Like so many things, a little lube can make the experience nicer.
TBH, I can’t remember the last time I had to change a flat tire. I don’t know if that is good luck or just bad memory.
@macromeh@yakkoTDI
Still don’t use it on the lugs [bolts] or lug nuts, lest they self-loosen.
The best place to use either grease or never-seize is is around the inside of the wheel and its hub- then you don’t need a home-free [i.e., undomiciled, un-housed, or housing-insecure] person and construction materials to get it off once the lug nuts have been removed.
@PhysAssist@yakkoTDI I use some of this on wheel studs (and tighten to factory torque specs) and have never had a problem with either unwanted loosening or difficult removal.
My wife had a 70’s compact pickup when we married. She had rarely used it and it sat for a long time. After many more years of sitting unused, we gave the engine and transmission to a friend’s son, scrapped the cab and I turned the bed and rear axle into a trailer to pull behind my tractor.
Well, eventually there was a flat tire on the trailer. I tried many different methods to remove the rusted, seized lug nuts (various penetrating products, heat, long breaker bar, etc.) with no success - they were essentially welded to the studs. I finally had to burn the lug nuts off with a torch.
A little anti-seize can make life much simpler.
@macromeh@yakkoTDI
That sounds like a specific special circumstance, and while I could not find any specific instances where it was proven to be a problem, my [brief] research indicated that the torque specifications given by virtually all automotive manufacturers is for dry fasteners, and in contrast to what I thought would be the problem [the lug nuts self-loosening or working/vibrating free], the actual issue appears to be that by lubricating the threads, the axial torque on the studs/lugs/bolts is significantly increased, which risks breaking them off due to increased traction effects.
But as always, YMMV.
@macromeh@yakkoTDI Anti-sieze is an amalgam of a lubricant and one or more metallic powders. The compositions vary. They change the torque/stretch coefficient, and should be used only where known to be safe. Vehicle lugs in general have a very high tolerance for overtorque, so the anti-sieze will seldom cause issues with factory lugs, nuts and wheels used without modifications. There are places where the use of anti-sieze results in breakage of parts at factory torque.
@macromeh@werehatrack@yakkoTDI yeah one place I wouldn’t use antisieze is the lug nuts… But most of the time I don’t bring out the torque wrench.
I crank um down till it feels right, go to the grocery store and “retorque” them.
They aren’t stretch bolts and they aren’t coming off. There’s plenty of stuff I don’t check torque up spec. Done dozens of brake calipers. I’m not checking torque specs.
The important stuff. That need even pressure and stretch the bolt like a head… Yeah obviously.
@macromeh@unksol@werehatrack@yakkoTDI I’ve never used antiseize on lug nuts either, spark plugs, yes all the time. However, I’m just your below average driveway mechanic so that may not mean much. In the few decades I spent living in the midwest snow and salt belt, I’ve not come across any lug nuts stuck from corrosion, but several from being cross threaded by shop gorillas with impacts set to a million foot pounds. Seeing many youtube videos of entire wheels coming off moving cars and trucks, I’d rather risk having them stuck than coming loose in a curve at 70 mph.
@kuoh@macromeh@werehatrack@yakkoTDI lol I’ve never had A problem getting a lug nut off. Breaker bar does it. Someone else’s car maybe a cheater pipe. But never failed.
I do have a cratsman. Impact wrench and if it fails a rigid octane high torque. On the back bench. But ridiculous for lug nuts.
I haven’t changed a tire lately, but I have had to fill and refill flat tires with air. I keep two the inflators in the car for said purpose. My tires seem to attract nails.
@heartny Picked up a screw in my 1 day old tires a few months back, luckily the TPMS warned me in time. Good thing I always keep a portable inflator in the car, but it still took a long time to get the pressure up from less than 20 psi. Now I also carry a quick tire patch kit and a slime type liquid patch as a last resort.
@heartny@kuoh
I spent months having to re-inflate my tire within about 3-4 months of getting my car new to replace the one the insurance totaled due to lack of parts availability- [it was an otherwise repairable 2020].
I eventually took it off once I got sick of the necessity and took it to a tore repair/replace place, where they said that they couldn’t repair it because the screw I picked up was in the shoulder, and not in the flat part of the tread, but that I could either repair it myself, or buy a whole set of 4 new tires [AWD car requirement].
I bought a Harbor Freight tire repair kit, and repaired it with a glued in plug- and it has been fine ever since- to the point that I now really do have to replace all 4 tires because they are all ‘baldinis’, with almost no tread left in the contact areas, which I noticed when I took them off to put my snow tires on 2 months ago.
@heartny@PhysAssist@pmarin@Star2236 Cost is the biggest reason, especially if the tires are still within 50% and a complete set of all seasons for SUVs are typically over $1k. Also when it happens, you aren’t always near home or have the time to comparison shop for the best deal, so you’re at the mercy of the tire shop’s inventory.
