January 1997 my very first flat. In my driveway during a blizzard and I had the flu. I was in a hurry to get my poor sick cat to the vet. It was the left front tire of my Dodge Ram pickup. No problem getting the flat off, no problem getting the spare from under the bed (what a cute place to hide it :eek:) the problem was lifting the spare up onto the lugs. Levered it up with a spare piece of molding and my foot.
Since then I’ve had four flat tires. Unfortunately two at a time on the passenger side (I ran over the sharp curb on the driveway into work TWICE :smack: )
Personally? Never. That’s what I have the Auto Club for. I don’t know how, and I don’t have the strength due to carpal tunnel to loosen a lug nut.
About six months ago I hit something on the freeway interchange on the way to work, and called the Auto Club. They had a hard time finding me because I was too vague about where I was - I drive that freeway to work everyday but was really stressed out, and couldn’t articulate where on the interchange I was exactly. They finally found me and changed the tire quickly and safely. Now I have the AAA app so they can find me by GPS.
I bought a cheap (as in $9.99) electric tire inflator that plugs into my cigarette lighter and keep it in the trunk. It’s been worth many times its price when Murphy has struck and I’ve discovered the spare was flat at precisely the wrong time.
I’ve been lucky, knock wood. I haven’t had a flat in over a decade.
about a year ago. 'cos after ~ 8 years of never having so much as low pressure from a nail, I went through four tires in one year betwixt both of my cars. Tire #1 was on my Mustang from hitting a chunk of concrete from the demolition/reconstruction work on the Southfield freeway (low speed, tore hole in sidewall.) Tire #2 was on my SRT, hit a chunk of concrete heaved up in the winter on I-696. Tire #3 was on the Mustang; the day I started a new job I came back from lunch and found a big U-shaped nail in the shoulder of the tire. Tire #4 was on my SRT, right after I listed it for sale. Walked out to the car to see a bulge in the sidewall. Since the tires had about 45,000 miles on them and were a type no longer made, I had to buy a full set :mad:
Two in 35 years of driving. Last incident was January 2014. I’m old and out of shape and parked the tire too close to the curb. Do not park close to the curb when changing a tire.
About five years ago, for a co-worker whose AAA calls had run out.
For myself, hell, I dunno. 30 years, maybe. I had an Audi Fox that habitually lost air in the left front, new left front or not. I got quite used to throwing the flat one in the trunk and filling it with air at the next gas station.
Other than that, I can’t remember changing a tire at all.
It was in 1983 on my 1979 Malibu. That is when I found out that when you got Posi (limited slip diff) you got a full size spare tire, not a donut. I was glad of that, as I was about 600 miles from home at the time. It was a bit of a cluster ****, I lost two of the lug nuts (was on a gravel road when the tire went flat), went to borrow one from another wheel and broke off the stud. Then the full size spare was a bit low (about 25 psi as I recall). The compressor I had in the car worked very slowly, then blew the lighter fuse. Murphy’s law was active that day.
About 13 years ago. Must have driven over a nail on a dirt road in rural South Africa on my way to a weekend Karate retreat. Luckily I was all prepared with a confirmed inflated tire and working jack. That was the first and last time I’ve ever had to do it.
Three years ago, in the bush (lovely knee high ferns filling what had once been a trail down a hill through boreal forest – wish I had taken a pic). Two flats at the same time. Crawled back up through the ferns to an abandoned skidder trail, followed it back to an abandoned logging road, followed it back to a ghost town that had dirt road access and cell coverage along a rail line, and then called in for a tow from the nearest town. I made it most of the way on both flats until one tire peeled off, and then replaced that rim and tire with the spare, so I was able to make it out without killing a rim. Left the Jeep at a garage, hopped a bus for a few hours to get home, ordered five tires in from our southern colonies, borrowed a friend’s vehicle to hop down across the border for the tires, and then along with another friend get me and the tires back to the vehicle for the garage to mount them.
Following that, I have had difficulty rotating tires due to a garage in my town that no longer rotates my tires due to it having a fetish for over-tightening the lug nuts. The spec is 95, but they used an air impact, which resulted in half a dozen nut caps popping off when I later tried to remove the nuts to rotate the tires, and two of the nuts seized on so tightly that I had to remove one with a nut remover, and drill the other off with a hole saw.
About 2 months ago on my motorcycle. It was the second time my rear valve stem cracked. This time I inquired on a forum dedicated to my bike (Honda VFR800), and found out a tall valve stem will come around and smack the brake caliper. It was a wonder it lasted as long as it did- it could have gone flat at any time- or at any speed :eek: Had the stem replaced with a lower profile stem, and all’s well.
Northboung I-5 between Marysville and Mt. Vernon, Washington. Ran over something and boom, the left front tire blew. Got as far off the road as possible. A few idiots thought it was funny to get close to me while I was fighting with the inadequate jack supplied by Honda for my Ridgeline. Just about the time I got it jacked, a State Patrol officer pulled in behind me and kept traffic out of the right lane till I had the tire changed. He even offered the use of a 4 way lug wrench to speed things up.
Got the spare on then drove to the nearest Costco and they installed a new tire free of charge. Continued on our trip the The Store in Anacortes for some of their great muffins.
Three or four years ago. I was driving in northern Mass and had actually just passed a sign that said Barre, 13 miles. I called AAA. First problem was describing where I was. The voice mail utterly fanned on Barre (pronounced “Barry”) and after 3 tries said Boston. Boston told me I was in the wrong region (surprise!) but transferred me to Southern New England which was suppose to handle Mass outside Boston. I told them I was on Route 122, 13 miles north of Barre. They couldn’t find route 122 on their maps (try it on Google maps; it should take 20 seconds). Finally, they said they would send someone in 45 minutes. An hour later I decided to do it myself. Shortly after that a Mass state trooper, one Trooper Driskell (that is how it was spelled) stopped and essentially took over the changing of the tire. He explained that his parents were about my age and if they had a flat he hoped someone would stop and help. At least one other driver stopped and asked if I needed help. Four hours after my initial call, I got a call from a nearby garage asking if I still needed service. By that time, I was happily at my friend’s house south of Barre.
My car had a flat in the parking lot about ten years ago. There was nothing wrong with the tire, apparently someone just let the air out of it. But I jacked it up and mounted the spare. Oh, wait, my wife drove 1500 miles in three days and got a flat pulling into our parking lot, just a couple of years ago. The donut spare was, of course, also flat, so I had to get a neirghbor to drive me to a tire shop.
