Changing a Tire Have you ever experienced the pain of a flat tire? Chances are that someday you probably will. At that unfortunate time you will have to replace that flat tire with a spare. If you've never done it before now is a very good time to learn. When you start thinking about where you might be changing a tire, you must first realize that you probably won’t have your flat tire happen in your driveway on a nice sunny day. Here's is how you will probably end up changing your flat tire. It is one of the coldest days of the year. A lot of snow and cars that are whizzing past at 60 miles per hour and your passengers, complaining as they stand in the cold. You try to tell them that it is not safe for them to be in the car while you jack it up, but they are freezing and are in no mood to listen. There is a lesson to be learned from that dreadful scenario and the lesson is to always be prepared for the worst. Changing a tire can be deadly. There are over 207,000 people a year who are killed while changing tires. That is why, before you even start thinking about changing tires, you need proper safety equipment like road flashers that you can put behind your vehicle to let people passing by know that they should slow down, switch to another lane, and not blaze by you at 60 miles per hour. But many drivers are inconsiderate and will continue to speed on by you.
With your safety equipment, make sure you have a pair of gloves and some extra warm clothing this is for that harsh weather you may have to change your tire in. Also you really need to have a flashlight! It is practically impossible to find the lug nuts you need to loosen in the middle of the night. You should also find the biggest tire iron you can get, one that will give you good leverage. Get rid of that awful little tire iron that came with your vehicle. That little tire iron is a cruel joke and will merely frustrate you even more. Now to the actual changing of a tire, first locate your jack and tire iron in your vehicle. The best way to figure out where the jack and tire iron are located is to look in your vehicles owner’s manual. If you have lost your vehicles owner’s manual you are going to have to search for your jack and tire iron. Once you have located your jack and tire iron you must now find your spare tire. First check your vehicles owner’s manual to see if it tells you where your spare tire is located. If you have lost your owner’s manual a good place to start looking for the tire may be in the trunk or underneath the trunk.
Now first step you are going to take everything to the side of the vehicle the flat tire is on. Next you are going to remove the hubcap using the flat end of the tire iron to pry it off. After you have removed the hubcap, using the tire iron, loosen all of the lug nuts on the flat tire and a great way to do that is to loosen the lug nuts in an alternating pattern. Don't take the lug nuts all the way off yet just get them loose. Once the lug nuts are loosened, take your car jack and locate a good spot under the vehicle to jack up your car. Check your vehicles owner’s manual for the proper place to jack up your vehicle. If you have lost your owner’s manual, look for a good spot underneath the vehicle which will usually be on the vehicle’s frame. Begin to jack the car up slowly and check to make sure your jack is put in a safe spot. If the jack looks like it is going to slip off, go ahead and lower it and try again. If you thought you had a good spot and it looks like the jack is damaging the vehicle lower it and try again.
Once you have your vehicle jacked up enough to allow the wheel clearance off the ground, take the lug nuts