It’s recommended if there is a significant tread depth difference, but not required. Even if not replaced as a full set, there wouldn’t necessarily be much of an issue if it has open differentials, which some AWD systems have. You can easily tell if only one front and one rear wheel spins and the car remains immobile. It’s more of a problem for limited slip or a locked center diff, which was common with older shift on the fly 4WD transmissions, not sure about modern 4WD systems.
@heartny@kuoh@PhysAssist@pmarin@Star2236 lol I’m 1997 expedition and it’s AWD is automatic 4WD if it needs it. Occasionally getting out of the drive when it’s solid ice up the hill I switch it to
that out or 4 lo
@heartny@kuoh@pmarin@Star2236
I used to have a Honda Element, which was a full-time FWD, with AWD when the fronts slipped, which was OK, but weird, because the better tires HAD to be on the front. If they were, you could feel the AWD kick in, but it wasn’t a problem.
[They didn’t say that you had to replace all 4 each time, but always had to replace 2- both on the same axle.]
If the front tires slipped as you were turning, and the AWD kicked in, the rear wheels would grip and drive the car straight ahead, and since the fronts were slipping, you could get pushed right into an intersection.
That scared the crap out of me just once, and then I made it a point thereafter to always keep the better tires on the front through the winter, and only swap them back in the spring, once the risk of snow was past.
The 2023 CR-V, although similarly FWD with AWD back-up, is a bit more sophisticated because instead of hydraulic control of the AWD, it’s electronically-controlled [computerized] and is so much smoother as to seem seamless- in fact, until I reminded myself about it, I was ready to say it’s full-time AWD.
The downside is not having much manual control of the AWD, except through the mode selector, which has normal, economy, and snow modes.
Mine lives mostly in Eco, although through the last week I needed snow mode a lot.
@heartny@kuoh@PhysAssist@pmarin@Star2236 I have a Mazda AWD sedan. I’ve read that the computer AWD control was adapted from gaming SW which virtually models each wheel to adjust the parameters applied for best traction under the immediate conditions. I have a set of Bridgestone Blizzak studless snow tires on separate rims that I mount for winter driving. The combination seems to work well - the main limitation for snow/ice driving that I have encountered is ground clearance (which is somewhat limited), but not usually a problem as long as the roads are plowed.
@heartny@kuoh@macromeh@pmarin@Star2236
Living in the Lake Effect zones for both Lake Erie and Ontario, we have long had 2 sets of tires and rims, for dedicated summer [all-season] and winter [usually mud & snow] use.
I’d love to try Blizzaks, but I’m too cheap.
In fact, when I took off my summer tires to put on the snows, I realized that I had been driving on baldinis [AKA slicks] and ordered new tires.
They arrived last week, and today I took my summer rims and the new all-season tires to be mounted and balanced today before the temperatures plummeted- so I’m ready and waiting for spring…
I have the same clearance issue for my CR-V, but SWMBO’s Ridgeline- not so much.
@heartny@kuoh@PhysAssist@pmarin@Star2236 The Mazda’s ground clearance is only 5.5 inches - I’ve pushed snow with the front spoiler going in/out of my (unplowed) driveway.
Being retired I don’t put many miles on my car, especially in winter, so they should last a while. I bought the Blizzak snow tires, mounted+balanced on rims, online from Tire Rack - got a pretty fair deal at the time (<$900 shipped).
When there was snow the first year I bought the house a foot plus of snow up hill. I slowly shoveled it out. But hasn’t really happened in the last decade.
Had to scrape and shovel and ice for the Saturn. The expedition gets out. Never had summer/winter tires
My Fiat is one of those cars that doesn’t have a spare. Instead it’s an air pump with a sealant solution that can be pumped into the tire. Not so helpful if you park in a spot someone else in South Boston cleared after a snowstorm and find your sidewall slit in the morning.
@ItalianScallion
S. Boston was really brutal in the mid-80’s when
I lived and worked there nice to know that some things never change [not really tho].
I don’t specifically remember my last time, my wife is always getting flats and I have to go change them for her… But I remember my first time. Was on a first date with a girl. Meeting her in a place I had never been before - torrential downpour, at night, couldn’t see entrance to parking lot and drove over curb. Tire was ruined, fortunately no other damage to car. Great way to start a first date.
Later on that same date took her to the emergency room, she sliced her finger open on catfood and had to have stitches (big coincidence considering today’s sale item and fact I’m sitting in an ER right now)
Would have been an awesome meet-story if we lasted but that awesome first date story was lost on a fling that only lasted two months.
