and to one side, bolted to the side of the vehicle. The bolts are simple enough to loosen, and inside the vehicle like that it's not likely to rust in place on us. It even has a nice cover to keep the rest of the storage area clean when we put the flat in.

Hubby and I have had to change a flat three times in the seven years we've been married, and we always make sure to get the flat fixed ASAP. It's a full-size spare, too, so when the flat's fixed, it goes in where the spare was to wait for the next flat tire.

[MadMike]

Sweet jumping jebus, hasn't he heard of *SPARE TIRE*? we not only have the full sized spare in the tire well, we toss in one of the stupid donut spares that we have hanging around as well.

Maybe he had already blown another tire, was already using the spare, and never bothered to be replace. Or maybe he had one of those stupid donuts you mentioned, which can't be driven more than 50 miles or so.

Luckily for me, the one and only time I blew a tire late at night far away from home, I had a car that had a full-size spare. I had gone to a concert out past Altoona with a couple of friends, and just about everything went wrong on the way back.

First, I went the wrong way on the highway (not the wrong side of the road like on Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, just the wrong direction.) I went about 20 miles before I realized I was going the wrong way. Then, just after I got turned around, I blew a tire. I had three tires that were almost bare and one good one. Guess which one blew? I don't know what happened, or what I may have hit, but the damn thing was shredded.

My friends had already passed out on me, so I was on my own. As I was jacking up the car, the door flew open and my friends tumbled out, and one of them almost puked on me. Once I got the shredded tire off, I was so pissed I threw it across the field. I got the spare on, got my friends back in the car, and we were on our way.

Then there was another problem -- I was starting to feel sleepy and I was still over 100 miles away from home. Eventually, I pulled into one of the service plazas on the turnpike, turned the car off, and took a nap. When I woke up, I thought I was still driving and had fallen asleep at the wheel, and freaked out! My friends were still out cold, but that scare gave me enough of an adrenalin rush to get the rest of the way home.

I dropped my friends off and made it home as it was getting to be daylight. I crawled in bed and went out as soon as I hit the pillow. But that wasn't the end of the disaster. When I woke up several hours later and went to pick up some lunch, I discovered that the fan somehow got stuck and had been running the whole time I was asleep, killing the battery. There wasn't even enough juice to run the clock.

[Andara Bledin]

Hubby and I have had to change a flat three times in the seven years we've been married, and we always make sure to get the flat fixed ASAP. It's a full-size spare, too, so when the flat's fixed, it goes in where the spare was to wait for the next flat tire.

My SOP is to put the spare on, hit the local tire shop, get two new tires put on the front (almost never any rain/snow, else they'd go on the back), the two best on the back, and the better of the remaining becomes the spare, with the worst of the lot getting junked.

^-.-^

[retailninja]

Wait, you mean to tell me that repeating one's demands again and again DOESN'T change the fact that the demand is in no way, shape or form possible? WAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

[Racket_Man]

and this is one of the reason I carry at least 2 CANS of any brand of Fix-A-Flat. this stuff will at least get me somewhere UNLESS if picked up a 1/2 inch bolt thru the thread.

with all of the streets I drive for my job flat tires are just another day at the office.