It’s called aaa. I don’t change tires anymore. It’s well worth the money if you do any amount of driving. I can remember when they first added the pay a little bit more and be able to tow it further. I hadn’t had to have them tow a car in years. And in that same week or month at least my daughter’s girlfriend’s car installed and had to go back to the dealer that had just worked on it. And it was about 70 Mi away and I had a hundred mile t o w
@Cerridwyn I had a buddy who made it a point to ration his AAA tow miles for the year carefully and never waste them. Once he had the car towed a town over to save on gas when he was headed there. (He was a madman, obviously.)
Two scissors jacks, two sturdy rubber chocks, a big cordless DeWalt impact, and a 12V compressor were nearly enough. The compressor’s plug melted. But as this was a rescue run, I just hauled the spare to a nearby tire shop, got it aired up, and was done shortly after. (And yes, I brought a big torque wrench for final tightening.)
@werehatrack
Think about getting a breaker bar, because sometimes even a really good impact wrench doesn’t have enough grunt to loosen a really tight [or crudded up, or rusted] lug nut.
E.g.: https://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-drive-25-in-breaker-bar-60819.html
Note: this is the regular price, but they always have some on sale, or discounted via coupons
@PhysAssist Oh, I carry a 36" breaker bar, but my big DeWalt hits over 900 ft/lbs according the TTC, and I have yet to encounter a car or light truck lug it can’t remove.
I had a flat on 476 one time on the way home from Musikfest and could not get the lug nuts OFF, so I got a righteous wrench (aka 4-way, aka universal) for the trunk and have never had a problem since, although sometimes you have to hit the left arm (holding it carefully level) a bit. A compressor and impact driver sound pleasant but I’d save the room for a full-size spare.
There’s a lot to said for AAA but sometimes you have to have a LOT of patience.
There’s a lot to said for patience but sometimes you have to have more than I do.
I’ve never changed a tire. My dad showed me how when I first started driving, but when I got my first flat, I couldn’t get the lug nuts off. I have roadside assistance through my insurance, so I just call them.
@lisagd
While I really don’t want SWMBO to do her own tire changes, [We do have roadside assistance gratis from Honda, but they can be very long on arriving.] I bought a 12-volt impact wrench that plugs into the power port on her truck just in case that is even an issue.
But we also have a breaker bar and apropos socket for the lug nuts in each vehicle- just in case.
The last time I had a flat that required a spare was in a rental car in the fall. I had rented a car from SixT and they upgraded me to a BMW. Fun to drive, but while we were at a local community theater watching a play my left front tire went flat. Popped the trunk and there was no spare, no slime, no compressor… nothing. Called SixT to find out what the deal was and they said it was a run-flat tire. Told me I could drive 50 mph up to 50 miles. Offered to change it out for a different car if I took it back, but I was 75 miles away from the airport where I got it so that was a no-go. They said there was a tire shop 24 miles away that I could take it to and they would change out the tire. Quick google search found a tire shop 4 miles away which I drove to on the run flat.
Waited 10 minutes till I could get it into a bay. They threw it on the lift and found a screw in the thread. Pulled the screw, put a plug in, aired up the tire, put it down on the ground and back out of the bay. Whole thing took less than 20 minutes. When I went to pay my bill the guy at the counter said “never mind it’s on us”. My wife and I scraped together $10 in cash and gave it to him and told him to go buy a six pack of beer after work. There are still good people in this world!
My most common flats are in my riding mower. I use it as a bush hog way too many times and end up driving over pointy pieces of bamboo or branches. Harbor freights plug kits have been able to solve all of those except one slice in a side wall which required a tire change.
@chienfou@PhysAssist We had one of these as a rental car. Actually one of most awesome cheap (but limited) 4WDs ever made. Loaded with camping gear and going over gravel roads. Got a slow tire leak and was able to continue on and get it fixed at a local shop, and then the rental car company reimbursed us for the repair cost.
@PhysAssist
Yeah I thought it was brilliant. I may try to do that with the mower tire that the sidewall got torn out on. If I manage to get it done I’ll post pictures… Don’t hold your breath though!
@pmarin on our own, plus three guys living out of an Acura Integra meant dragging everything out of the trunk to access the spare while we directed our own traffic. Managed to change the tire before anyone showed up to help!
@jouest I’ll raise you getting a flat on approach to the George Washington Bridge and having to change the tire in front of a bridge pillar because there was nowhere to pull over. I think it was when I had the 1965 Chevy Biscayne. It was such a low-end car that it had an AM-only radio without pushbuttons.
this was my experience in Tennessee « in a roadside ditch. » as the ad goes don’t end up in a roadside ditch. the story is still too painful to tell but no injuries, except to the vehicle by incompetent and unequipped road service. And yet I was grateful for it because they got me going to live and fight another day.
My best tire story is driving North on the Alaska Pipeline Road (aka the “Haul Road”) from Fairbanks. All Gravel and mostly trucks on it but some locals too. Got a flat and pulled over to a siding area and within minutes a guy in a pickup came over to help us. He whipped out a hydraulic floor jack from the back of his truck and swapped our tire for us (our spare was OK). People up there help each other. He said he always carries 2 spare tires because otherwise if you need a second one you are out of luck and about 50 miles from any form of help.
Got the tire repaired by a tire shop by the bridge over the Yukon river. Tire guy used the trick of splashing gasoline or starter fluid into the rim so that it would seal quickly when you tossed a flame into it. With our new tire spent the night in another gravel turnout since a bridge was closed for maintenance. Next day we saw the guy who helped us again in the town of Coldfoot (great name). He was going to take a small plane to a lake where he lived or ran a lodge or something. Maybe his own plane. Was a great trip the whole thing. Once I got back to “normal” work one guy’s wife said it sounded like the “honeymoon from Hell” but it was all good.
@pmarin
That sounds like my version of fun times- just as long as it wasn’t brutally cold and snowing out.
That’s the “2 is one, and 1 is none” school of planning ahead with redundancy, which is rumored at least to have come from the special forces communities.
I’d say that’s why I have so many knives, flashlights, etc., but I’d be lying- when I see new or interesting ones, I just can’t stop myself from buying them.
This was a few years ago. But it is the last time I changed a flat. So your fault for asking.
So I was driving to my dads burial. An hour away. And I left an hour early. About 30 miles out a tire just blew. Shredded it self.
I knew the tires needed replaced but they weren’t that bad. I bought it for $400. From a dealer. I hadn’t decided if I wanted to put $700 of tires into it. And had fixed the actual mechanical problems which were actually pretty minor to me . Idk if the pressure was low or it just gave up the ghost. It wasn’t bald.
Stopped. Knocked on someone’s door and asked if I can change it in their driveway. They say sure.
Still an hour early. Except I’m stressed and forget that an expedition jack is supposed to go on the rear axle. Even though I’ve used it before.
Put it on the frame cause in a hurry. Crank it all the way up which is a work out. Can’t clear the tire off the ground. Cause it’s supposed to be on the axel keeping the load on the suspension… Then it slips off the jack. With the tire loose but still on.
Realize I’m a moron. Because I HAVE USED IT BEFORE to take a tire off. Before I had a better jack that had height needed. Jack it up the right way. Sweating balls in the summer heat.
Get the spare on which looks fine. Lower it. Completely flat. And I know I should have been checking the pressure. Guy at the house has no air compressor or tools at all
Give up. Call mom I can’t get there. Brother in law comes 30 minutes later with his cars small inflator.
Mean while guys wife gets home. I’ve been there for like 2+ hours and we are blocking their whole drive now. So she drives through their yard to park. They were both very nice.
Takes 15 plus minutes of his small inflator to get where I can get to a gas station, inflate it and quit and go home.
Worst tire change.
I have changed multiple others peoples tires. Side of the road. Parking lots. Sissor jack or I had my craftsman in the the trunk. Always had a compressor if needed.
This one time I don’t have a compressor. And fuck up the jack…
Someone in range get a flat so that is no longer the last time. There’s a rigid compressor in the side panel with a battery and a 12 v cord how…
@PhysAssist yea she just went. Thankfully only going 40 cause “city” road crossing between highways and I kept it straight. Had it been a narrow country road at 55-60 mph which is how I usually go. With power poles on the side. Idk lol
Like so many things, a little lube can make the experience nicer.

TBH, I can’t remember the last time I had to change a flat tire. I don’t know if that is good luck or just bad memory.
@macromeh Never use lube on lug nuts/bolts. Use anti seize like I do.
@macromeh @yakkoTDI
Still don’t use it on the lugs [bolts] or lug nuts, lest they self-loosen.
The best place to use either grease or never-seize is is around the inside of the wheel and its hub- then you don’t need a home-free [i.e., undomiciled, un-housed, or housing-insecure] person and construction materials to get it off once the lug nuts have been removed.
I speak from long experience.
@PhysAssist @yakkoTDI I use some of this on wheel studs (and tighten to factory torque specs) and have never had a problem with either unwanted loosening or difficult removal.

My wife had a 70’s compact pickup when we married. She had rarely used it and it sat for a long time. After many more years of sitting unused, we gave the engine and transmission to a friend’s son, scrapped the cab and I turned the bed and rear axle into a trailer to pull behind my tractor.
Well, eventually there was a flat tire on the trailer. I tried many different methods to remove the rusted, seized lug nuts (various penetrating products, heat, long breaker bar, etc.) with no success - they were essentially welded to the studs. I finally had to burn the lug nuts off with a torch.
A little anti-seize can make life much simpler.
@macromeh @yakkoTDI
That sounds like a specific special circumstance, and while I could not find any specific instances where it was proven to be a problem, my [brief] research indicated that the torque specifications given by virtually all automotive manufacturers is for dry fasteners, and in contrast to what I thought would be the problem [the lug nuts self-loosening or working/vibrating free], the actual issue appears to be that by lubricating the threads, the axial torque on the studs/lugs/bolts is significantly increased, which risks breaking them off due to increased traction effects.
But as always, YMMV.
@macromeh @PhysAssist The anti seize I use is from Wurth and is copper infused.
@macromeh @yakkoTDI
No idea what or whether difference that makes.
The recommended torque is still as measured with dry fasteners.
@macromeh @yakkoTDI Anti-sieze is an amalgam of a lubricant and one or more metallic powders. The compositions vary. They change the torque/stretch coefficient, and should be used only where known to be safe. Vehicle lugs in general have a very high tolerance for overtorque, so the anti-sieze will seldom cause issues with factory lugs, nuts and wheels used without modifications. There are places where the use of anti-sieze results in breakage of parts at factory torque.
@macromeh @werehatrack @yakkoTDI yeah one place I wouldn’t use antisieze is the lug nuts… But most of the time I don’t bring out the torque wrench.
I crank um down till it feels right, go to the grocery store and “retorque” them.
They aren’t stretch bolts and they aren’t coming off. There’s plenty of stuff I don’t check torque up spec. Done dozens of brake calipers. I’m not checking torque specs.
The important stuff. That need even pressure and stretch the bolt like a head… Yeah obviously.
@macromeh @unksol @werehatrack @yakkoTDI I’ve never used antiseize on lug nuts either, spark plugs, yes all the time. However, I’m just your below average driveway mechanic so that may not mean much. In the few decades I spent living in the midwest snow and salt belt, I’ve not come across any lug nuts stuck from corrosion, but several from being cross threaded by shop gorillas with impacts set to a million foot pounds. Seeing many youtube videos of entire wheels coming off moving cars and trucks, I’d rather risk having them stuck than coming loose in a curve at 70 mph.
KuoH
@kuoh @macromeh @werehatrack @yakkoTDI lol I’ve never had A problem getting a lug nut off. Breaker bar does it. Someone else’s car maybe a cheater pipe. But never failed.
I do have a cratsman. Impact wrench and if it fails a rigid octane high torque. On the back bench. But ridiculous for lug nuts.
I use them when I hit a rusted bolt.
I haven’t changed a tire lately, but I have had to fill and refill flat tires with air. I keep two the inflators in the car for said purpose. My tires seem to attract nails.
@heartny Picked up a screw in my 1 day old tires a few months back, luckily the TPMS warned me in time. Good thing I always keep a portable inflator in the car, but it still took a long time to get the pressure up from less than 20 psi. Now I also carry a quick tire patch kit and a slime type liquid patch as a last resort.
KuoH
@heartny @kuoh
I spent months having to re-inflate my tire within about 3-4 months of getting my car new to replace the one the insurance totaled due to lack of parts availability- [it was an otherwise repairable 2020].
I eventually took it off once I got sick of the necessity and took it to a tore repair/replace place, where they said that they couldn’t repair it because the screw I picked up was in the shoulder, and not in the flat part of the tread, but that I could either repair it myself, or buy a whole set of 4 new tires [AWD car requirement].
I bought a Harbor Freight tire repair kit, and repaired it with a glued in plug- and it has been fine ever since- to the point that I now really do have to replace all 4 tires because they are all ‘baldinis’, with almost no tread left in the contact areas, which I noticed when I took them off to put my snow tires on 2 months ago.
@heartny @kuoh @PhysAssist I had a similar experience with an “unrepairable” tire. Never had a problem with the plug patch that I DIY’ed.
@heartny @kuoh
That was supposed to be ‘tire’ shop.
I blame myself…
@heartny @kuoh @PhysAssist
AWD cars require you to replace all tires at one time? People need to tell you this when you buy an AWD car
@heartny @kuoh @PhysAssist @Star2236 Depends on the type of system but yeah, that makes sense. I don’t see why you would not, though.
@heartny @PhysAssist @pmarin @Star2236 Cost is the biggest reason, especially if the tires are still within 50% and a complete set of all seasons for SUVs are typically over $1k. Also when it happens, you aren’t always near home or have the time to comparison shop for the best deal, so you’re at the mercy of the tire shop’s inventory.
It’s recommended if there is a significant tread depth difference, but not required. Even if not replaced as a full set, there wouldn’t necessarily be much of an issue if it has open differentials, which some AWD systems have. You can easily tell if only one front and one rear wheel spins and the car remains immobile. It’s more of a problem for limited slip or a locked center diff, which was common with older shift on the fly 4WD transmissions, not sure about modern 4WD systems.
KuoH
@heartny @kuoh @pmarin @Star2236
This was a 2023 Honda.
@heartny @kuoh @PhysAssist @pmarin @Star2236 lol I’m 1997 expedition and it’s AWD is automatic 4WD if it needs it. Occasionally getting out of the drive when it’s solid ice up the hill I switch it to
that out or 4 lo
Mostly just rear wheel
@heartny @kuoh @pmarin @Star2236
I used to have a Honda Element, which was a full-time FWD, with AWD when the fronts slipped, which was OK, but weird, because the better tires HAD to be on the front. If they were, you could feel the AWD kick in, but it wasn’t a problem.
[They didn’t say that you had to replace all 4 each time, but always had to replace 2- both on the same axle.]
If the front tires slipped as you were turning, and the AWD kicked in, the rear wheels would grip and drive the car straight ahead, and since the fronts were slipping, you could get pushed right into an intersection.
That scared the crap out of me just once, and then I made it a point thereafter to always keep the better tires on the front through the winter, and only swap them back in the spring, once the risk of snow was past.
The 2023 CR-V, although similarly FWD with AWD back-up, is a bit more sophisticated because instead of hydraulic control of the AWD, it’s electronically-controlled [computerized] and is so much smoother as to seem seamless- in fact, until I reminded myself about it, I was ready to say it’s full-time AWD.
The downside is not having much manual control of the AWD, except through the mode selector, which has normal, economy, and snow modes.
Mine lives mostly in Eco, although through the last week I needed snow mode a lot.
@heartny @kuoh @PhysAssist @pmarin @Star2236 I have a Mazda AWD sedan. I’ve read that the computer AWD control was adapted from gaming SW which virtually models each wheel to adjust the parameters applied for best traction under the immediate conditions. I have a set of Bridgestone Blizzak studless snow tires on separate rims that I mount for winter driving. The combination seems to work well - the main limitation for snow/ice driving that I have encountered is ground clearance (which is somewhat limited), but not usually a problem as long as the roads are plowed.
@heartny @kuoh @macromeh @pmarin @Star2236
Living in the Lake Effect zones for both Lake Erie and Ontario, we have long had 2 sets of tires and rims, for dedicated summer [all-season] and winter [usually mud & snow] use.
I’d love to try Blizzaks, but I’m too cheap.
In fact, when I took off my summer tires to put on the snows, I realized that I had been driving on baldinis [AKA slicks] and ordered new tires.
They arrived last week, and today I took my summer rims and the new all-season tires to be mounted and balanced today before the temperatures plummeted- so I’m ready and waiting for spring…
I have the same clearance issue for my CR-V, but SWMBO’s Ridgeline- not so much.
@heartny @kuoh @PhysAssist @pmarin @Star2236 The Mazda’s ground clearance is only 5.5 inches - I’ve pushed snow with the front spoiler going in/out of my (unplowed) driveway.
Being retired I don’t put many miles on my car, especially in winter, so they should last a while. I bought the Blizzak snow tires, mounted+balanced on rims, online from Tire Rack - got a pretty fair deal at the time (<$900 shipped).
@macromeh
I’m hoping to retire this year.
That’s a great price for those whenever you bought them!
POPSOCKETS! COURT DOCKETS! FOLK ROCK HITS! AWESOME!
@heartny @kuoh @macromeh @PhysAssist @pmarin @Star2236 lol I drove a 99 Saturn SL, which I still miss cause stick for 15 years I think.
When there was snow the first year I bought the house a foot plus of snow up hill. I slowly shoveled it out. But hasn’t really happened in the last decade.
Had to scrape and shovel and ice for the Saturn. The expedition gets out. Never had summer/winter tires
My Fiat is one of those cars that doesn’t have a spare. Instead it’s an air pump with a sealant solution that can be pumped into the tire. Not so helpful if you park in a spot someone else in South Boston cleared after a snowstorm and find your sidewall slit in the morning.
@ItalianScallion
S. Boston was really brutal in the mid-80’s when
I lived and worked there nice to know that some things never change [not really tho].
I don’t specifically remember my last time, my wife is always getting flats and I have to go change them for her… But I remember my first time. Was on a first date with a girl. Meeting her in a place I had never been before - torrential downpour, at night, couldn’t see entrance to parking lot and drove over curb. Tire was ruined, fortunately no other damage to car. Great way to start a first date.
Later on that same date took her to the emergency room, she sliced her finger open on catfood and had to have stitches (big coincidence considering today’s sale item and fact I’m sitting in an ER right now)
Would have been an awesome meet-story if we lasted but that awesome first date story was lost on a fling that only lasted two months.
MEALS! DEALS! EELS! AWESOME!
@OnionSoup The universe was sending you a message …
You’re in an ER? Hope things are okay??
@Kyeh yes, I was when I sent that. Took my daughter in. Everything will be OK but they’re holding her until the morning. We’re finally home now.
@OnionSoup Yikes, I’m glad she’s going to be OK.
@Kyeh thank you. Me too, but probably not going to get any sleep tonight knowing she’s there even though I know it’s just for monitoring.
@OnionSoup Yeah, I imagine it will be a long night. I hope she’s back home soon!!!
@Kyeh @OnionSoup I hope your daughter is well and safely home now!
It’s called aaa. I don’t change tires anymore. It’s well worth the money if you do any amount of driving. I can remember when they first added the pay a little bit more and be able to tow it further. I hadn’t had to have them tow a car in years. And in that same week or month at least my daughter’s girlfriend’s car installed and had to go back to the dealer that had just worked on it. And it was about 70 Mi away and I had a hundred mile t o w
@Cerridwyn I had a buddy who made it a point to ration his AAA tow miles for the year carefully and never waste them. Once he had the car towed a town over to save on gas when he was headed there. (He was a madman, obviously.)
Two scissors jacks, two sturdy rubber chocks, a big cordless DeWalt impact, and a 12V compressor were nearly enough. The compressor’s plug melted. But as this was a rescue run, I just hauled the spare to a nearby tire shop, got it aired up, and was done shortly after. (And yes, I brought a big torque wrench for final tightening.)
@werehatrack
Think about getting a breaker bar, because sometimes even a really good impact wrench doesn’t have enough grunt to loosen a really tight [or crudded up, or rusted] lug nut.
E.g.: https://www.harborfreight.com/12-in-drive-25-in-breaker-bar-60819.html
Note: this is the regular price, but they always have some on sale, or discounted via coupons
@PhysAssist Oh, I carry a 36" breaker bar, but my big DeWalt hits over 900 ft/lbs according the TTC, and I have yet to encounter a car or light truck lug it can’t remove.
I had a flat on 476 one time on the way home from Musikfest and could not get the lug nuts OFF, so I got a righteous wrench (aka 4-way, aka universal) for the trunk and have never had a problem since, although sometimes you have to hit the left arm (holding it carefully level) a bit. A compressor and impact driver sound pleasant but I’d save the room for a full-size spare.
There’s a lot to said for AAA but sometimes you have to have a LOT of patience.
There’s a lot to said for patience but sometimes you have to have more than I do.
I’ve never changed a tire. My dad showed me how when I first started driving, but when I got my first flat, I couldn’t get the lug nuts off. I have roadside assistance through my insurance, so I just call them.
@lisagd
While I really don’t want SWMBO to do her own tire changes, [We do have roadside assistance gratis from Honda, but they can be very long on arriving.] I bought a 12-volt impact wrench that plugs into the power port on her truck just in case that is even an issue.
But we also have a breaker bar and apropos socket for the lug nuts in each vehicle- just in case.
The last time I had a flat that required a spare was in a rental car in the fall. I had rented a car from SixT and they upgraded me to a BMW. Fun to drive, but while we were at a local community theater watching a play my left front tire went flat. Popped the trunk and there was no spare, no slime, no compressor… nothing. Called SixT to find out what the deal was and they said it was a run-flat tire. Told me I could drive 50 mph up to 50 miles. Offered to change it out for a different car if I took it back, but I was 75 miles away from the airport where I got it so that was a no-go. They said there was a tire shop 24 miles away that I could take it to and they would change out the tire. Quick google search found a tire shop 4 miles away which I drove to on the run flat.
Waited 10 minutes till I could get it into a bay. They threw it on the lift and found a screw in the thread. Pulled the screw, put a plug in, aired up the tire, put it down on the ground and back out of the bay. Whole thing took less than 20 minutes. When I went to pay my bill the guy at the counter said “never mind it’s on us”. My wife and I scraped together $10 in cash and gave it to him and told him to go buy a six pack of beer after work. There are still good people in this world!
My most common flats are in my riding mower. I use it as a bush hog way too many times and end up driving over pointy pieces of bamboo or branches. Harbor freights plug kits have been able to solve all of those except one slice in a side wall which required a tire change.
@chienfou
Yeah, sidewall damage is almost always a no go from there on.
@chienfou @PhysAssist We had one of these as a rental car. Actually one of most awesome cheap (but limited) 4WDs ever made. Loaded with camping gear and going over gravel roads. Got a slow tire leak and was able to continue on and get it fixed at a local shop, and then the rental car company reimbursed us for the repair cost.
/image 1990 Toyota Tercel Wagon

POKER! JOKER! NOT MEDIOCRE! AWESOME!
@PhysAssist

This is what you do with the tire after it’s irreparable
@chienfou
That’s beautiful!
@PhysAssist
Yeah I thought it was brilliant. I may try to do that with the mower tire that the sidewall got torn out on. If I manage to get it done I’ll post pictures… Don’t hold your breath though!
@chienfou

/giphy out of breath
Bonus story: when I was 20 we spent 7,000 miles driving (inefficiently) across the U.S.
We got exactly one flat tire and it was in the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. It might be the worst spot in the country to change a flat.
@jouest That does sound pretty bad. Did you have the tunnel road service come help you or were you on your own?
@jouest
Sounds like hell- on wheels…
@pmarin on our own, plus three guys living out of an Acura Integra meant dragging everything out of the trunk to access the spare while we directed our own traffic. Managed to change the tire before anyone showed up to help!
@jouest I’ll raise you getting a flat on approach to the George Washington Bridge and having to change the tire in front of a bridge pillar because there was nowhere to pull over. I think it was when I had the 1965 Chevy Biscayne. It was such a low-end car that it had an AM-only radio without pushbuttons.
this was my experience in Tennessee « in a roadside ditch. » as the ad goes don’t end up in a roadside ditch. the story is still too painful to tell but no injuries, except to the vehicle by incompetent and unequipped road service. And yet I was grateful for it because they got me going to live and fight another day.
@pmarin
Owie!
@pmarin hey this is what mine looked like (when I got out to see if maybe it just needed a bit of air…)
My best tire story is driving North on the Alaska Pipeline Road (aka the “Haul Road”) from Fairbanks. All Gravel and mostly trucks on it but some locals too. Got a flat and pulled over to a siding area and within minutes a guy in a pickup came over to help us. He whipped out a hydraulic floor jack from the back of his truck and swapped our tire for us (our spare was OK). People up there help each other. He said he always carries 2 spare tires because otherwise if you need a second one you are out of luck and about 50 miles from any form of help.
Got the tire repaired by a tire shop by the bridge over the Yukon river. Tire guy used the trick of splashing gasoline or starter fluid into the rim so that it would seal quickly when you tossed a flame into it. With our new tire spent the night in another gravel turnout since a bridge was closed for maintenance. Next day we saw the guy who helped us again in the town of Coldfoot (great name). He was going to take a small plane to a lake where he lived or ran a lodge or something. Maybe his own plane. Was a great trip the whole thing. Once I got back to “normal” work one guy’s wife said it sounded like the “honeymoon from Hell” but it was all good.
@pmarin
That sounds like my version of fun times- just as long as it wasn’t brutally cold and snowing out.
That’s the “2 is one, and 1 is none” school of planning ahead with redundancy, which is rumored at least to have come from the special forces communities.
I’d say that’s why I have so many knives, flashlights, etc., but I’d be lying- when I see new or interesting ones, I just can’t stop myself from buying them.
@pmarin you might win
This was a few years ago. But it is the last time I changed a flat. So your fault for asking.
So I was driving to my dads burial. An hour away. And I left an hour early. About 30 miles out a tire just blew. Shredded it self.
I knew the tires needed replaced but they weren’t that bad. I bought it for $400. From a dealer. I hadn’t decided if I wanted to put $700 of tires into it. And had fixed the actual mechanical problems which were actually pretty minor to me . Idk if the pressure was low or it just gave up the ghost. It wasn’t bald.
Stopped. Knocked on someone’s door and asked if I can change it in their driveway. They say sure.
Still an hour early. Except I’m stressed and forget that an expedition jack is supposed to go on the rear axle. Even though I’ve used it before.
Put it on the frame cause in a hurry. Crank it all the way up which is a work out. Can’t clear the tire off the ground. Cause it’s supposed to be on the axel keeping the load on the suspension… Then it slips off the jack. With the tire loose but still on.
Realize I’m a moron. Because I HAVE USED IT BEFORE to take a tire off. Before I had a better jack that had height needed. Jack it up the right way. Sweating balls in the summer heat.
Get the spare on which looks fine. Lower it. Completely flat. And I know I should have been checking the pressure. Guy at the house has no air compressor or tools at all
Give up. Call mom I can’t get there. Brother in law comes 30 minutes later with his cars small inflator.
Mean while guys wife gets home. I’ve been there for like 2+ hours and we are blocking their whole drive now. So she drives through their yard to park. They were both very nice.
Takes 15 plus minutes of his small inflator to get where I can get to a gas station, inflate it and quit and go home.
Worst tire change.
I have changed multiple others peoples tires. Side of the road. Parking lots. Sissor jack or I had my craftsman in the the trunk. Always had a compressor if needed.
This one time I don’t have a compressor. And fuck up the jack…
Someone in range get a flat so that is no longer the last time. There’s a rigid compressor in the side panel with a battery and a 12 v cord how…
@unksol
@unksol
Yeouch!
@PhysAssist yea she just went. Thankfully only going 40 cause “city” road crossing between highways and I kept it straight. Had it been a narrow country road at 55-60 mph which is how I usually go. With power poles on the side. Idk lol
I keep reading this title as Boeing Emergencies (another one?!)
I think it was 2007 when I last changed a tire.
@UpbeatDuck that’s quite a streak